NISHU NISHI
“Insaan ki shuruwat kahin se toh hoti hain, Uski hawa, Uski har saas se hoti hain. Zindagi mein toh sab banana chahte hain kuch. Par hakitat sirf uski yaadoein mein hoti hain.�
DELHI
SIKKIM
BHOPAL
I H SI N U H S I N
JAMMU
BATHIND A
PUNE
ME R
RU
T
IHSIN UHSIN
DELHI The Place where it all started
What is life without a backyard
Swimming Pool
Delhi Winters
that comes out in the are beautiful but torturous. summers and converts your house into a resort. Every morning my mother and I used to sit in the shining winter sunlight and store some warmth.
My parents beileve in huge celebrations. My first
Birthday for instance was a very big affair, from a flufffy white dress to a lot of presents, it had everything.
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Always wanted to step into my father’s
Shoes Literally.
Every place we lived has these‘ Perks of having an elder brother and extra loving parents, you get a showcase filled with The day I was born in
BASE
hospital, Delhi cantt.
Toys and the best
part they are all still there in some box.
Raksha Bandhan pictures
Dancing on
glass tops because you are too tiny to steal focus from the ground.
because before digital cameras, only birthdays and festivals were considered picture worthy.
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“We could hear the bugle sound every morning as the soldiers practiced for the Air Force Day Parade. The parade ground was right in front of our house” -Sushma Srivastava, Mother
1997-1999 4RV Road, Airforce Station Palam
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When I opened my eyes the first time, all I could see around was white. I could hear somebody crying loudly, but it didn’t really feel like a painful one but almost something joyful. Slowly as the crying became louder I realized that it was me this whole time. I was seeing the world for the very first time today and it consisted of white walls, white uniforms, and white beds. It was a hospital, Base Hospital Delhi Cantonment Area.The date was the 8th of March. As I passed through the gates of that building, dull afternoon sunlight hit my eyes and I shut them. My grandmother carried me into our brand new Maruti 800 car and took me to my mother in the family ward. This is what Delhi is to me. Even though I never stayed in
Delhi significantly, it has become a part of my personality. Everybody knows Delhi from their own experience. Some hate it because of the traffic and the distance. Some love it for the long walks near the India gate. Some just know it as a capital. For me, it was the beginning of my magnificent Army life.My father was posted as a Garrison Engineer in the Air Force here. I spent only two years of my life in this station, and as you can expect from a two-year-old I don’t remember much about the place. Except for the recreated memories that have been formed in my brain over the years from many many stories.
We Celebrate it all
One such story is from Christmas. Being an Army kid, we have been raised to celebrate all kinds of festivals. But Christmas at Air Force station Palam is a tad different from what you can imagine. Because unlike your society Santa, my Santa came in a helicopter. Us kids were made to sit on a aircraft carrier with all the gifts and given a ride around the area. Later we had a Christmas meal organized with all kinds of games and food. Diwali was another amazing event, where we had an enormous cracker show that lasted for almost 2 hours.
All the perks
A few years back I found this small diary which had autographs from famous cricketers like Sachin, Rahul Dravid, Jadeja, Ganguli etc. This is how I got to know that the Ranji Trophy was organized every year at the Air Force station. And one fine day my father just took me and my brother to go meet all these cricketers. It surely would have been the happiest day for my brother.
Army gives you the best and worst houses, this was one of the best ones. Built in the Britisher’s era it was a huge independent bungalow with a courtyard in the center. The best part was the huge lawn in front where my parents loved to throw a lot of parties. Both my birthdays,various festivals everything happened there. We had a drill, the parachute went up, the menu was given to the cook, guests were invited, the party planning was done.
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BHOPAL We become a part of the place
The places changed but the birthday routiine remained the same. The balloons and my mother’s
Homemade
mickeymouse cake always marked my birthday.
We take festivals really seriously, we celebrate each and every thing. So this is
Teej
Celebrating my mother’s
Birthday
Our picnics are not just grass and pot lunch but take place on
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Boats with fancy staff.
Look at that, is it a bird, is it a plane. No its My parents loved to click, thanks to them we have a lot Even after so many postings,
Travel
we a lot. Had covered every state in India by the age of 18.
Superman
Pictures
from everyplace we visted.
We did have normal picnics also with
Pot-lunches and games.
