AFVOA Newsletters of Year 2012

Meeting Gone By - 05 Nov 2011 The bi-monthly meeting of the AFVOA was held on Saturday, 05 Nov 2011. This meeting was different from previous meetings on a number of counts. Firstly, it was a day meeting as opposed to the evening meetings that enabled many aged veterans, who had difficulties in attending evening meets, to join us. Secondly, we had a leisurely lunch instead of a hurried dinner. Thirdly, the venue has A/C facilities and is located close to the Fort railway station easy to reach by the local train to quite a few. Additionally, it has a covered shed which was utilized by the caterer for warming and distributing food. The dawn of Saturday morning had started off with the clouds and pouring rain.However the skies cleared up by about 8.00 am. It was a pleasant surprise to see that members were gradually arriving. The encouraging reality was that a number of elderly people took the effort to attend. Besides the Patron, Col Gangadharan who is set to reach the “nineties” soon, was also present. Smt Lalitha Mohandas announced that the sale of tickets for the game of Tombola had commenced. Two Houses were played in continuous succession. The Snowball of Rs 2300/- in 53 counts remained unclaimed. Hopefully, the onset of the New Year may well see this prize also being claimed. The winners included Mrs Susheela Balakrishnan, Col B Jeyaraj, Col Gopal, Mrs Jayakaran, Mrs Velu, Mrs Hariharan, Ltcol Raja, Gpcapt Natarajan and Col C Manikkam. The winners of the two “Full houses” were Capt Shankar and Mrs Susheela Balakrishnan. The Secretary took over, to conduct the day’s proceedings. As is customary, members rose to observe two minutes silence in memory of Brig RC Mehta, VSM, Engrs, former Sub Area Commander. Col Raman, our secretary announced that no contributions would be collected for this meeting. Col A Krishnaswami VrC, VSM** and Smt Sulochana Krishnaswami, chose to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary by sharing their happiness with the members of the association. The members of the AFVOA are extremely grateful to the Krishnaswamis for their thoughtful gesture. Based on the ongoing tradition of honouring octogenarian veterans, our long standing member, Brig Durga Bai was honoured, by Mrs Rajam Sundara Rao by draping a shawl around her. Brig Durga Bai profusely thanked the AFVOA for the honour bestowed on her. A few words about Brig (Miss) CA Durga Bai the good hearted lady.  She is the first Tamilian Lady to become a Brigadier.  She served all the three Services– Army, Navy and Air Force. Besides serving all over the country, she also went abroad to Congo and Bangladesh. The only trouble with Retirement is that “you don’t get a day off” Page 4 of 80