Centenarian gets first COVID-19 shot in Delhi

Jyotica Sikand (72), the youngest daughter of Das said, "We allowed her to live a very normal life even during the entire pandemic last year. And, she's fine and today she got her shot."

"She told me that the shot was so painless, she doesn't recall which hand it was administered in," the daughter said.

Sikand said, "He was born in Lahore and educated at Government College, Lahore, and received his military training at Royal Military College, Sandhurst in England, and Staff College, Quetta."

"He was commissioned in the British Indian Army in 1933 and posted as a Subaltern with the Lancashire Fusiliers. He joined five Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles in North-West Frontier Province in 1934," she added.

Kamla's father was in railways and the family lived mainly in Lahore.

"My mother, who has so many stories and memories, was born in Sukkur in Sindh province (Pakistan). She went to Sacred Heart School and Kinnaird College, both in Lahore. None in my family migrated, and my father just happened to be posted in Delhi when the partition happened," Sikand said.

Sikand said, "My father was born in 1911 and died in 2006, aged 95. When my mother turned 100, defense personnel had come from the Rajputana Rifles regiment to honor my mother with a ceremonial gesture on September 4."

"Later a small event was held at Rajputana Rifles in Delhi to mark her 100th birthday. The Indian Army is truly a family," she recalled.

Many centenarians have been vaccinated in the past few days.

On March 15, 107-year-old Kewal Krishan, who was just five-years-old during the deadly Spanish Flu, and later became part of the drafting committee of the Constituent Assembly of India, received his first shot of COVID-19 vaccine at a private facility in Delhi.