AFVOA Newsletter of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 01 / 2021 Page 80 of 123 During my tenure as Regional Secretary at Western Air Command, we had organised a major AFWWA show at Palam, where then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira, the Chief Guest came along with her daughter in law Sonia Gandhi. The DefenceMinister Shivraj Patil also attended as a Guest of honour. Bereft of words to describe the magnitude of work and the enormous preparation involved in making the arrangements. An unfortunate incident happened just a few hours before the inauguration. My Warrant Officer who coordinated a last minute job, met with a road accident while reaching the venue. Unfortunately, he was knocked down by a car and became unconscious on the road. I rushed him to MH and admitted him in ICU. I had to dash back to the venue to give finishing touches before receiving the Prime Minister in the next one hour. After the event, I rushed with the first lady of the Command to MH to see the warrant officer. He had by then slid into coma and passed away the next morning. Since he died on duty on a Sunday on way to work, I took up the cause of extra compensation through AFWWA. His son was appearing in the Board Examination in next 2 days. One can imagine my plight and that of the family. When Mrs. Katre was AFWWA Regional President at Western Air Command, I had difficulties in contacting her for various activities as there were no mobiles or phone contact. She was a senior teacher in British School. Air Marshal Katre at WAC (who later became Chief of the Air Staff) was kind to give a solution for communication between us. He used to carry the note fromMrs. Katre to me regarding pending/new activities and carry back the reply note to her. I really wonder whether anyone else would do it!. Jokingly he used to handover the note saying “Hi Mohan, there is a love letter from my wife”. I had worked under such personalities. It was also a pleasure working with Mrs. Parkash Dilbagh Singh. She was a very affectionate lady. I had to handle many of the issues of the ladies like – unreported domestic violence, suspicion of the husbands, infidelities, medical issues, problems of the children of airmen, education etc. Every year I coordinated and organised “Healthy Baby” shows and annual picnic of ladies of the station. Also had to handle related problems and their