YOU KNOW YOU ARE A PURE BREED FAUJI KID IF :


1. You were born in a Military Hospital.
2. Half your toddler years were spent being looked after by Bhaiyas ( no explanation here).
3. You went to school either on Bhaiya's cycle or in a Shaktiman.
4 .You know what a shaktiman is. ( No! it isnt the TV serialabout half man and half machine starring AB lookalike).
5. Jeeps & Jongas dont excite you - they were your regular mode of transport!
6 .The only alternative to the Central School was the Army School.
7. You always called Kendriya Vidyalaya Central School. Gosh even today that sounds better!
8. Your entire family could survive in one room temporary quarters with 25 trunks, wooden crates, the dog, the bedroll and two bhaiyas flitting around.
9. The smell of Brasso & shoe polish was regular staple.
10 .Mess was not what you created in your room, it was where you went every Friday for the free "english" movie.
11 .The "English Movie" was very often a western and you couldn't follow a word! Sometimes you just went for the samosas and the local drink that they insisted was Cola.
12. At the end of the month your dad had to pay for many pink slips showing how many samosas and local drinks that they insisted was Cola you had consumed. They never missed any!!!
13. You attended many May Queen Balls before you knew what Miss India was.
14 .Your mother regularly got dressed, perfumed and dissappeared for the Ladies Club.
15 .You knew towns like Mhow, Wellington, Deolali, Bhuj, Lansdowne
16 You werent a millionaire but hey you had Swimming, Horse Riding, Squash, Tennis and Golf!!
14. You thought the main reason to have a Golf Course was to have a Holi Bash.
15. You can still take one quick look at the epaulets and figure out the rank.
16. You discussed wednesday's Chitrahaar in the Shaktiman.
17 .You can still recall the special & particular smell of the CSD canteen! A special prize for the correct concoction - mine is - it was a mix of Hamam Soap, Ponds Dreamflower Talc & Surf i think. In some corners it had overtures of Brooke Bond red Label as well.
18. Your vacations were a package deal consisting of D-forms, Sharma Uncle Ka jonga and Army Mess ka kamra.
19. All vehicles mysteriously appeared or disappeared from a vacuum called "EMPTY"
20. When "CO UNCLE" !! was happy he took the unit out on picnic and when he was GLAD he organised a "PAGAL GYMKHANA"..and then everyone got GLAD !!
21. No one commented on the dressing sense of any body - "Olive Green trousers and Brown Shirt Angola"
22. Every house had a settee ( which looked more like a narrow coffin!!) made out of condemned ammo cartons, sarkari blankets and an old embroidered table cloth.
23. ........and finally when Papa retired it took Mom about 12 years to get rid of the "KABAAR " that had been accumulated/ hoarded over the years to include about 30 to 40 wooden boxes all painted black, 14 Brass Mementos which looked like Knights on horses, Old Cannons or some sort of imaginary work of modern art which looked more like flashes of Lightening ( the concept of which only Papa could explain after two drinks!!) , Eight or Nine empty Brass Shells which bhaiya used to brasso every time we had someone visiting our house, Four sets of Naga Spears, Five types of Dahs, Two Khukris, One Mizo Bow and about 20 Arrows, Fishing Rods ( the hooks had been hidden by Mom long ago lest some brat managed to get them inserted into his hand or eye!!) eight "Machchar Danis" and 32 rods/ bamboo sticks, Two World War II helmets, One Parachute, about Two High Alti Parkas, Three "chustis" , Papa's 18 pairs of shoes, One shiny green coloured Great Coat, Ten fungus eaten leather belts , Moth eaten sarkari Balaclavas, one High Alti Sleeping Bag, Two Mattress Kapok, Key chains made out of M14 Anti Personnel Mine Safety Clips, One Pack 08 and about four FS Packs, Web belts, One pistol Holster, One cowboy hat, One "Barah Bore Bandook", one .302 Springfield Rifle whose ammo is no more available and has become a nuisance to get rid of !!, Four Daggers, about Five walking sticks , Two sarkari canes, One Swagger Stick, One "chabuk" !!!!!, One Leather Crossbelt, about five Whistles, Thirty KGs of Hazen Cloth in various stages of decomposition !!!! , about 80 KGs of Drift wood, almost 400 White coloured Stones that were picked up from some godforsaken riverbed in Sikkim to be used one day for Landscaping of the Garden after retirement, 60 to 70 Flower Pots, 100 Meters of water pipes ( in bits and pieces), One unused fish aquarium , 50 Meters of Cable WD, Old Blanco Cakes, One Folding Camp Cot, One folding Camp Chair which has the nasty habit of injuring the hands of any inexperienced person trying to open it. Two Namdas, about Four to Six rusted dog leashes still attached to rotting dog collars and not to forget the JHOOLA that was made long ago after taking a lot of obligations of the "Work Shop Uncle".

