Time & Tide wait for no man. Time is a great
healer; Time is a great destroyer too. This reflection is never more true than
in the case of our beloved & affectionate Sri VC Jain. Little did we expect
that the cruel hand of Fate will snatch him away from our midst so soon. We
have mixed & mingled with him, so close, so intimate, so personal, so
touching, full of warmth, love, kindness that he was a personification
of. Pensioners community owes
a deep debt of gratitude to him
It is no easy going for top Office-bearers of any
organization. Pensioners’ Federations work & assignment is more complex,
more haphazard, less organized, less powerful, more arduous, more loose-knit. The
job of a General Secretary calls for deftness, delicate balancing of power
& authority, more suave & friendly, less task-oriented ,less
disciplined, less orderly & so all the more demanding & summoning all
skills of ingenuity, power of talking, command of writing, stirring Appeals to
brothers & sister pensioners,& in general endeavouring to spread the
organization tentacles far & wide geographically & creating more &
more units, RIEAs in our parlance.
It can be imagined as a Herculean task or at best a trapeze
,trial & error method, or no trials & all error. It can be a significant success or a downright
failure. We, as Indians ,are more prone to stick on to ordinary way of living
& leading than to an ambitious, professional touch of a born leader or
acting as a change-agent inducing synergy throughout the rank &
file of the organisation .
Sri VC Jain endeavoured to the best of his ability to be
more than ordinary, made all significant attempts to reach extraordinary,
believing & pursuing the simple but profound saying of Indira Gandhi, that
‘ I do not want people to do any extraordinary things, but I certainly want all
of you to do ordinary things in an extraordinary manner’, she added
significantly & pregnant with meaning, ‘the difference between ordinary
& extraordinary is that little EXTRA ‘.Throughout his indelible innings as
General Secretary from 2008 to 2014, 3 terms of 2 years each & 6 long
years, VC, as I affectionately called him, he bore the brunt of the
struggle of AIRIEF scaling new pathways, new methodologies, new
Booklets, Souvenirs galore, AIRIEF Circulars issued in a methodical
manner, his Indore Unit RIEA Newsletter Bima Sandhesh, with his
characteristic Hindi & Urdu couplets & striking, stunning
phraseology, so captivating to all. This, we remember & recall, ‘it has
become Mahabharat yudh for us. This is the last battle & should not be a
lost battle for lack of finances. Finance plays a vital role. Everyone has
to give Aahuti in this Mahayagnya. Not
only the pensioners, working employees will also be benefitted in future.
Aasman me
kitni,udane baki hain,
Jeevan me kai imtihan
baki hain,
Abhi to napi hai
mutthi bhar jami hamne,
Abhi to sara Aaasma
baki hai.
VC took lot of pains in communicating the final happenings
after every Court case to all. He was in regular & constant touch with me. I
felt privileged to work as information beaming, seeking advice or strategy, wanting
better liaison & coordination, avid to enhance membership, especially after
we secured full & correct data of pensioners in September,2013 from LIC CO. He wanted AIRIEF House Magazine
Varistha Vaani to break new grounds & to be a real communication crusade
& to this task, he sent his message & appeal to all pensioners &
RIEAs. He secured good help from local Joint Secretary & Treasurer. With good membership of Indore, & real
good volunteers to assist round the clock, missing at many places, he strove
hard to ensure audited Books of Accounts regularly. Thanx to his follow up for
legal fund donations & earlier Gratuity arrears levy ,he could ensure a
significant buoyancy of revenues & indeed from a paltry, pigmy like budget
& Revenue/Expenditure & Asset/Liability statement to a
stream of surplus , breathing an aura of respectability, unlike Central govt finances with fiscal deficit.
He had the profound partnership & friendship of the
former President Sri SKShukla, whose rein was for 8 years, whose guidance &
advice was always available at any time to steer the AIRIEF to greater &
greater heights of glory. Like Dhoni Captain Cool, Sri SK Shukla was Captain
Cool AIRIEF with his wit & wisdom & proficiency in English & Hindi
with an air of warmth & camaraderie.
I recall the hard, persistent, patient work myself &
VC did for release of the 2 invaluable BOOKLETS Kurukshetra &
Charter of Demands, 45 days of daily inputs to me from his Printers &
scrupulously I exerted to avoid Printers devil. That saga of sacrifice for
pensioners fraternity, I cannot forget.VC correctly added in COD :Our
Expectations: Health, Happiness & Harmony. Even in RAIPUR Office bearers
Meeting on 19th January,2015,he released the latest AIRIEF Constitution as
amended upto 19October, 2014. From Jabalpur to Ujjain to Ahmedabad to Bengaluru,
AIRIEF EC/GC venues bi-annual, it was a long journey. Ujjain VC revelled in Cultural programme, Hindi film
songs to full heart’s content & ecstacy & a picnic unforgettable. Last
few months, he was aggressively busy in the final preparation of accounts &
transfer of all records to new AIRIEF Secretariat, Bengaluru. Even updated statements with full details of
legal fund & allocation were given to us at Raipur. From room to room, he
went & had pleasantries exchanged with OBs
VC had health
problems, mainly skin disorders serious, itching & irritating; he resorted
to all forms of alternate medicine. He had an accidental fall from scooter
& that proved to be grievous. We witnessed the plight when Bengaluru
friends arranged special chair to extend his legs fairly in comfort. Whenever I
spoke to him, I enquired about his health position.
It is a bolt from the blue when we got the news from Sri G. Krishnaswamy,
Bengaluru about his sudden demise after a severe attack of brain hemorrhage. He
passed away at 10pm yesterday. The news was shocking. Fate has snatched him
away from all of us. We bow in reverence & regard for all the
multi-dimensional services he rendered ,as a social service with sacrifice of
time, labour & energy,all for the good cause of pensioners welfare &
progress. Our sincere & heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family. May
his soul rest in peace, May the Almighty shower strength, courage &
fortitude to his family to bear this irreparable loss.
Mournfully, R.B.KISHORE, VP,AIRIEF
(Sri
VCJain Tel :0731-2497323 M:094066 28570)