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“I could see planes fly so close to my face that I almost thought I could catch them� - Nishant Karun, Brother
1999-2000 207 B, Bedagarh Cantt
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This was my first real Army station. Did you know that the cantt temperature is always 2-3 degrees lower than the city temperature because we like open spaces and green trees. Because of this cantonments are always beautiful, organized and green. Bedagarh was one such typical cantt with gate security, uniform housing and lush green jungles where you could find peacocks dancing early morning. The cantt had its own theater, sports stadium, and clubs. These are some facilities very common to a typical cantt, we try to form a city
in ourselves to avoid going outside. But every cantt has its own quirks like here, fumigation was not done by people but was done using war tanks. Bhopal, the city of lakes has its own royal character. Its lake museums, significant handicrafts and old buildings make it the perfect photography destination. Briefly, during our stay here we moved to Mhow, a very big Army hub which every officer does visit once in their service. Mhow was the place where I went to my first playschool for two weeks.
Haircuts
Army ladies are the epitome of sophistication, following the British ways they tend to talk and dress in a very elegant manner. But sadly the same doesn’t go for the army girls because we never got beauty parlors, we played in the mud with our toys guns. And like the men of the family our hair was cut by the regiment barber who significantly knew only one hairstyle which is the katora cut. “If you move I’ll cut your ears”, said Salim Khan the Barber, every time he cut my hair. I used to sit as still as a block of wood.
The Parties
Army parties are something I wish everybody could attend once in their lifetime because they are the most luxurious event you could go to. Everybody has a uniform be the officer, the lady or the waiter, everybody is dressed to the best. The food is the best you can ever have and the way it’s served to you adds to its taste. Bhopal being a royal place, the parties here took place in Noor Ul Sabah, which was a Pataudi restaurant in the city. Jehan Numa palace was another such fancy location which added to the sophistication of Army parties.
Our house here wasn’t that fancy but the perk of an army house is, that it has a character developed over time. Because you aren’t the only person who has lived in it or will live in the future, it has everybody’s tales stuck to its walls. This was a small 2 bhk house but my mother has her way with interiors. Our drawing room has always been a collection of different handicrafts collected from all her postings and put together in a beautiful way. So even though some army homes are small and used, every family attaches their feeling to it.
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SIKKIM
In the mountains, away from a regular life.
Every moment in my life we charged towards an adventure, like
Rafting in the thick waves of Tista.
When the view from your
Balcony
is the serene flowing waves of nature
Growing another year
Older trying to learn more at every step
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Schools still bring a smile to my face. First days of new
Cosy houses lead to a close connected family There we had no swings or parks, so we spent our time Somedays you just stand at the
One of the most prestigious army belief
Indo-China Border and
with .
Snow
exchange currency
Harbajan Baba 10
“There was no school for 3 months, all we did was watch Bhagat Singh and Falguni Pathak on our VCRs. It was like an elaborate vacation in the hills.” - Nishant Karun, Brother
2000-2001 Basha 4, 2 Mile Sikkim
A place where everybody today wants to travel to was once my home. It is difficult for people to believe when I tell them that I spent a year of my life in the most exotic place of India. Between those magnificent hills, away from the normal life, I was living with my entire family. My father’s army unit was first posted at 2 miles. It was like a makeshift placement where about 300 people lived. But like all my other houses it also had character. My mornings started with walking to my house backyard from where we saw the sun rise above Kanchenjunga. I had started my proper schooling from Holy Cross Convent school here. It was a long journey from my house to reach there, so all kids were stuffed up in a 1 ton (This is the favorite army vehicle) and taken to school like criminals behind bars. Sikkim has its stories in the beautiful people, its traditional outfit Baku ( A stitched cotton cloth draped
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around a brocade blouse) , its exotic food flavor and its festivals with dragon dances.You could walk for hours in the hills. One time we actually did walk for 14 Km when our car broke down. The food is not just exotic because of the flavors but also the way it’s served in those small houses, Thukpa and Momos if you ever had them in those small Tibetan houses, you will never like the feel of anything else.The lakes that freeze over winter gives you a thrill of walking over ice, playing in the snow, riding the yaks and standing at the China border exchanging currency is something I will never forget about this place. Sikkim is synonymous to serenity, you find a certain calmness there which pressurizes your mind to think beyond what it’s supposed to. It is one of the cleanest places I’ve seen in India, and also a place with the most strict traffic rules. Maybe peace is something that we are ought to learn from this state.
Harbajan Baba
Like everybody, the Indian Army has its own beliefs. One such very popular belief in Sikkim is Harbhajan Baba. The story started from the time when he died in a plane crash near these hills and his body was never recovered. Slowly over the years people started feeling his presence around the area. Night guards were slapped on their faces if they slept during the night and miracles started happening during the wars. The belief grew stronger, which led to the construction of a temple in the hills. Till date it is believed that he is still serving the nation, his bed is made every day, a uniform is ironed and his shoes are polished. And somehow by the end of the day, the bed looks slept in, the uniform is crushed and the shoes are dirty. He gets a vacation once in a year where a train compartment is booked and he actually goes home. In this period, the border is considered unsafe as Harbhajan Baba is off duty, the regiments posted there practice a special drill for this period which is called Opalert.
When the days became shorter
Living in a small 1-bed room place with four people is not really easy, but if the wind outside is blowing at 150km/h the setting is the cozier option. My father was moved to 13 Mile, and we moved with him. Being so high up there was absolutely nothing to do there except watch movies and videos on our VCR. The sunlight duration of the day was extremely short and we did spend most our time sleeping, like in hibernation. Wrapped up in multiple layers of clothing and stuffed in the blanket all day, I was a lazy 4-year-old. Â Today it seems like an amazing travel experience but at that time it was just survival.
Basha is what they call a small makeshift tin-roofed house in the Army. That was my house for the duration of a year. It was compact, which helped with surviving the cold. We had a small heater, around which we spent most our time because it was too cold to be anywhere else. The clothes had to be dried around this heater, the snow had to be melted to be used as water. It was like living away from civilization. We had minimal furniture, some small wall hangings, and photographs on the walls. But nothing more, it was really just things you needed to exist.
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MEERUT Even when he was away
For days when I wanted to be strong, I became
Sonpari
One of the earliest signs of not fitting the cliques, at the age of 4. I got my
Name changed. 13
City Vocational Public
School the
beginning of my education
Bungalow
The britisher’s that holds a part of me
Birthday will always be a special memory War tags, that still hold a The days spent at the border, preparing for mission
War
piece of a that could have happened
OpPrakaram Times when he could wear my father’s
Uniform as a dress 14
“We stayed at the Pathankot border for 9 months, practicing every day, preparing strategies. It was a tough time for everybody.” - Col Karunesh Kumar, Father
2001-2003 7 GF Road Merrut Cantt
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It is one of those places in India where you only form a connect if you lived in the city. The city has bloomed today but all those years ago it was only its deep Indian character that made it special to me. It does hold a historical significance in the 1857 rebellion led by Mangal Pandey. When I look back all I can think of is the happy memory of going to school for the first time, enjoying my regular swimming lessons, but now when I think of it, It was a very difficult time for my mother, as my dad was at the border preparing for a war with Pakistan
Mission Oprakaram
2001 was the year of the parliamentary attacks, and it was a time that the Indian Army showed Pakistan that we weren’t going to take this anymore. The entire Indian Army had marched to the border ready to fight, and my father was one of them. I was a 5-year-old so didn’t really understand how disturbing the 9 months my mother stayed alone were. She had to do everything on her own, raise two kids with the constant worry of what was happening at the border. But thankfully the war didn’t happen, don’t really know what difference it would have made to the Indian-Pakistan scenario.
All the things you need to learn
I was raised to be a leader, but I was a shy child. Used to be lost in my own fantasies, playing games, not really bothering about anything. But my parents like the idea of number one, so I was raised to be number one. As far as I can remember I’ve always been participating in competitions, winning fancy dresses and poetry competitions. My parents taught me to be confident about myself, and that stayed with me. Today I might be the most over-enthusiastic, loves all competition person that people can find. Sports is something that becomes a very standard part of every Army kid’s lives. We have such beautiful clubs and sports complexes that the fire to learn more keeps on burning. I had always been a swimmer and this journey started from the Wheelers Club, Meerut.
7 GF Road was a bungalow from the Britisher’s times. It was old and grand, but with passing years every Indian officer had added some of their own touches to it. We built a small room at the back of the bungalow, it was my toy room, completely mine. Filled with thousands of toys it was the space where I spent most of my time. We had a pet parrot then, pee-chee who used to sit on the pelmet and squeak as soon as he saw us coming back from school. Army houses tend to have a very typical setting because, over the years of transferring your stuff from one place to another, everything gets a fixed place. So that’s how my house looked, there was always a big painting of a woman above my parent’s bed, a rocking chair by the bedside. My room always had the same Donald Duck curtain and two tile paintings made by my brother on any one wall. That’s why even though the houses changed, home always remained the same.
