AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 7- From the Archives CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 224 of 237 matter be discussed with the local Formation Commanders. On receipt of information from the AFVOA, regarding the demise of a veteran, the staff officers in the Service HQ should follow a standard operating procedure and activate themechanism and arrange for a detachment to lay a wreath on behalf of the Service to which the late veteran belonged and also convey condolences to the bereaved family members. He started this tradition when he was the GOC of Delhi Area. The Members whole-heartedly supported the proposal and the patron promised to take up the matter with the GOC, AOC Tambaram and the NOIC Madras. (This procedure is in vogue in the station) The other issue that the General wanted was that the members should support the Editorial teams and actively contribute their thoughts and narrate their experiences in the Newsletter and share it with the members to make it more interesting. He set the ball rolling and submitted an article “To the Elderly with Love” (This Article was published in the Newsletter 2/2001 is available) The next meeting was a unique privilege granted to the AFVOA. Maj Gen V. Jayashankar GOC of the Area permitted us to hold the meeting on 21 April 2001 at the Area Officers Mess. The occasion was the release of the telephone directory Hello Veterans 2001 by the GOC. The serving Staff Officers of the Area HQ were present to interact with the veterans and their families. The programme commenced with an invocation song sung by our own ladies, followed by Lt Col M Narayanan – the President welcoming the chief guest. He added that Hello Veterans 2001 is the first printed and published directory of all veteran officers belonging to the three services and settled in Chennai and requested the GOC to release the publication of the AFVOA. On his part, the GOC complimented the veterans who had brought out a printed version. This was an extremely useful publication and said “What should have been done by my HQ has been accomplished by elderly veterans with no secretarial help and service transport to go around collecting data from the length and breadth of this big city. My compliments and respects to them” He later sent a cheque for Rs 30000/- towards the welfare activities of the AFVOA. Detail of the event is covered in our Newsletter 3/2001. (Since then Hello Veterans 2004, 2009 and 2019 have been published by AFVOA) Tribute – Lt Col M Narayanan Narayanan was chosen to become the President by the Patron and supported by all past presidents. An officer with an impeccable character of integrity, honesty, simplicity and humility joined the EXSOA in early 1995. An Architect by profession, he was thorough in whatever responsibility that was assigned to him. All members appreciated his maintenance of faultless accounts written in his own hand in the Account books, the compilation of statements of accounts. In the early years, the finances had to be managed carefully and austere measures adopted to save even a rupee. Narayanan, who hailed from Chettinad, was affectionately called as CHETTIAR