My little coterie of friends

I just couldn’t have written another blog without mentioning my great friendships which I have formed during my husband’s numerous postings. For me whether a station is good, bad or bearable largely depends on the friends I have made there. Each friend I mentioned here represents a world, which we once shared which was possibly not born until they arrived. All of my husband’s peace postings remind me of some or the other special friend I had there.

Our first posting Tezpur reminds me of Akhita, a sophisticated and chic Puneite. She was a close friend and our friendship grew from our trips to the hospitals during our respective pregnancies and its complications. Akhita is someone I value as a part of my life for so long, that it seems like forever. Mhow had superb Surender, a pucca sardarni, who never failed to amaze me with her frank and in your face outlook. In fact she is responsible for some of the crucial decisions I made about my pregnancy and deliveries. The fact that our husbands too were great friends made things easier for us. We were next door neighbours and had some of the most memorable times together.
Think of Udhampur I think of Meena, a great friend with a great voice. Though we both belonged to the different units our mutual love for ladies club brought us together. While I loved to emcee she loved to sing. Both of us together would lift up the dullest of the evenings. A short course in Mhow gave me a chance to get lose to Manisha a wonderful human being with a golden heart. I simply love her for her simplicity. A great painter and an excellent cook she taught me about the finer points in life.

Jodhpur gave me a chance to befriend one of our jawan’s wife. Although friendships with other ranks are simply not accepted in the army I formed a very good bond with Saroj during my daily visits to the vocational training centre. Saroj had two children and younger one a girl was mentally disabled. Through Saroj and her immense patience and love for her younger child I got to know about the other side of motherhood. While I got busy with my own little kids I can never forget the love I saw between Saroj and her daughter.
Bhopal is a place which gave a quite a bunch of great friends. Maybe because of the extended period of time we’ve spent here. With Janaki it was all very instant, our boys were of the same age and went to the same school. We had a lot to share which resulted in a very deep friendship. Bhopal also gave me a very special friend Radhika. Her husband has already hung his boots but we still are great friends. We have shared everything thought that ever crossed our minds during that time. Now although she is in Delhi, but even now we have a bond that whenever we talk we start from wherever we left. It’s as if we never leave each other. We seem to be always together, both carrying on with our duties as military spouse and are looking forward to spending the Diwali break together. She is like a sister I never had……

Friendships in the army are like one minute, you’re having the time of your lives together. The next, posting orders come and you’re suddenly saying goodbye. But this little group mine is always sure that the goodbye is to say hello again very soon and we make sure it does. We all stay in touch from wherever we are. Thank you girls! For all the good times, bad times and great times of the army life we faced together. God bless....