THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Lt-General Sarath Chand, Chief of Staff, South West Command, urged the students of Sainik School Kazhakoottam to join the Armed Forces where there are a large number of opportunities. He was inaugurating ‘Home Coming’, 46th reunion of Old Boys of SSK here.
Lt-Gen Chand, who is expected to take charge as Army Commander in January, told the young cadets of SSK that though the world has got lots of opportunities, still Armed Forces is the most lucrative career in front of them.
He also dedicated ‘Turning Point’, the memorial for Flying Officer M. P. Anil Kumar. S. M. Kamalamma, Anil Kumar’s mother, his sister M. P. Sheeja and other family members saw his desktop computer, wheelchair, ‘mouth writing’ stand as well as his medals from the NDA, Air Force Academy and Indian Air Force for his indomitable fighting spirit.
His original article written with the aid of a stick held with his mouth, titled ‘Airborne to chair-borne’, his newspaper columns also found space at the motivational hall at SSK. Fifty-year-old Flt Lt (Rtd) Anil Kumar, an alumnus of SSK, had passed away last May following his battle with cancer.
He had been bedridden at the Military Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre in Pune for 25 years.
SSK principal Colonel A. Rajiv urged all former students to sponsor the maintenance of their alma mater. Currently, the school is facing a dearth of funds from the central government and the state government has promised to give it Rs 50 lakh.
The OBA had also raised Rs 24.9 lakh in medical aid for one of the OBs, 32-year-old B. V. Ranjith, an Attingal native who has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma and is currently based in Kochi as part of his ongoing treatment.
This year’s daylong OBA event was sponsored by the 1990 batch of SSK. Incumbent office-bearers of OBA will continue until next July when the next re-union has been scheduled.
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