AFVOA Newletters of Year 2005

Page 23 of 75 uncle decided that we should see the picture. Hence he came over to the school, picked me up, and straightway went over to the show. On returning home after the show, I realised that it was a long day and was quite tired - not having changed from my school uniform. Hence we re-lived some of the scenes of the film, had dinner and went off to sleep. 4. Next morning, (school started off early and I normally left home by 7.00 a.m.) on reaching class – we had English in the first period, and I realised that I had not completed the home work given by Mr. Ludowick the previous day! After the preliminaries, Mr. Ludowick enquired about the home work. As one of the defaulters, I put up my hand, but then heaved a sigh of relief when I saw that there were another four hands that went up, who had not done the work. (Mind you our class had only 26 boys at that time - not like the classes these days when there are maybe close to 50 per class!) He asked us the reason for not doing the work. Almost unanimously all of us mentioned that we “did not have the time to do it” . The lesson that Mr. Ludowick gave us that day still reverberates in my mind even today. He asked each one of us, as well as few of those who had done the home work as to how many hours there were in a day. All of us mentioned that there were 24 hours in a day. He then asked each one of us, if we had less than 24 hours on the previous day. And he enquired from those that had done the work, if they had more than 24 hours the previous day. Then he summed up saying that the Almighty made no distinctions on TIME – everyone, be it a child or an aged one, be it rich or poor, be it in India or elsewhere, the good Lord above gave only 24 hours a day to each one of us. It depended on us – our attitudes which dictated our goals and priorities to utilise the available time to our best advantage. We must plan and schedule our work in such manner that we find the time for what we have to do. Time is there, only we have to find it! 5. It is worth concluding with another quote by Franklin Field, who says: “The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in five words: I DID NOT HAVE TIME.” 6. In this issue, we start off with the customary “Meeting gone by”, which has been contributed by Smt Lalitha Mohandas, who has done a commendable piece considering that she is busy with various other activities and writing this bit itself took her a long duration of time. We give a gist of the presentation by AVM and Smt Jaya Krishnaswamy, followed by the usual Information for all of us. Supreme Court has ruled that personnel, who retired prior to 1996, are eligible for additional gratuity based on their DA. Details of the Government note – received through kind courtesy of Brig CS Kamboj, VSM, has been reproduced for the benefit of affected people. A touching poem written by the 10-year old grand daughter of our President Gen Govindaswamy on Tsunami has been included. An updated list of hospitals empanelled under the ECHS has been given. We had earlier carried news regarding the beneficial effects of Honey and cinnamon. Col KMV Gopalan and Col A Krishnaswami, VrC VSM** have added to that list which has included now. We have also included some amendments to ‘Hello Veterans -2004’. Wishing all of you enjoyable reading and hoping to see you on the 01 st of May at the Palmgrove Institute. In truth, people can generally make time for what they choose to do; it is not really the time but the will that is lacking. ~ Sir John Lubbock ~ (1834 – 1913; British statesman, banker, naturalist) Meeting Gone By - A Resume by Smt Lalitha Mohandas 7. The ambient and picturesque Palm Grove Officers Institute, Island Grounds located amidst sylvan surroundings was the venue for the last meeting that was held on 20 th March 2005. Though the venue was in the heart of the city, all the Veterans who had turned up for this meeting were happy that nevertheless we were far from the madding