AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 186 of 332 14 Team Vartha – All the President’s Men Wg Cdr S Harshavardhan Genre: Team Work t was sometime in the middle of 2019 and life for me was going on in a leisurely pace as per my routine. I was just back in Chennai after visiting my younger son on a one month vacation. It was also close to nine months since I had taken a final retirement after calling it quits from my last job at Murugappa Group where I worked for six years. Chandrika and I were seriously contemplating about permanently relocating to Coimbatore to lead a peaceful retired life. Life for me was total bliss. But then things changed. First, was a call from a friend of mine requesting me to join his security company and help him in running it. He being a very old friend, I couldn’t say no to him and also after nine months into my retirement I was sort of getting bored sitting at home and accepted his offer. The second development that took place was sometime in July 2019, I got a call from Air Mshl S Varthaman saying that Col A Krishnaswami has requested him to take over as President of AFVOA and that he wanted me in his team and take over as Secretary. Having known Vartha Sir since 1977, I could not say NO to him and I readily agreed. He also mentioned that Air Cmde K Rajaram has agreed to continue as the Vice President. Vartha Sir, was now in search of a Treasurer and I told him that Gp Capt K Balasubramanian will be most suitable for this position and he readily agreed. I then contacted Bala and he had no hesitation in taking over as Treasurer. After this discussion with Vartha Sir, I thought all things are done and dusted and that we had to just take over from the previous committee. But that was not to be. We had to go through the laid down election process before taking charge. So some forms had to be filled and I had to get someone to propose my name and also second my candidature. I had been a member of AFVOA for over six years but I had hardly attended any meetings and hence was not known to many members. I was now in dilemma about getting a proposer and a I