AFVOA Newsletter May 2020

Section 3 - Memoirs Newsletter No. 1 / 2020 P a g e 78 | 101 praiseworthy. I take your mind back to the evening of 7 August 1994, at the Youth Hostel Indira Nagar Adyar. The two “BALAS”- Balaswamy and Balachandran had sown the seed for creating an association of Armed Forces Officers. They had for long, scouted to identify the officer community in and around Adyar during their morning walks and with great effort persuade them to come together and meet in a common venue. We need to recognize their initiative and determination. The members who attended the first meeting on 7 August 1994 were the following: - Lt Col R Balaswamy ENGRS, Maj S Balachandran EME, Lt Col SR Raju Gen Service, Brig VK Raju EME, Brig VR Swaminathan MLI, Air Cmde A Sridharan AVSM VM, Col PV Rammana EME, Col Kasturi Raj ENGRS, Col A Krishnaswami VrC VSM* JAKRIF, Col K Rajagopal ASC, Col RI Subramaniam AOC, Col RS Iyer Arty, Col N Viswanathan ENGRS, Lt Col J Shanakar Signals, Maj HS Sandhu ASC and Maj A Giri EME. Col N Viswanathan was serving as the COL A in ATNK&K Area and was to retire on 31 Au 94. He attended the meeting and promised to join the group on his retirement. The following ladies attended the meeting: - Mrs Sheila Raju (Brig Raju), Mrs Lalitha Raju (Lt Col SR Raju), Mrs Sulochana (Col A Krishnaswami VrC VSM*), Mrs Sarojini (Lt Col Kasturi Raj), Mrs Prabha (Wg Cdr K Rajagopal), Mrs Kusuma (Col Ramanna) and Mrs Bhavani (Lt Col R Balaswamy). ADYAR Times dated 14 Aug 1994 had covered the meeting and published a photograph (copy available) Balaswami steered the meeting and in his address convinced the audience that there was a need to have a venue to MEET, GREET, SHARE views, help each other and possibly at a later stage, help the community at large. Lucky for us the wardens of the Youth Hostel were from our fraternity- the unforgettable “RAJUS”. Col and Mrs Lalitha Raju had placed their compound of their house in the hostel complex at our disposal for our regular monthly Meetings. Lt Col Balaswamy proposed that our group be named EX SERVICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION (EXSOA) ADYAR. The proposal was agreed to by the members with a clap of hands. EXSOA (ADYAR) was constituted on 7 August 1994. Our Ethos was as under. Coming together is the “Beginning” Keeping together is “Progress” Working together is “Success”