For three years, Major Rishabh Singh Sambyal’s life revolved around one person and one responsibility. As President Droupadi Murmu’s Aide-de-Camp, his days were governed by schedules, security protocols and the constant expectation that he should be where he was needed, often before anyone else even thought of it. Even the smallest details around the President could become part of his responsibility.But there was one part of his personal life that the job affected in a far more permanent way.Speaking to Raj Shamani on the Figuring Out podcast, Sambyal opened up about what he described as the biggest sacrifice of those three years.
Former President Murmu ADC Rishabh Sambyal spoke about life behind the uniform.
“I couldn’t go out as a normal human being”
The former Special Forces officer did not describe the experience as something he regretted. Instead, he spoke about it as a trade-off- one that came with a prestigious and demanding responsibility. “While I was serving with the president, I couldn’t go out as a normal human being and enjoy life,” he said.After years of service and three years as President Murmu’s ADC, Sambyal chose to step away from the military rather than continue indefinitely at the cost of his personal life. Sambyal has previously spoken about taking months to arrive at the decision, calling it one of the hardest choices of his life.
Sambyal said his role left little room for a life outside his duties.
“I’m not married”
Then came the detail that puts his words into perspective: Sambyal said he could not get married while serving as the President’s ADC. “I’m not married. So there’s a clause for the ADCs [to the President] that they can’t get married,” he revealed. “I have to stay away from the family, and I think this is the biggest sacrifice,” he said. “So you don’t have life outside. That’s the cost I’ve paid,” Sambyal said.
His three years with President Murmu were personal too
Rishabh Sambyal recalled feeling that President Murmu was like his mother.
Interestingly, the same job that left little room for an ordinary personal life also gave Sambyal a relationship he remembers with affection.In the podcast, he recalled meeting President Murmu for the first time and feeling that “my mother is standing in front of me”. He said that because of his military career, he had not lived with his own mother since 2014, usually returning home only briefly before leaving again for months. His three years with President Murmu were different.“But this was the actual time when I was spending my entire three years with the president,” he said. He described her nature as “very homely” and said the warmth she showed him and the other ADCs made him miss his own mother.Rishabh Sambyal’s words revealed two different sides of his stint as the President’s ADC. The professional demands of being constantly responsible for someone occupying the country’s highest constitutional office, and the personal life he had to keep aside while doing so.For Sambyal, the experience appears to have been less about what the uniform gave him and more about what it required from him- including, for a time, the freedom to build a life beyond it.