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JAMMU Living in a state of chaos
269 will always be
a family, that one could celebrate all own happiness with
Birthday
The big parties on my flat’s terrace
Somethings never change
My Room
about , be it the cartoon bedsheets or the wall drawings
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Never been much of a
Poser.
No bakery can beat my mother’s homemade Plays, dances and performances, school taught Building up the confidence to speak on a
me to
Cake
Express myself
Mike Fancy Dresses have been a very important event, I loved to dress up.
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“There was this incident when the Commanding officer was shot in the night by our own troops because they thought he was a terrorist. The security had to be that strict to protect the regiment” - Col Karunesh Kumar, Father
2003-2006 House 18 Kaluchak Cantt Kaluchak
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Beautiful but destroyed in the raging war of two countries, I think this paints the perfect picture of what Jammu and Kashmir is today. My father was posted at Kaluchak in between all the militancy and constant fear of attacks. I was a clueless 7-yearold, but the smell of fear was so strong in the environment that one could sense that something was wrong. This was the most secured area that I ever stayed in, the word Army had to be scratched off from my Maruti because it wasn’t safe anymore. But amidst this mayhem, we still managed to live a very normal life. I had a very normal convent school, Presentation Convent, Jammu. It was a typical convent school
with checked uniforms, cardigans, and churches. Being a shy child I kept to myself and focused on my work. You know the best part of being an army kid, a lot of your play decoration or fancy dresses get made by the draftsman bhaiya in the unit. Jammu as a city doesn’t have much to offer, it is quite simple with small restaurants and the very famous Hanuman Mandir. Today Jammu is most renowned for people traveling to Vaishno Mata. Dad being posted in such an auspicious place, every possible relative of ours came to visit us and we were dragged along with them to a 14km walk to see Vaishno Mata again and again.
Raising Days
My father is a part of 269: Ek Dam Fine regiment which was raised on the 28th of July. Every year to honor this day we celebrate our raising day. It was a week of celebration with 269 officers coming in from all corners of the nation. Big banquet dinner, lavish parties, and beautiful dance performances everything was organized by the regiment. A raising day consists of 4 main events: Officer’s Mess party, JCO’s mess party, AWWA Meet and my favorite the BadaKhana. Even though there is no big food in this Badakhana, it is like a very big picnic, with games and food. The best part is the races, we have all kinds of them: Jalebi, sack, slow cycling, three-legged, spoon, and marble everything. It was a lot of fun because it felt like a big family celebrating something together. Army does give you a very strong sense of belonging.
Dealing with militancy
Going anywhere out in this city was a little different because we had to take the army vehicle everywhere and that too with a guard holding on to a rifle.It’s something that you get used to with time. But now when I think of it, if would have been a pretty scary situation. When I left Jammu, the school I used to study in was captured by the militants and many of the students were kept as a hostage. What if my father was posted out a little later, I would have been part of a hostage situation too. This thought never really leaves my mind now. Because the people who actually live in the city must have had this thought a million times a day but slowly everyone has just adapted to the idea of militancy.
Being an area of security threat, the houses here were very makeshift. We lived on the first floor of a two-story building in a flat. This was my very first experience of living in a flat, but it was really cozy. Perfect for the cold winter days. We have a very big terrace where big parties were arranged and during summers my swimming pool was placed. The area that my father’s regiment covered here was huge, we would end up cycling through the entire ground, buying chewing gums and packets of chips from the wet canteen to increase our collection of tazos and tattoos. We did follow the cliques by playing games like army-army, because when you have fake guns, ground full of sand bunkers and training equipment this is what you do.
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PUNE
We have our own culture and traditions
On same days We pose, so we could feel
Nostalgic later.
Celebrating
VC Day,
my father leading an inspection.
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Drawings
Some you make when you were 8, stay with you for life. The best house.
The walls of
My Room
always remained the cartoonish same. with fancy staff.
The size of my
Birthday Lavish banquet
School
What would India be like without the influence of
My first Army taught me how the army sense of belonging works a lot.
parties, just grew every year
Dinners were the epitome of classiness.
