AFVOA Newletters of Year 2004

Page 55 of 153 completed impeccably in a remarkable short time. The President placed on record his deep appreciation for the work done by the auditors. Given the deep sense of regard that the senior partner of the firm has for the Armed Forces, it should not come as a surprise to many that M/s Bhaskar & Ramesh, who command a very high reputation, willingly completed our audit at what must be a pittance by way of payment, and have accepted our request for a continued association with the AFVOA in future too. The senior partner is the younger brother of Wg Commander C Ravishankar, our member of long standing, who, in his usual understated, self-effacing way, was responsible, in very large measure, for the successful conduct of the evening’s meeting. The Accounts for the Year 2003 – 2004 were passed unanimously. For the benefit of those members who were unable to attend the AGM, a copy of the Accounts for their information, is enclosed with this Newsletter. 67. The Secretary announced the names of the members of the AFVOA who had offered their candidature for the posts in the new committee, and welcomed them after they were elected unanimously by voice vote/show of hands. He also thanked all those who had contributed their wholehearted efforts towards making the work of the outgoing committee a success, particularly the last annual picnic. Both he and the President particularly noted the deep sense of affection Col SR Raju has for the AFVOA, for it is under his benign superintendence that the AFVOA has blossomed, with nary a worry as to the location of its meetings. Honouring the Elderly among the veterans 68. The President then requested the three octogenarians, who had been invited for this Meeting, to accept the mementos of the AFVOA as a token of our affection and regard for these old warriors. They were: a) Lt Col R Gopalaratnam, AOC, who has just crossed 87 years and lives in the Theosophical Society; b) Lt Col GT Thampi, INF, who shows no evidence of his being eligible for the octogenarian award, and is full of fire and spirit. In fact, this may be the reason he looks so young! c) Capt TK Swaminathan, EME, who is 81 years of age and lives in TNagar. 69. We shall carrying brief life sketches of these officers in our next Newsletter Dinner 70. As the proceedings were necessarily longer than usual, it was deemed wise not to delay dinner any longer. As soon as many of the members had placed all the delicious offerings that Narendra Maharaj had laid out for us that evening on their plates and made way for the other half, Mother Nature’s vassals decided that enough was enough, and the skies opened out in a torrential downpour that all but put paid to the hopes of the rest of us regarding dinner. Dinner was had by all, finally, but one is afraid that it was a bit of a watery menu, literally, delicious though it still seemed to all of us who were quite obviously, famished. Epilogue 71. All’s well that ends well! And here, we are not referring, tongue in cheek, to the interference of Indra’s cohorts in the menu for dinner. We are referring to the wholly serendipitous fact that Wg Cdr C Ravishankar had genuinely volunteered to arrange the multimedia projector and the laptop without which the arrangements for Gen Girish’s presentation would have been rather incomplete. It was thus that a conscientious and