Uniform’s wife

This is something i wrote on my life as a wife of an indian air force pilot.. hope you’ll enjoy reading and all the fauji wives can relate to it as well
Happy reading!

Over a cup of joe… 
Just had a nip of my cuppa and here my train of thoughts took me to a new destination.A new screed in the making.I am sitting here in my living room; contemplating.what exactly we;the wayfarers’ wives aka “men in blue’s” wives have so exceptional that makes us scintillatingly dexterous jugglers in tackling jobs.We are highly capable of being omnipresent in all the tasks circumventing us and manage myriads of chores alone. No offence to all my civilian lovelies albeit they all are prodigiously strong and capable;nevertheless, certainly we are vastly divergent because that good lord gave us a lucky chance to tie the nuptial knot with “men in blue”.Ummm,His way to bless us may be.now u must be thinking how can I be so sure about my words.. 
Well,it’s been 5 long years,since I walked down the aisle with my superman aka my hero of the nation;a young Air Force officer.Not only I became a part of him and his family but also an important cog in the wheel of this fraternity ie INDIAN AIR FORCE.
 That day tying the knot with him also meant fraternizing this epic and prestigious fraternity’s culture, norms, ideals n traditions as well and trust me;this journey has been such a joyful kaleidoscopic ride till date that I just can’t pen it all down on one page.
My entry in our first Sqn was like a Rookie.They treated me as a new born baby and taught me everything from the word Go.For instance, I,purely being from civil background used to end up addressing my husband’s senior officers as ‘sir’ or even ‘uncle’ at times.Yes! U all must be chuckled to hear that but I am sure some of you can totally relate to it as it is quite impolite and discourteous enough to address someone so elder to you by their names.However, Thanks to these acronyms of ranks and nick names which comes to a rescue.
Not that I had any less than a genteel upbringing but they polished me from head to toe to fit in this Air Force family like a diamond in the ring.
My experiences within this “close knit family” made me unfurl my inner qualities and I soaked in this new lifestyle like a Sponge. 
My contemporaries and their kinship taught me a lot in this journey.This place has given my personality a sea change.Indeed, I feel more versatile,multi faceted and more independent and I am still improving by degrees.. 
This new lady is highly capable of singlehandedly facing all kinds of daily life challenges for instance: Driving a car,upbringing kids when husband is on TD as a father and a mother both,shifting from one house to another, hosting dinners at short notice or evn no notice at times, happily serving coffee at such small hours when even “cafe coffee day” would refuse to entertain;if at all it’s there in the town;wink,setting up the jerry built houses from scratch after every 2 to 3 years,lodging MES complaints,loading trunks(more than half of them are full of mementos) in the truck,drilling nails on the wall,draping a saree before you can finish saying “jack Robinson” 😉 n staying trussed up in that for hours and hours.
I, being a well educated Delhi girl stayed in b’lore’s renowned college’s hostel.Worked in a top IT company,left everything behind n not just living but happily living in back of beyond places like Bidar, Tezpur,Chabua etc.Of course, there were the initial hiccups and teething problems. But on the whole I take myself lucky for having been introduced to this kind of life. Initially,I used to feel like a bird that has been caged as there was hierarchy to be followed and so many rules and regulations.But gradually it took its own sweet time and I learnt to transform my bindaas n carefree college girl attitude into that of an officer’s wife and I learnt to mingle with people from different walks of life.This I achieved by my husband’s acute disapproval of anything unbecoming of a lady and by sheer observation of other fellow ladies. 
Had I not married to the uniform,I would have lost so Many opportunities of learning new arts like decorating my house, doing wall murals,Learning cheperoning art,picnic arrangements for Sanginis, master of ceremony for afwwa meetings, preparing ladies for a confident ramp walk fr the sqn’s ladies’ club.
Most importantly I would have missed so many fun filled picnics,tambola parties and Queen of Sheba kind of games, cherry drills, chug-a-lug and so many midnight snowball bouncings by bachelors n couples..
Such things happen in civil world outside? I wonder..;)
You know in the initial years of our marriage when he used to leave for his TD;”I am leaving on a jet plane” this song used to become an earworm for me but then I started utilizing and enjoying that time with my lovelies in the station.
In a nutshell, I am enjoying my uniform’s wife’s journey to the hilt not that I don’t feel low when he is not around as he is serving the nation which comes first but one thing which keeps me going is that my flyboy has wings which will keep me from falling.
The way my chest swells with pride on my fly boy’s achievements,I hope he feels the same some day for me.
A small recipe for my new lovelies in this family:
Recipe for an Air Force Wife 
1 cup love
1 cup strength
1 cup patience
Pinch of fun n adventure
A dollop of endurance 
Mix all these ingredients together and dust it with daily chores,let it set for sometime n then fold josh with some whipped cream of packing skills and cooking skills for aloo parantha n cold coffee 😉
Sit back and enjoy throughout your life with a bottle of happiness and a cap of tantrums;)
LOVE YOUR LIFE AS AN AIR FORCE WIFE
HATS OFF TO NEELI WARDI