AFVOA Newletters of Year 2003

Page 150 of 170 8. At 1830 hours, Air Vice Marshal Krishnaswamy called the meeting to order, and requested the Secretary, Cdr SR Prasad to read out the obituary references. The meeting stood observing a minute’s silence in honour of those who passed away in the interim and whose references were given in the last issue of the Newsletter and included: (a) Group Captain Kumarendra De, VM, Flying (Pilot) (b) Flt Lt UNR Rao, The President of the AFVOA speaks 9. AVM Krishnaswamy praised Col AS Rao for taking the trouble to come over to help out the veterans of the AFVOA with the ECHS forms and related queries. He informed the gathering that voluntary help would continue to be available for those of our fraternity who wished to get the affidavits made and notarised as per the requirements of the ECHS. Those wishing assistance are to contact Brig VA Subramanyam (tele: 2491 7446 and e mail: subramva@vsnl.com) in the first place, and are required to submit their particulars as well as that of their dependents, along with a payment of Rs 100 per affidavit (Rs 150 for non members) to cover costs. 10. The registration of the AFVOA has been completed, but as sometimes happens in dealing with Government departments, we are yet to receive the formal registration certificate. The compliance with the statutory accounting and other procedures is now mandatory and is to be ensured with the help of professionals advising us. 11. The revision of the “Directory of retired/ex-Service officers of Chennai” is nearing completion. The work involved is so enormous, that it has been painfully slow, involving the culling of information from diverse sources. A serious handicap has been getting up-to-date data, with most officers preferring to remain out of circulation (or is it going into hibernation?) and simultaneously having changed addresses and/or having surrendered their BSNL telephone connections in favour of ones supplied by other service providers, who do not issue a directory. The committee headed by Wg Cdr ME Muthu perseveres, and it is hoped that the revised, more than double the original size directory will see the light of the day soon enough (Amen!). You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. ~ Les Brown The old-timers honoured 12. The President, the Committee, and the members of the AFVOA honoured a nonagenarian and four Octogenarians at the day’s meeting. Praiseworthy as our effort is (even though we say it ourselves!), what is striking is that those honoured invariably manage to send us home with the thought that we are indeed perilously foolhardy in calling the rest of us old, when even they, those with four score and ten under their belts, do not acknowledge the allegation, do not act, and, often do not even look the part. There is a lesson in this somewhere, and one needn’t have to search to long and hard for it, for it is to be found in the brief descriptions of their lives, which follows. Each of the veterans honoured were presented with the new AFVOA memento, sourced through the courtesy of Maj Gen Aban Naidu, and selected by the President.