British architecture
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“The banquet meals were a continental threecourse meal complete with coffee and a wine toast. It was very regal to sit in such a setting.” - Sushma Srivastava, Mother
2006-2009 5 Hill road, Bombay Engineering Group and Centre
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It’s called the most youthful city in the country even though I didn’t spend my college days in this city. I fell in love with it. The city speaks freedom and passion with people moving around doing something every minute, every second of their lives. My life wasn’t the whole city but the beautiful Bombay Engineering Group and Centre. This is one of the three major centres for the Engineer’s core in the country and thus is one of the most historical and grand cantonment areas I stayed in an as a child. The area was filled with old architecture from the British times, I loved the aura around me. We hardly went out because everything was inside, A movie theater, yes we had our own open-air amphitheater called Ghazni where Bollywood stars visited us whenever a special premiere was organized. We had our shopping complex, our own stadium, horse riding club, sports complex, golf course,
you name it we had it.
Building a career
Looking back now I think this would have been the most productive time of my life, I was into everything. I had this amazing school, Army Public School, Kirkee. This was the first time I was joining an Army school and that too at the end of the session. Like every child, I was insecure that I wouldn’t make any friends but that’s the best part about these schools. The students accept you any time because everybody keeps joining and leaving at any time of the year, so you become adaptable. My mother got me enrolled into Bharatnatyam classes, Drawing classes, Horse riding, Golf club etc, I wanted to learn all of it. The Cantt had this library which was my favorite place because it was inside this old construction and had so many books that you could look through those dusty shelves all
day. But later this was shifted to a more mechanical new building, it was still nice but not the same. Being such a big centre we used to have a lot of parties and events. Every summer we used to have an elaborate summer camp with camping, treks, classes and competitions. We used to have our very own children’s night also where all the kids of the centre would prepare skits, dances, I did a magic show once for the adults of the centre. It was a lot of hard work and a lot of fun to showcase our talent at such a platform. It surely gave us the stage confidence that helps me a lot today in holding onto a mic. Our school also had access to the Bhagat Pavilion stadium we had in the centre, making our annual sports days the best in the nation for sure.
VC Day
The centre used to light up every year during the Victoria Cross Day. This was one event that the centre prepared for the entire year. Officers came from all parts of the country, and the vibes were almost royal. We used to have a really big parade complete with the Commandant riding on a baghi. Very big formal dinner inside the banquet halls which still has the fans from the Britishers times which were then pulled by hand but today are managed by machines. There were competitions, AWWA Meets, big plays such as Janta Raja that made the environment very festive. The best part about such events is looking at your parents dress up. No man can look more handsome than a man in a uniform is what I’ve learned in all my years. And the grace that an Army wife has in a saree is something no Bollywood actress can beat even after layers of make-up. Army holds on to a lot of heritage, the insides of any Army mess if filled with trophies and memorials. Every ritual has a beautiful story behind it. One such is the Baba Pool, keeping with the sense of belonging, whenever an officer enters the centre they march through this fountain and are welcomed by the commandant with a glass of wine. When an officer retires they march out through the same pool.
This is by far the best home I stayed in. Let me describe the vastness of it to you. You enter my house through a stone gate which has a big banyan tree on its side which has been growing for years now. There is a round central garden, you go around it to park your car in my portico. If you turn around you will see a beautiful round garden with a fountain pool in the centre and a big tree on its side with a tire swing on it. The bungalow has two fields on its sides where I used to fly my remote controlled airplane, yes it was that huge. Towards the back corner, there was a small vegetable garden that my mother had maintained. And behind my house was a mango groove. I could pluck Mangoes all summer and enjoy them lavishly. The house had four major rooms, 2 bedrooms, the drawing room and the dining room. Other rooms were around these 4 rooms. The bathrooms in this place were bigger than the current hostel room I stay in. 5 hill road will always be my favorite. All the barbecue nights under the stars, eating sweet potato in the chilling winter wind, camping in my garden, my very cute birthday parties and playing cricket in the front area are some things which will always stick with the house. Even though the house is not there anymore.
