Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa sir is known to me. I'm sure, you must be surprised by this revelation. I was posted at Command Hospital Air force Bangalore between 1989- 1992 and I used to work regularly as a Duty medical officer... almost once every month and one of the charter of my duties as a DMO was to meet the Field Marshal personally and to enquire about his health and do the basic monitoring of his vitals and know about his fresh complaints/ symptoms. Those days, he's given a separate room for his quasi permanent stay in the command hospital Bangalore during his last days. I used to wait eagerly to meet him in the evening... The time scheduled for his visit used to be 8pm. Whenever I met him, I found him very cheerful and extremely friendly and he had always offered me a drink as a mark of courtesy which I always refused, firstly, being a teetotaller and secondly being on duty. His only complaint used to be " Doctor.... Phain.... ( Pain ... He used to speak British English) here and I've phain here ... Do something. And yes, he used to talk about his paltan days very fondly and used to tell me never to accept a second prize in any competition... Because, in a war, a soldier never gets a second prize and yes, in war, there's no second prizes ever. I still follow his advice till date and I've never accepted a second prize in any competition till now 🙂🙏🏼Col Pradeep Pendyala, Professor of Anesthesiology!!
