AFVOA Newletters of Year 2003

Page 135 of 170 organise and run a tutorial college coaching students appearing for the SSLC, Matriculation, Intermediate and BA examinations. IAF years Commissioned as an officer in the Royal Indian Air Force in 1944, KV Pillai’s emergency commission was signed by Field Marshal Lord Wavell, the then Viceroy. He spent about two years in the War areas, and had travelled to almost all the places in the eastern theatre. His first posting to India was as the adjutant of No 2 DC (Demobilisation Centre). His IAF career was very productive. He was, while on posting to the Air HQ (Dte of PP & R), one of the two most popular defending officers for Courts Martial. He was also leader of the Air Force Scouts at Palam. During his tenures in training institutions, he revised and got printed the IAF manuals on Law, Admin and Org, as also the IAF’s Manual of Accounting. The Defence Minister commended him for his part in looking after the airmen’s welfare. Sqn Ldr Pillai retired from the IAF on superannuating on 31 Dec 1964, and was re- employed in the IAF from the very next day for a little over a year. Civvy Street A week after hanging up the uniform, he was appointed as Administrative Manager of TEXTOOLS in Coimbatore. A further spell of re employment with the NCC at Trivandrum followed till July 1968. In the same month, Sqn Ldr Pillai was employed on contract basis as the special assistant to the then Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Chairman, Air Mshl PC Lal, DFC. Things went so well that Air Mshl Lal permitted Sqn Ldr Pillai to start the HAL Staff College. The College took a couple of months to take shape, with Lt Col MMA Basha of the Indian Army as the Training Manager, and Sqn Ldr Pillai as the Assistant Training Manager. Sqn Ldr Pillai continued till superannuating from HAL, after which he stayed on in Bangalore and conducted a large number of management programmes for many of the famous organisations in the Garden City. A shift to Coimbatore was followed by frequent visits to Hyderabad, Mysore, and Madras to conduct management programmes. Legacy Sqn Ldr Pillai’s legacy to all of us needs no reiteration. His life is a splendid and continuing example to others (may he be around for many more healthy and productive years). He has also contributed achievers to the Nation in his children, one of whom, Rajagopal, was a Wg Cdr in the IAF also an Air India Pilot. Another, Radhakrishnan, was Chief Sales Manager in a reputed chemicals company. Raghunath is a Manager with the Canara Bank, and Col Ramesh Chander of the ADC is presently at Secunderabad. The only daughter, Usha, is on the Management Staff of the Standard Chartered Bank. Maj Gen Aban Naidu, PVSM, AVSM Early years in the Madras Regiment Born on the 27 th of January, 1923 at Bangalore, the future Maj Gen was named Abanendra by his Brahmo Samajist father P R Kesavulu Naidu (who was secretary to the British resident in Mysore). Unable to pronounce the name correctly, his Canadian nursery school teacher shortened the name to “Aban”, and so it has been since. Commissioned into the Infantry on 08 Nov 1942, he joined the Madras Regiment. His unit was part of the Fourth Corps of the legendary Fourteenth Indian Army under Gen (later FM) William ‘Bill’ Slim, and saw action as part of the SE Asia Command, operating against the Japanese till the liberation of Rangoon. Thereafter, his unit, the 4 th Battalion (Walajah Light Infantry), moved to the NW Frontier.