BATHINDA Creating a mark for the world to see
All our houses have a
Pooja Room. Brings a certain kind of positivity to the house
We come together every year as a family to celebrate all kinds of
Festivals
My first ever surprise
Birthday party Angel My fluffy bundle of
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joy who taught me the true meaning of happiness
Dancing
From on table tops to dancing in the school grounds. No stories would have been
Army Schools Days when you danced on earthen pots for your school
Friends
fun if my were not there
have a lot of space, to organise all kinds of sports events
Annual Day 26
“It was a peaceful time, I dedicated all my time to my family. It was the most enjoyable station that we stayed in, it had too much to offer” -Sushma Srivastava, Mother
2009-2012 85/3 Nilgiri Enclave Military Station Bathinda
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“Jab we Met mein jo Bathinda hain that’s where I’m going”, That’s what I told my friends when my father was posted to Bathinda. I was definitely sad, I didn’t even know where this place was on the map but when I reached the cantt, It was surely one of the best that I have seen. This is Asia’s largest cantonment area till date, I was so happy. It had everything that Pune had except the most beautiful house. The city didn’t hold much, it was a very basic Punjabi town, but the butter chicken was amazing. The city had its own small-town feel with small markets instead of malls and kulfi
shops instead of McDonald’s. I attended two schools’s here Army Public School and St. Joseph’s Convent School. Army school here was made in barracks but thankfully when I joined it they had plans of moving to a bigger building. Bathinda is a very cold place and I reached the place in extreme winters, so blankets and heaters which I had left behind in Jammu and Sikkim came out. I realized that It was harder to make friends in class 7th, you kind of develop a self-consciousness then. Bathinda being an enormous cantt led to me making a lot of friends here.
Grown Up-Schooling
Bathinda was the place I truly grew up. Between the class 7th10th, you may make the most important decision that decides the kind of person you want to be in your life. You learn how people actually are and even if you are making mistakes now, how you will avoid them in your future. My school had so many people, that my life felt like a part in a new high school series, every day there was some new drama that everybody wanted to gossip about. But you still make it through, after all, the bad talks, fights and blames, you do make it through. Schools are the same everywhere with council elections, annual days, house competitions, exams etc, and my life was pretty much the same here except CCE made it worse for us. Now we had to study throughout the year. And in between those small assignments we were made to dance on Matkas because annual days. I had the toughest time moving to St.Josephs because unlike Army schools people there knew each other from kindergarten. Even after being good at conversations it was difficult to adjust with people who spoke the same language and grew up at the same place. Even my travel stories couldn’t steal their hearts. Some people did like me but I couldn’t make any real friends. Maybe that was one place where I lost as an Army Kid in terms of adaptability.
Army Parties
You know the best part of army clubs, the one here was called Chetak Officer’s Institute is that you don’t pay money, you sign on chits. So you never feel like the money is leaving your pocket. We used to have a Tambola evening every Saturday here and I was a dedicated player. Every month we also had a social evening organized which was the event of the month for each school kid, what to wear, when are you reaching is what everybody talked about for weeks before the social evening. Our Christmas, Diwali everything had a grand party organized which basically consisted of dressing up, dancing and hogging on delicious food.
I lived in two houses: a temporary and permanent accommodation as they call it. The first one was really cozy and perfect for the winters that we came in, a two bedroom ground floor house which basically had a jungle in the name of a lawn. So we stayed inside and made it through. Then we moved to another flat very near to it. 85/3 Nilgiri enclave, it was a small 3 bedroom flat with a small lawn which was basically used by my mother and Angel to sit in the sun. I forgot to mention that this was the place my dog Angel came to me. She is the cutest little thing. The house arrangement was the same as always, except my room which was now covered in Hannah Montana and Jonas Brother’s posters because everybody had that phase. My room was very comfortable with my own computer and Television, I could stay there all day.
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My Army life didn’t just teach me to be strong and dedicated, it also taught me to be compassionate. Moving from one place to another makes you realize that every person has their own interesting story. Judging people just because of their exterior or any quirky habit makes you miss the chance of knowing that story. All those stage performances I was a part of gave me the confidence today to stand at any stage and make people listen to my thoughts. My father taught me the value of good leadership, of how a good leader doesn’t just manage but also motivates and understands his people. The strong will power that today I hold is after seeing my family never give up whatever the circumstances maybe, my worries still seem small next to a mother raising two kids when her husband guards the borders. Meeting new people has given me a diversity of thought, of understanding that everybody is somebody because of a reason. Celebrating all festivals gave me the sense of togetherness that goes beyond any religion or region and has made me into a very secular person. Army gives you a very strong sense of belonging, every time I meet another Army kid we can strongly relate to each other by small incidents that remain the same for all. But the best part of the journey will always be the stories, every place, every travel has given me a beautiful incident that I would go on sharing with this world.
“Kyuki Zindagi shayad khatam ho bhe jae, Kahaniya kabhi khatam nai hoti.”
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