A LETTER FROM A YOUNG WIFE

Dear Mrs.Sengupta,
I am a young army wife, married to an infantry officer for almost 9 months now. Though i have known my husband for over 4 years now, this would be the first time i would get an opportunity to stay with him. He was posted at the LC and just got posted to NDA, Pune. I had been working in Delhi all this while and would join him very soon in Pune.
I happened to go through your blog today, for the first time and i must say that a lot of apprehensions were taken care of and i really look forward to reading more of you.
Here is a poem i came across on the internet:


The Military wife's Life~
by Alexandra Benakis

The military wife has so much to bear,
She's everything at once, no one could compare,
When God made her, he had perfection in mind,
For nowhere on Earth is another of her kind,
She leads a life not many choose to,
For her job is the hardest in the military to do,
She is couragerous and strong, one would say made of steel,
But way deep down is a heart that can feel,
She stands by her husband, so proud and so tall,
And waits many night by the phone for a call,
She's Mommy and Daddy all rolled into one,
She'll never rest easy until her job's done,
She sits all alone and in silence she weeps,
Did I do a good job, is my family okay?
But deep in her heart she knows that it's true,
God is right beside her helping her through...

With warm regards,
Kuhelee


Dear Kuhelee,

Thankyou for that lovely contribution to my blog.

I can identify with what you hve written. When I got married I had similar apprehensions. No one in the 14 generations of my family had been in the army. A distant uncle was a Brigadier but from the Armed Forces which is very different from being in the Infantry anyway.

The journey I stumbled upon taught me my best lessons, through tears and smiles.
It wasn’t in the least easy, ever, and I took almost two decades to settle down.

It was like a marriage that came with too many expectations at first and I nearly crushed under them trying to redefine a new life. The more I rebelled or questioned it the more I got caught into its ever tightening web.

Then a benign senior lady advised me to flow with the tide and learn to adapt to the needs of the army. “The Army NEEDS you”, she said instead of the usual barrage of, “THIS IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY”, which was getting so burdensome. This new way of looking at my role in the army changed my whole attitude and I learnt to be more giving at last. Only then I fully comprehended what a wonderful blanket of comfort army was. How enriching its life was and what an amazing opportunity it was to be part of the Olive Green

New wives please feel free to write to me. I will also include a page subsequently on the dummy’s guide to being part of the ladies club…