By SHIV KUNAL VERMA
In 1940, Adi Sethna joined the Doon School. The son of a railway officer, he arrived in Dehradun which by then had already become the premier destination for families wanting to give their sons’ top of the line education. Subsequently, after joining the Army, he was commissioned into 5 Rajputana Rifles (Napiers). In those exciting times, Adi Sethna was fortunate to have a ringside view at the highest level as he was appointed the aide-de-camp (ADC) to both the last Governor General, C Rajagopalachari, and then the first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
General, C Rajagopalachari and the
first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad.
He would command his battalion and everyone who served under him, remembers him with the utmost affection. He was the BGS in Eastern Command during the Bangladesh War of Liberation and would go on to command the Rajauri-based 25 Infantry Division, after which he moved to the Defence Services Staff College as the Commandant.
and making wine. As commandant
of DSSC Wellington.
My father, then a Lieutenant Colonel, was posted to Wellington and I was in Doon School. As luck would have it, our house, Mansarovar, was opposite Sethna’s residence and I would often walk down to the Madras Regiment Memorial with him. General Sethna’s equation not only with his subordinate officers, but their wives and even children, was top draw. He epitomised the very best of what an officer and a gentleman could be. He would retire as the Vice-Chief of the Army but retirement for him was never an option.
Army Staff.
As the circle of life unfolds, I no longer was in shorts and by the early 1990s was beginning to make films with the Air Force, Navy and Army. Adi Sethna joined Dipti and me in Kaleido India, and he became an integral part of our team. We had some incredible times together. Our meeting with JRD and Ratan Tata in 1991 when we walked into Bombay House to seek funds for our film on the IAF was one of many such classic encounters.
When he passed away, it was so sudden one did not get to say goodbye.
flawlessly as a team
Yesterday, his four daughters, Niloufer, Rukshana, Shernaz & Shireen (the two elder sisters are married to Doctors Noshir and Cyrus Shroff – well known Eye Surgeons of Delhi) curated a photo exhibition to mark their father’s birth centenary. It was inaugurated by Dr Karan Singh, another Dosco, and the turnout was a fitting tribute to a man who was among the best this country has produced. We should name a street in Dehradun after both him and his first cousin, General FM Bilimoria, both products of the Doon Valley!
