AFVOA Newletters of Year 2010

Page 49 of 50 and this will have to be continued in future without fail. We have now the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), next to our location, in the Old MH Complex, St Thomas mount, Chennai, with a majestic look. There is a need for maintaining the rooms and area surrounding AFVOA Office in tone with AFT. We shall progress this work with HQ ATNK&K Area, Station HQs and MES Authorities After the forthcoming BiMonthly Meet our next Meet will be the Annual Picnic Meet. Considering economy, convenience and privacy, we propose to have this on 09 January 2011, Sunday at the usual Venue. Camp Gloria Complex, on the East Coast Road near Mamallapuram. Later, in the New Year, we plan to have a cultural meet in March 2011. Finally, the AGM will be in Jun 2011, followed by election of New Committee Members We assure you all that the Committee will maintain the traditions of the past and spare no effort at improving facilities and services to Members, Veterans and their Families. We always seek your full cooperation. God bless us all. When I Caught the Avial Flu Deepa Suryanarayan I’m going to make avial today,” I announced to my horrified parents Having burnt not just my fingers but my entire left hand at the age of 13, bribes and threats have since failed to induce me to enter the kitchen. And the rare occasions I’ve braved a visit to rustle up a dish have always ended disastrously. I have even earned the dubious distinction of probably being the only person in the world who managed to burn Act II popcorn (yes, the one with the ad showing a four-year-old with a lisp demonstrating the procedure). On one glorious occasion, I reduced a double-saver pack of Maggie to a gooey unrecognisable mess. Not surprisingly, my mother tied her hair into a tight bun (the way she always does when she senses impending danger), dug her heels into our blue-tiled floor, and refused to budge when I asked for assistance. Irked by her lack of faith in my culinary abilities, I approached a higher authority: my 86-years-young grandmother. Enter matriarch Ponmani Ramaswami, the queen of the Iyer kitchen, who though indisposed due to age-related reasons, makes up for her lack of mobility by issuing commands and overseeing their administration from her vantage point in a high chair. First came the task of chopping vegetables. How difficult could it be? As it turns out very. Each vegetable, including drumsticks, carrots, yam, snake gourd, pumpkin, cucumber, had to be julienned (a term I learnt courtesy Master Chef Australia it means to cut vegetables lengthwise into pieces measuring exactly 1.5-inches, thank you very much). Not an inch more, not an inch less. Matriarch P checked the measurements. Then I had to boil the assorted veggies in water, adding salt and turmeric. Now, avial is all about multi-tasking. So while the veggies cooked over a low flame, I got to work on the coconut-paste. The coconut had to be grated, the green chillies chopped, put in a mixture and ground to a coarse paste. “So much work,” I sighed, glancing at my mom with a look that would have melted an Ice Maiden’s heart. That’s when I noticed she was munching on a bowl of Act II popcorn, (only not