AFVOA Newsletter of Year 2021

Section 3 – Value Add / Special Tasks CV 2 No. 01 / 2021 Page 38 of 123 “It is not so much the numbers as how they have curated the series that makes the exercise singular. As the AFVOA Chennai organisers put it, the e-Connect Series chooses to bring diverse professionals into focus. The novelty of what they have to offer is another consideration”. “Though the focus is certainly not on being wired into the minds of celebrity- professionals, now and then, the search does point in that direction. So, among those featured by the series are: singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan and Carnatic vocalist-singer-composer Sudha Raghunathan, dramatist-actor-singer- playwright Y Gee Mahendra and media artist Shylaja Chetlur.” Switching to eBooks https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/veteran-officers-switch-to- ebooks/article33701705.ece?utm_source=chennai&utm_medium=sticky_footer A few quotes from the article underscores the focus of the article : “We have simplified the process by releasing the newsletter in the eBook format. We started the practice in May, the first eBook (called Lockdown Issue; 101 pages) being released on May 3. The response led us to make it a regular feature; and the second issue of the eBook arrived on August 15 as Independence Day issue (237 pages). The Third one was the Vijay Diwas issue on December 16 (167 pages).” “Many members in the group are war veterans who have taken part in the wars of India. So, their accounts of first-hand experiences on the war front, go into the section called ‘War Diary’. Then, topics of general interest go under the category “memoirs”. All of us are from Chennai, but we also accept contributions from non-members who are from elsewhere, but that constitutes a small percentage of the articles.” The author of the piece had captured the inimitable, never-say-die spirit of AFVOA Veterans quite succinctly in his article. While the members of the Managing Committee feel very humbled by the compliments and visibility that the publication had brought about, the real credit is singularly owed to the Members of AFVOA who have wholeheartedly supported and encouraged all initiatives consistently.