AFVOA Newletters of Year 2004

Page 4 of 153 who vanquished the combined navies of the French and the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Trafalgar, when he said: “England expects that every man will do his duty.” Similarly, we do hope that every member will do his/her best to procure a minimum of one full page advertisement (which costs a mere Rs 5000.00) for the Directory. The matter and amount (a cheque/DD to be made out in favour of AFVOA) may be sent immediately to the Treasurer at the address given at the end of this Newsletter. The President has agreed to honour the member who garners the maximum number of advertisements. 4. In the continuing coverage of the PVC winners, we talk about Sub Bana Singh, and Maj Parameswaran. Sub Bana Singh was the only person who won it for his bravery in the icy heights of Siachen Glacier. In order to appreciate the difficulties of undertaking operations at such mountainous heights, we have included a review of book written by Lt Gen VR Raghavan about Siachen, and another article which appeared in the Kashmir sentinel. Maj Parameswaran was again the only individual to have been awarded the highest gallantry honour for his action during the IPKF operations. 5. As the avowed aim of the Association is not only to meet and exchange views, but in the bargain, make more friends, and spread happiness all round. An ‘Alphabet of Happiness’ which follows later in this issue, describes as to how this is possible. Meeting Gone By – “An Impression” by Wg Cdr Ravi Mani If you think you are free, you are free. If you think you are bound, you are bound. For the saying is true: you are what you think. ~ Ashtavakra Gita 1:11 Roll call 6. A picnic, particularly if it involves the “veterans” of the Armed Forces, brings out the irrepressible youth in them. If a demonstration were needed of this, all one had to do was to assemble bright and early on the morning of Sunday, 04 Jan 2004 at the Youth Hostel. The time was 0715 hours onwards, well before the ETD of 0830 IST. The enthusiasm of the gathering assemblage was well and truly gratifying to the organisers, belying the usual apprehensions that organisers everywhere are subject to when involved in organising events of this nature. There was no dearth of volunteers to help in ferrying the wherewithal for the picnic such as material for games, soft drinks, beer etc., to one or the other of the two coaches that were assigned by courtesy of the GOC ATNKK and G Area for the benefit of the veterans. Col A Krishnaswami, who was obviously enjoying himself reliving his days in the field, when he must have shepherded larger bodies of men and materiel, called out the muster roll. The buses set out, comfortably full to capacity, with the first one rolling at 0820, and the next one at 0840. The destination 7. This was going to be third year in succession that the organisers had chosen to have the picnic at Camp Gloria, Perur, near village Nemelli on the ECR between Chennai and Pondicherry. Located about 3.5 km beyond the Crocodile Park, the location had charmed us on earlier visits. Yet, there was a niggling suspicion, a fear that the repetition might not meet with the wholehearted approval of the picnickers. To the utter relief of the AFVOA