AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 4 – Letters to the Editor CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 41 of 332 Section 4 – Letters to the Editor 1 Dear Members of the Editorial Committee, 1. In a little more than a month, on the 22nd of August next, our beloved city of Chennai, i.e., Madras, known in the past as Chennapatnam, Madrasapatnam (derived, some sources record, from Madhyarajapatnam) will be 18 years short of its 400th birthday! Chennai is unique not only in India, but also in the world, having many firsts and distinctions to its credit in diverse domains. 2. Chennai has been a repository of the ancient and the traditional without denying the changes ushered in by the march of time and technology. It must be a blessed city, considering that changing influences(invasions?) of the borderless kind, not the least transmitted by ubiquitous electronic means, have completely altered the character of contemporary cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, which today are hardly recognisable caricatures of their rich cultural past, whilst Chennai remains steadfast. Small wonder, then, that, in his lifetime, Swami Vivekananda's world altering mission for Humanity commenced from, and later took concrete shape in Chennai. Chennai retains, to this day, a very healthy balance between the old ways of life and the new, the traditional and the modern. The eastern flanks of continents and countries are said, by sociologists, to be the more culturally advanced and open to external civilisational influences (possibly due to the prevailing ocean currents that are counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and which, in olden times, facilitated the arrival of sailing ships from other cultures), and Chennai proves the truth of this. 3. It is my belief that AFVOAC is a shining and living example of the uniqueness that marks Chennai. Among the very many known and extant Veterans' organisations all over the country, inarguably, none else matches it in vitality, pertinence and popularity amongst the increasing numbers of its adherents (now, not restricted to Chennai alone, thanks to its diverse and suit-all webinars). The webinars may have begun as a means of overcoming the limitations posed by the pandemic, but are, today, by virtue of their diversity of content and rich educational content, a treasure