Communication is what keeps the link going.

Ecircular No.DK/27                                                       02-07-2018
 
Friends,                                              

...   Sharing some thoughts ....

Just back from attending the Bi-ennial A G M  at Bengaluru, I felt like sharing a few thoughts with all of you.  For one, it was a very well organized and well-attended meeting, though it happens only once in two years there. I have made a suggestion to them, to see, if they could have these Meetings Annually, so that there will be a connect with their members at a slightly better frequency, than once in two years. An important point that emerges here is that, we the Pensioners everywhere, are a  rather loosely knit community, because of lesser  frequency of meetings, and seeing each other. Even to the extent we are standing together today, owes it to the common issues we are grappling within the Courts. It therefore becomes significant that we create opportunities to come together, if not necessarily on official platforms of the Association, at least through meetings of somewhat social in nature, organized by the Association. There will then be a greater emotional quotient and chemistry of togetherness. Those who meet/eat together stay together!

But I must rush to add here, that the Bengaluru AGM , in spite of being held only on a biennial basis, was a remarkably well organised affair. Many of them in the Group that gathered, were in their eighties, and many  of the office-bearers themselves  are in that group. I was visibly moved when the 82 year old Sri Raghunath , their Vice-President, was waiting on the Rly Platform to receive me, at the late hour of 11-30 pm!  By the time he conducted me to the Hotel and left for home, it was around 1-30 AM! Such is their fervour and dedication.

The unique feature of their Unit is that they have taken it upon themselves to carry out projects of Expansions, by working for other units to be put in place in Karnataka.  In fact this happens to be one of the missions suggested to our Federation Vice Presidents and Joint Secretaries earlier in the year (DK 15 dt. 31-03-2018), because that alone can give us the strength of numbers, and higher  collections of funds, so essential, to help us fight for the common  interests in Courts, which has indeed become a very expensive affair. The Bengaluru Assn. can be proud of their contribution to the larger cause of the Federation by their efforts to successfully institute units at Dharwad and Mysuru. They are, as of now, actively working on two more units at Belgaum and Udupi.  Kudos to them for this inspired working.

One of the other special  things about this Bengaluru Association is that they regularly pass on, to their every individual member,  the e-circulars issued by the Federation General Secretary, from time to time. There are other Associations like Thiruvananthapuram,  Coimbatore, Kolkata and some others too, who do this systematically. The great thing about doing this, is that their members feel they are part of the group, and stay connected. There are other big Association groups like Mumbai and Chennai, who are not doing this, perhaps due to genuine difficulty of logistics of numbers. But where the Associations do send the communications regularly,  have a tremendous advantage, of keeping their members  feel a definite sense of ownership. Communication is what keeps the link going.

The other thing observed about this Association, is that , like most other Associations, they Honour their Senior members in such Meetings. There were at least 15 members of age 80 and above who were honoured in the AGM on the 1st of July 2018. 

The special aspect here, is that, one senior member, and a Resource person to the Federation, Sri R Rajagopalan, is the one who single-handedly foots the Bill for this item of their Agenda every AGM! We in the federation may be already aware that Sri Rajagopalan, bears the cost of his travel and stay, when he travels for federation Meetings. A lion hearted gesture for the community indeed, and may his tribe increase.

Another important feature noticed about all agile Associations is the dedicated  presence of one member much like AVP Nair of Thiruvananthapuram, T K Ravindran of Bengaluru or the venerable senior Sri D M  Pathak of Mumbai or Sri Subir Majumdar of Kolkata or the inspiring individual like SK Awasthi of Lucknow or B P Rao of Dharwad. If I have missed out on  the name of any similar stellar individual who has made a significant difference to his Association, I may be pardoned for such omission, as my personal failing. I thought acknowledging it openly is the minimum we can do at the Federation level, because, we need more like them for a stronger Federation.

Friends, as for the SC case posted for the 24th of July, we are preparing ourselves for a Legal Committee Meeting at Delhi on the 22nd July, Sunday, and a Meeting with the Senior Counsel Sri Hanzaria on the 23rd of July, one day ahead of the Date of Hearing on the 24th of July.

In the Delhi Association AGM held recently, Sri V K Jain has again been elected President. This senior veteran is also one of our Legal Committee members, shouldering the special responsibility of liaison, with  our advocate on record, as the local representative of the  Committee at Delhi.

Incidentally, news has just trickled in that our impleading Petition filed in the Ernakulam H C recently, in the 1992-93 case, has been admitted, in the hearing this morning. The judge has expressed desire to complete this case as early as possible , may be in the next one or two weeks itself. Our reply to LIC's Counter has to be filed at the earliest before such speedy disposal of the case can happen.

 Wishing all of you the very best of everything 

D. Krishnan (Gen. Secretary),
CHENNAI.