AFOVA Newletters of Year 2001

Page 35 of 52 “Marriage: An investment that pays you dividends if you pay interest.” ~~ Unknown 30. In keeping with the saying “Chet mangini, pat bya”, two of our members celebrated the weddings of their children in extremely quick time. 31. Brig (Mrs) K Muthulaxmi and Shri Kandaswamy celebrated the weddings of their sons – the elder boy on 27 th and closely followed by the younger son on 30 th Sep. 32. Brig and Mrs SP Balachandran did one better, by celebrating the weddings of all of children - two sons and an only daughter all within the space of a month. 33. AFVOA takes pleasure in offering hearty congratulations to the parents and conveys best wishes many years of Happy Married lives to the young couples. 34. Members are requested to intimate happy events for inclusion in the Newsletter. New members “Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.” ~ Joseph Addison 35. We welcome the following officers who have since joined the Association: a) Col CK Babukuttan, Engrs b) Lt Col K S Chennaian, ASC c) Col Joy Nath, Sikh d) Maj Gen R Karthikeyan, MLI, e) Lt Col R N Khadgary, AMC f) Lt Col VP Moorthy, Mech Inf g) Capt M Munirathnam, AMC h) Brig CK Namashivayam, Engrs i) Lt Col G B Radhakrishnan, Engrs j) Maj V Raghavan, VSM, AMC, k) Col V K Rajendran, EME l) Lt Col R Rajkumar Arty m) Lt Col S Ranganthan, ASC n) Col P Samuel Raj, Engrs Be Proud of being an Indian! 36. We reproduce excerpts from an excellent talk delivered recently by Dr Abul Kalaam at Hyderabad: I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history, people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards The Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, and their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us. Years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally