Centenarian gets first COVID-19 shot in Delhi
What's the story
Sindh-born Kamla Das who turned 100 during the height of the pandemic in Delhi last September, got her first shot of COVID-19 vaccine in Delhi on Thursday, her daughter said. The centenarian woman, the wife of late Maj Gen (retd) Chand N Das, was born on September 3, 1920, and said the jab was totally painless. Here are more details.
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She received the COVID-19 shot at BLK Hospital
A resident of South Delhi, Das was administered the vaccine at BLK Hospital, a day after Brij Prakash Gupta, also born in 1920, received his first shot of Covieshield vaccine at the same facility.
Details
Das lived a normal life during the pandemic: Daughter
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.
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Sikand's father served in World War II, retired in 1965
Sikand remembered her father, Maj Gen Das, who had served in the Second World War and retired from the Army in 1965 and also authored many books on the armed forces.
Major General Das
He was born in Lahore, received military training in England
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.
Education
Kamla Das did her schooling and college in Lahore
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.
Rajputana Rifles
Rajputana Rifles defense personnel had honored Das on her birthday
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.
Centenarians
Many centenarians have received the COVID-19 shot
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.
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Person born before Spanish Flu outbreak also received the shot
Tulsi Das Chawla, 104, who was born a few months before the outbreak of the Spanish Flu, had received his first shot of COVID-19 vaccine at a private hospital in Delhi on March 5.