Lalit Kumar Sharma was a paediatric surgeon in Rohtak, Haryana, India. He was born on 25 December 1942 in Fatehgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. His family was from Anupshahr, situated on the banks of the Ganges, where they had large landholdings. His grandfather, Mangal Sen Sharma, was a criminal attorney, practising at Agra, India and formerly in the provincial police during the British Raj. His father, Subodh Kumar Sharma, was also in the provincial police and later a criminal attorney. Sharma's mother, Sharda, was a housewife. Sharma was educated in several cities in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He was admitted to Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Agra in 1960 and had an illustrious undergraduate career there with a silver medal in medical jurisprudence. He was later a resident in the department of surgery, completing his residency in 1968. He was then a registrar in the same department. In 1969, he became a registrar in the department of paediatric surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. In early 1970, he went to the UK and joined Cardiff Royal Infirmary as a locum registrar in urology. From 1970 to 1971, he was a senior house officer in paediatric surgery at Sheffield Children's Hospital, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool and Southampton Children's Hospital. In late 1971 he became a registrar in paediatric surgery in Dublin. During this period he gained his FRCS. In November 1972, he returned to the department of paediatric surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi as a pool officer. In September 1973, he joined Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children and Ulster Hospital, Northern Ireland as a registrar in paediatric surgery. From Belfast, he went to St John's, Newfoundland, Canada in October 1974 as a chief resident in paediatric surgery at the Dr Charles A Janeway Child Health Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and later as a senior resident in surgery at the General Hospital, St John's. In January 1977, Sharma returned to India as a lecturer in the department of paediatric surgery at the Medical College and Hospital, Rohtak, Haryana state as the founding chief and head of department. He continued there until January 1993, when he resigned to start in private practice in Rohtak as director and chief surgeon at Sushrut Child Surgery, Rohtak (named after his eldest grandchild). In May 1998 he moved to Delhi, where he joined the Jaipur Golden Hospital, Rohini. In January 2000, he became the director of the Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital, Jammu, a post he held until October 2002. He then left his practice to give free services to poor patients as chief honorary surgeon at the Ramakrishna Mission Sevashram, a charitable hospital in the holy city of Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh. During his long tenure at Vrindavan, he also worked as medical superintendent at the newly-established Muzaffarnagar Medical College and as professor and head of the department of surgery, Manipal Medical College, Pokhara, Nepal. Sharma had 29 papers published in international journals and 17 in national journals, including many papers on his work at Rohtak on Hirschsprung's disease. He also attended and presented papers at numerous international and national conferences on paediatric surgery. He was vice president of the Indian Association of Pediatric Surgeons. Sharma suffered a huge myocardial infarction in December 2015 and moved to Rohtak, where his elder son was living. He died on 4 July 2016 following another heart attack. He was 73. Predeceased by his wife, Sudarshana, he was survived by his sons Luv Sharma, professor of forensic medicine at Rohtak, and Neil Sharma, a dentist. Sharma was an eminent surgeon, a loving husband and father, a dutiful son who left a promising career in Canada to return to India for his parents and siblings, and a much revered teacher who is still fondly remembered as the father of paediatric surgery in the state of Haryana, whose public he served with zeal and honesty.