Author: Aditi Mathur Kumar
Publisher: Westland Ltd.
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,746,440 in Books
No. of Pages: 250 pgs.
Disclaimer: I got this book from the Publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.
Blurb
A hilarious, heart-warming and one-of-it's-kind story of a complete-civilian-turned-Army Wife. This story takes you behind the closed and guarded gates of a military station, giving you a fat-piece of the grand and mysterious life of the Indian Army Wifes.
“An Army wife is probably the only woman in the world who
knows and readily accepts that she is the mistress, because, let’s
face it, the Army is the wife and the wife gets all the damn
attention!”
Pia is a regular, civilian girl with no connection to Army whatsoever.
Then she marries Arjun, an Indian Army Officer.
For Pia, regular life is a thing of the past. She is now an Army wife. From ‘just Pia’ to an Aunty, a memsaab and – her favorite words in the whole wide world – Mrs Pia Arjun Mehra.
At twenty six, Pia finds herself having to suddenly be more ‘lady-like’; focus on themed ladies’ meets, high teas and welfare functions; and deal with long (unexpected) separations from her husband, extraordinary challenges, a little heartache, and, well, growing up.
In the mysterious and grand world of Army wives, Pia learns that walking in high heels is okay as long as you don’t trip on combat boots. She learns that ‘civil’ is also a noun, that JCO and GOC are (very!) different, that snacks are ‘shown’ and WTF is better explained as Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Yes, it really is a new world!
Let this quirky, hilarious story of the first year of Pia’s Army-wife life show you that the spice to a soldier’s life is most definitely his better, very strong, bloody extremely elegant, never-cussing, witty, warm and passionate half, his Army wife.
“An Army wife is probably the only woman in the world who
knows and readily accepts that she is the mistress, because, let’s
face it, the Army is the wife and the wife gets all the damn
attention!”
Pia is a regular, civilian girl with no connection to Army whatsoever.
Then she marries Arjun, an Indian Army Officer.
For Pia, regular life is a thing of the past. She is now an Army wife. From ‘just Pia’ to an Aunty, a memsaab and – her favorite words in the whole wide world – Mrs Pia Arjun Mehra.
At twenty six, Pia finds herself having to suddenly be more ‘lady-like’; focus on themed ladies’ meets, high teas and welfare functions; and deal with long (unexpected) separations from her husband, extraordinary challenges, a little heartache, and, well, growing up.
In the mysterious and grand world of Army wives, Pia learns that walking in high heels is okay as long as you don’t trip on combat boots. She learns that ‘civil’ is also a noun, that JCO and GOC are (very!) different, that snacks are ‘shown’ and WTF is better explained as Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Yes, it really is a new world!
Let this quirky, hilarious story of the first year of Pia’s Army-wife life show you that the spice to a soldier’s life is most definitely his better, very strong, bloody extremely elegant, never-cussing, witty, warm and passionate half, his Army wife.
Buy@
Review
As a fellow army wife, I had picked up the book with a lot expectations and overall Aditi’s book does not disappoint. She has touched upon all the relevant and at times controversial topics that affect the life of an army wife. Glossed over them, actually but this was a love story first and an army story second. The gossip and conflicts like this happen in every group of friends, ladies kitty clubs or even in office politics. She has meshed them very well into the story that might as well have been a love story.
I must say she has handled the Army incidents with the finesse of an accomplished army wife. That said, to make the book more about the Army wife and the army that makes her stand apart from wives I felt she needed to delve in greater detail into the lives of the army wives.
The challenges they faced the issues that hinder their progress or the dilemmas confronted by them. The long periods of separation, the isolation due to connectivity issues, lack of socialisation and lack to access to basic amenities. Independent managing of family and house in far off isolated places and not in an independent bustling cantonment like Pathankot. What do the ladies do when the war and insurgency really hits home.
The book reads very smoothly and I wished to know more and more about the life of Pia and her handsome hubby. The characters are very likeable and even the weird and silly ones too feel like someone you have met.
I felt at times that I was reading the diary of a new housewife and not an army wife. It was only with the generous sprinkling of sentences like “Sitting on my MES sofa” that made my eyes roll and reminded me that I too was sitting on my MES sofa while reading it. Come on! It is just like any other regular sofa; not luxurious but functional. Much like most things in army.
Aditi Mathur Kumar’s book Soldier and Spice An Army Wife’s Tale is just that – a tale. Yes the army wife happens to be incidental in the book. It might as well have read as ‘a wife’s tale of love, faith and resilience’. She does manage to highlight the strength of an Army Wife though.
I must say she has handled the Army incidents with the finesse of an accomplished army wife. That said, to make the book more about the Army wife and the army that makes her stand apart from wives I felt she needed to delve in greater detail into the lives of the army wives.
The challenges they faced the issues that hinder their progress or the dilemmas confronted by them. The long periods of separation, the isolation due to connectivity issues, lack of socialisation and lack to access to basic amenities. Independent managing of family and house in far off isolated places and not in an independent bustling cantonment like Pathankot. What do the ladies do when the war and insurgency really hits home.
The book reads very smoothly and I wished to know more and more about the life of Pia and her handsome hubby. The characters are very likeable and even the weird and silly ones too feel like someone you have met.
I felt at times that I was reading the diary of a new housewife and not an army wife. It was only with the generous sprinkling of sentences like “Sitting on my MES sofa” that made my eyes roll and reminded me that I too was sitting on my MES sofa while reading it. Come on! It is just like any other regular sofa; not luxurious but functional. Much like most things in army.
Aditi Mathur Kumar’s book Soldier and Spice An Army Wife’s Tale is just that – a tale. Yes the army wife happens to be incidental in the book. It might as well have read as ‘a wife’s tale of love, faith and resilience’. She does manage to highlight the strength of an Army Wife though.
Rating
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