AFVOA Newletters of Year 2004

Page 79 of 153 ARMED FORCES VETERAN OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION CHENNAI (Established 1994) (Registered under Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975 Registration Certificate No 3/2004) Patron Lt Gen C Sundara Rao, PVSM Tele: 2446 1085 President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Maj Gen Maj Gen Brig Brig C Govindaswamy R Karthikeyan SP Balachandran NB Subramanian Tele 2234 5106 Tele 2249 1704 Tele 5218 4916 Tele 2490 3934 No 4 of 2004 08 th Aug 2004 NEWSLETTER #04/2004 Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is matter of choice. It is not something to be waited for, but rather something to be achieved. ~ William Jennings Bryan Dear Veterans, From the Editor’s Desk 1. Ten years is a good length of time – both in the life of an individual as well as that of an Organisation. This issue of the Newsletter is a momentous one as it commemorates the completion of the first decade of growth of our Association. And in order to make it more memorable, the updated version of “Hello Veterans” - the Telephone Directory of all retired officers of the Defence Services who have settled in Chennai is being released at our Meeting on the 24 th August 2004. 2. And in keeping with the spirit of the occasion, one of my FPGs suggested that we reflect on the achievements of the Association during these past few years. All that we have been doing, is regularly being chronicled in the Newsletters. Nevertheless, it would be appropriate to touch on a few points in this regard. When the Association met for the first time in August 1994, there were a number of doubting Thomases who predicted a quick end to the Organisation. On the contrary, the Association has grown from the handful who met that day to over 250 members today. The main object of the first meeting was to ‘meet, greet and revive old memories’. Not only does that continue, but the Association has grown in strength, and has also enlarged and expanded the objects in other areas. To cite a few examples, we have registered ourselves as a Society under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975. We have conducted programmes, helped the needy and generally contributed to increasing awareness in matters military in this metropolis.