Born in Tarakeswar, West Bengal, India on 1 August 1928, Sankar Das Sarkar's father, Nilmadhab Sarkar, was a general practitioner. His mother, Kanaklata Mitra, was the daughter of a district judge in Bengal. His father died when he was only eight, and he went through years of struggle and insecurity. In 1942 he was declared a 'restrictee' for his political activities as a student. He was educated at the Burdwan Raj School, West Bengal, and entered Calcutta Medical College, where the Professor of Medicine, M N De, influenced him greatly. After being house surgeon on the professorial surgical unit, he served in the Calcutta Port Commissioners' Hospitals for four years, and then returned to be a demonstrator of anatomy at his old medical college to read for the primary. He went to England to study for the FRCS. He was house surgeon at Birch Hill Hospital, Rochdale, and then did orthopaedic senior house officer jobs at the Albert Dock Hospital and Grimsby General Hospital, followed by registrarships in Tunbridge Wells, Teesside, Clare County Hospital and Mount Vernon. He was appointed consultant surgeon in trauma and orthopaedics to the Sandwell and South Birmingham group of hospitals in 1969. In 1957 he married Uma Biswas, and they had two sons, Susen Prasad and Sandip Prasad. Sandip became a surgeon and an FRCS. Sankar retired in 1993, but continued to be in demand for his rendering of the songs of his fellow countryman, Rabindranath Tagore. He died on 6 July 1998.