AFVOA Newletters of Year 2009

Page 18 of 37 somewhat moderated by the series of showers that we were happy to receive these past few weeks. And with that the best part of the year with a chain of festivals to rejoice is upon us. This year’s festival season was inaugurated with Rakshsa Bandhan in the early part of August. Then came Janamashtami and the Independence Day in quick succession, putting us in a stridently festive mood as we look forward to Vinayaka Chathurthi by the end of August. Come September and the first week will see us having a good time at Onam. Around Mid-month is the Mahalaya Amavasya followed the very next day, on prathamai, with the start of Navarathri which will conclude by the end of the month with Vijayadasami, the greatest day in the military calender of ancient Bharat. In between we shall celebrate Ramzan and Saraswathi Pooja. October, which begins with Gandhi Jayanthi opens the gateway for the really great Indian festivals. The middle of that month shall see us celebrating Deepavali and November will witness the observance of Id-ul-Zuha. From there we jump to Christmas in December and shall bring the year to a close with New Year’s day. But the festivities do not stop there. In January we celebrate Pongal and Republic Day. Then after a brief hiatus during February and March the tempo picks up again when we mark Mahaveer Jayanthi and Good Friday to finally bring the festival season to an end with the Tamil New Year observed during mid-April. Amidst all the commemorations and rejoicings once in a while it is incumbent upon us to take stock of ourselves as a nation – to spend a few moments in getting our bearings and therefrom analyzing what we have achieved and list out what else needs to be done to make our India a respected member of the comity of nations. Our generation is well aware that at the dawn of Independence we were steeped in poverty. There were no jobs available and no money. Added to this was the painful shortage of food. There were no good roads; and schools, colleges and hospitals were few and far between. Coupled with this were the threats to our borders from neighboring Pakistan and China. We were a nascent country fraught with deep troubles. The only positive note was that there was not much dissention. We were united and determined. That unity was built upon by our leaders who fortunately were farsighted and at the same time selfless. The Five Year Plans laid the foundations for the rise of our industries. At the same time the Green Revolution and White Revolutions slowly gathered momentum to meet our food and milk requirements so much so that by the mid-seventies, barely a generation after Independence we were more or less self sufficient. From then on we made rapid strides which has today brought us to this state of reasonable prosperity all around. Yet there is still a considerable amount of work that needs to be done. Primary among them would be the provision of a ‘safety net’ for the illiterate, underweight village woman. Her wants are simple. She would desire that when she wants to work a reasonable job for capabilities should be available. She would want that if she loses the job for no fault of hers she would not have to go bankrupt. We have to provide her reasonable living conditions and clean water close by. And when her working days are done she would like to retire with dignity and respect as any urbanite. This could make our society better. Our next BiMonthly Meet is slated for 06 Sep 09. We will be meeting at the usual place and time. Kindly be there to meet and greet your friends-in-arms.