When Lt Gen (Retd) Pankaj Shivram Joshi PVSM, AVSM, VSM, The first Chief of Staff of the Integrated Defence Command passed away in an Indore hospital on July 1, 2009 a cloak of sadness enveloped the small cantonment town of Mhow where he had settled after almost 41 years in the Indian Army. He will continue to be a source of inspiration for for all his compatriots... writes Dev Kumar Vasudevan
He was given command of his battalion - the 1/8 Gurkha Rifles. “When he took over command of the Paltan,” said Mrs. Prabha Joshi with tears in her eyes, “he told his men that he was returning to the battalion after fourteen years of banishment the way Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after fourteen years of vanvaas.” 
He also had instructional stints at the Higher Command Wing of the College of Combat (now Army War College) Mhow and the DSSC Wellington. He had also attended the Higher Command Course of the United States Army War College. His career graph kept rising after that. He commanded an Armoured brigade, an Armoured Division and 12 Corps. He was the second officer with a disability after Lt. Gen Vijay Oberoi to attain the rank of Lieutenant General. In 1998 during the Prime Ministership of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Pokharan nuclear blasts were conducted under his command. He held the appointment of Additional Director General Mechanised Forces at Army HQ and the Commandant of the College of Combat, Mhow. He went on to become the GOC-in-C of the Central Command, Lucknow, and was then chosen as the first ever Chief of Staff of the Integrated Defence Command. When General Joshi was once interviewed by the Indian Express he had said, ‘‘There is only one thing that stops a handicapped person from doing things normally - society. It makes you feel handicapped by perpetually offering you help. In my home no one does that. If I have to change a bulb or get something from a high shelf I do it myself.’’
Even in death he taught us all a lesson as he willed his body to be donated for medical studies and research. A wish which his brave family fulfilled. “Both of us had decided to donate our bodies,” said Mrs. Joshi. A multi-faceted personality Pankaj Joshi’s interests included Indian classical music, bird watching, environment, pottery and writing.
Dev Kumar Vasudevan is a freelance writer based at Mhow, son of late Lt Colonel K Vasudevan Nair (retd) who expired in Indore on 21 May 2009.
Read more:
Lt Gen (Retd) Pankaj Shivram Joshi PVSM, AVSM, VSM- A tribute
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