AFVOA Newletters of Year 2002

Page 70 of 84 ARMED FORCES VETERAN OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION CHENNAI (Established 1994) Patron: Lt Gen C Sundara Rao, PVSM, Tele: 490 1185 President Maj Gen N Viswanathan Tele: 434 3947 Vice President Col N Viswanathan Tele: (O) 447 4720/(R) 4336659 Secretary Col A Krishnaswami, VrC, VSM** Tele: 491 1233/4910290 No 6 of 2002 NEWSLETTER # 06/2002 30 th Nov 2002 Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime. And, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ~ (1819– 1892) American (Poet) Dear Veteran, From the Editor’s Desk 1. A study of history it is said helps us learn from the mistake of others, more so as a lifetime is not enough to do all the mistakes by ourselves! In ancient India, the method of education was based on the ‘guru kula’ system. Teaching was mostly verbal and very little was reduced to writing, and learning was more by observation than studying notes, which is what is today. In other words, we as Indians are not great believers in reducing to writing important events – and we are more comfortable in talking about it! This was brought home to me in no uncertain terms, when in 1983 I was given the task of compiling the history of the Corps of Signals. The historical section of the Ministry of Defence has volumes of material obtained from all units and formations – basically a periodical report detailing activities which may have a bearing on history. I read through kilogrammes of files and realised that during the days of the Empire, the reports were not only interesting, but informative and useful to a historian. However post independence, the meat in the reports would not fill even the rear side of the Gandhi stamp which has been use for quite a few years. One of the causes of this may be that we are not exposed to historical events to the extent we need to. In today’s environment, the television has invaded not only our houses but also possibly our minds. Nevertheless, the print medium has many advantages, which we should not jettison – at least not for the time being. 2. Hence commencing from this issue we <Illegible> to highlight a few episodes of military history, which possibly quite a few of us have been involved in fashioning. As 40 years have elapsed since the Chinese incursion in 1962, we felt that it would be appropriate to highlight activities of that period. That was a watershed in the modern history of the present Armed Forces. The jolt that we received from that action woke us up from our slumber and