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I received this from a coursemate of my father and couldn't helping remembering the days growing up in cantonments and in naval bases. It's so very true for me. Any other fauji kid who'd like to comment?

Rgds

New

Quote:

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Originally posted by newboyo


5. Jeeps & Jongas dont excite you - they were your regular mode of transport!

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oh man! thats nostalgic!!

We still have those black colored boxes with dad's name in white and his last 'unit' name. c/o xx APO - (army post office). those boxes played setties for years.
my dad was in EME, so I had pleasure of riding on all kind of 'on test' jeeps, jongas, 2tons, 3tons and ofcourse the shaktiman. all having smelly green colored torned seats, used to get hot easily and burn my butt through the blue school nickers ...
and that tripoline roof with holes on almost all the fauji trucks.

central school ha...white uniform on wednesdays and saturdays with red visible undies and green knees (falling on the grass). having a classroom next to principal's office was a jail for us.

Well there were other good memories but i will mention only wierd one.
- playing football with small sponge ball in hot sun and that too in full football field in SUPW period. footballs were issued only during games period. then coming back to attend maths class , sweaty , dripping, smelling , trying to adjust on the desk under the slow moving big old baba adam fan. 5 on bench of 2.. girls used to hate us.
- we even played football in basketball ground , those short poles were the goals. ok that might be common today also.
- that shaktiman full of blue and white clothed kids with sidelined wooden benches which used to rollover on slight turns of big truck or through the pot halls. we used to keep peeping into the drivers cabin and check what speedometer reads. 60 was the ultimate speed on rare ocassions. some drivers were our favourites who used to drive fast. kuchch uncle sirf 40 par chalatey ththey, boring.
- I still remember my sis and her friends used to sing 'suragani...' in that so called school bus and 3-4 at a time getting burried in comic book through out the 40 mins of school to home travel. Few of us used to miss the stop and then walk down from next one, all on the name of lotpot, chacha -sabu, billoo, pinki and lamboo motu.. .:-)
- my dad's chabuk was his heavy belt, o man ..we used to complete our homework before he reached home with those heavy boots and big buckle green belt. My grammer was bad, my brother could'nt remember table of 9 ..rest you can imagine!
- I always picked up fight with every betman who was employed for him.
- firing airgun charrraas through the coca cola covers placed on a fence was my favourite sports. One day, Dashrath uncle complained 'kisi kee ankh mein laggyaa to ?' , dad confisticated , never saw that gun again. in revenge i used to place bricks under uncles jeep tyres, both side!. What else i could have done without serious repurcussions... :-)
- best time was those raising day melas, tambola evenings or sunday mornings- that walk upto the announcer after the crossing the middle row and then bogey, rain dance parties, queen or may balls, ladies night.
- During my last visit home in India we disposed off an old green thick 'bistar band', dad almost cried. we kept the belts which used to wrap around it to pacify him, just to throw them later.
- I wish i had a picture of me sitting on railway station as a watch dog with all those trunks stacked up while waiting for the change over during dad's next posting, missing my recently lost friends and thinking about garmi ke chchuttiyon kaa homework, mostly essays.
- It is difficult now to imagine me and my brother under same machchardani, his side used to be entry gate and my side used to be well tucked in and those wooden stickes used to collapse middle of the night..lol.
- anybody remember that iron ring we used to push using a long hook on the fauji colony roads and falling into the cemented ditches ??? who used to get those made? ? i should stop now :-)

Do you remember the Bell/ Belling(?) ovens that the MES issued.

i remember being woken up really late at night by nursing orderlies, who'd take blood samples (for fileria/malaria?).

In '71, the newspapers would give a running count of tanks/planes/ships lost by us and our "FRIENDS" - i remember poring over the newspaper to check status.