AFVOA Newletters of Year 2005

Page 6 of 75 12. The following new Members were welcomed: a) Lt Col KR Perumal, ASC b) Lt Col CK Ravi Kumar, Arty 13. Since the last meeting the following brother officers as well as close relations of some of our officers had passed away:- a) Lt Col Thomas Cherian 12 Oct 04 b) Wg Cdr CB Amarendra 06 Dec 04 c) Capt N Periaswamy, Madras 10 Dec 04 d) Lt Col CS Nagarajan, Engrs 17 Dec 04 e) Sqn Ldr S Sanjeevi 04 Feb 05 f) Mother of Wg Cdr Ravi Mani 21 Oct 04 g) Father of Brig SP Balalchandran 08 Oct 04 h) A large number of Service Officers, their families and thousands of civilians in the devastating Tsunami on 26 Dec 04. 14. All the members of the AFVOA share the grief of the bereaved families and pray to GOD for the departed souls to rest in peace. As a mark of respect for the departed souls, everyone rose and observed silence for a minute. 15. In spite of earnest requests, a number of members had NOT paid the contribution for the Picnic. Brig. Balachandran requested those members to hand over the amounts to Col N Viswanathan who had agreed to take charge in the absence of Brig NB Subramanian, the Treasurer, who was out of station to attend to a wedding in the family. 16. Wg. Cdr J Ramani spoke a few words on the help being rendered to the Tsunami victims from the CarNicobar base. He mentioned the case of Sqn Ldr Raja Sekhar, the then, Senior Meteorological Officer at CarNic, his wife, son and daughter who were washed away by the sea waters that fateful day – 26 Dec 2004. Miraculously, his daughter Meghna, aged 13 years, survived the ordeal after having been in the sea for more than 12 hours and again after having been washed ashore, being all by herself for another 24 hours. Wg Cdr Ramani along with Gp Capt LV Mohandas was co-ordinating the efforts to set up a fund for her. Since Meghna’s father has been declared missing she cannot expect any financial assistance as of now. Gp Capt Mohandas has knocked at many doors including Social Workers and Philanthropists [both in India and the USA] to apprise them about this case. A small beginning has been made and with valuable contributions from many more, including compassionate Veterans, we do hope it will help orphaned Meghna go through with her studies unhindered. It must be mentioned that on learning about this incident Lt Col R. Ramachandran immediately handed over a sum of Rs 300.00 on the spot to Gp Capt LV Mohandas. What a noble deed! Mrs Jayanthi Ramachandra, a Social worker, helped tie up with a philanthropist from the USA for some contribution for this fund. It is requested that many more such kind hearted souls should come forward! 17. Brig Balachandran mentioned that a professional Event Manager had agreed to conduct the programme during the Picnic, which had been originally slated for the 09 th Jan 2005. Due to the change in the dates, he had backed out, and hence it was that the Management decided to fallback on the talented and trusted in-house members to conduct the show. 18. This Programme commenced with the versatile Mrs Chitkala Govindaswamy conducting the first game of the day, which was a team game. It was conceptualized on the lines of “JackPot” conducted by actress Khushboo, on Jaya TV. She was ably assisted by Gen Govindaswamy. Ten teams of five members each participated. Each member of the team was asked a question, which was to be answered. The answer was tallied with the Master