AFVOA Newletters of Year 2005

Page 55 of 75 subjects. 33. The day of reckoning at last dawned. A few service officers like me in the large residential area around Besant Nagar decided to have a get together on the 7 th of August 1994 . We had organized a small gathering of ten retired service officers at the Indra Nagar youth hostel at Adyar. The hostel was managed by our brother Officer Lt. Col. S.R. Raja and his wife. The initiative to get us all together goes to the first Vice President and the Secretary Lt Col R. Balaswamy and Major S. Balachandran respectively. They had spread the message, by word of mouth. I am sharing all this information because I feel, all of us have a sense of history as a service officer and we like to cherish our past. 34. The ‘Pioneers’ who were present at the first meeting took the decision to form an association and named it as “Ex Service Officers Association (EXSOA Adyar)”. The seed was sown on that day. We recounted our past and exchanged pleasantries and took a decision to meet every second month a tradition that continues till date. Over the years we have worked together to achieve laurels unique in nature. We were becoming popular not only with the local service formations due to our contributions towards welfare activities, but also amongst the intelligentsia and the media. We were often called by both the visual and print media to share our views on current problems and also Armed Forces related issues. 35. Our membership swelled and so also our activities. We renamed ourselves as “Armed Forces Veteran Officers Association” in the year 2000. We had more volunteers, more responsibilities and therefore could work more for the community. Our achievements have been chronicled in our “Telephone Directory" that we have published twice-Hello Veteran 2001 and again in 2004. It bears testimony to our perseverance and bonhomie that prevails in abundance in the associates. 36. It is 2005 now. I will soon be entering the Biblical age of three scores and ten. I do not face the boredom anymore. I am busier than ever before. My wife has to often remind me to “relax”. My twin prayer to the almighty is to provide me the wisdom to have only good thoughts and grant me good health to enable me work for the well being of the community. 37. What was a small effort then has taken deep roots today. When we came together it was just the “Beginning”, Having kept together, it was indeed “Progress”, Working together all along is surely a “Success”. On our raising day let us congratulate ourselves for our steadfastness, unity and above all, devotion to duty, for enabling the association to grow in strength. Let us pray for the growth of this young sapling to become a “ Mighty Tree ” in the years to come. Telephone Directory 38. We have been publishing the various changes taking place In terms of addresses, telephone Numbers, e-mail ID, etc of Officers in the past few issues. It shall be our endeavour henceforth to publish such changes in every issue of the Newsletter to enable updating the “Hello Veterans – 2004” in the form of Annexure to the Newsletter. If you are going through hell.. …keep going ~ Winston Churchill Matters Health 39. Let us look after ourselves . On 24 Aug 2004 we had a talk by Dr VS Natarajan, the well known Geriatric Physician of Chennai. He covered all aspects of growing old and his advise to overcome this natural phenomenon to the extent possible. In his talk he highlighted three most essential aspects – food, exercise and habits . In conformity with Dr Natarajan’s