Raising a family presented its own unique set of challenges in Service. The major portion of parenting would invariably fall on the wife, while the dashing soldier, sailor or airman would do just that – dash in and dash out. On the rare occasions when he did lend a hand, there would be the inevitable mix-up of tins of baby food with tins of brasso, diapers inside DMS boots, rattles, ribbons and rank badges and invariably that one essential item of uniform missing!

Life in the Services, away from the place of work is a cheerful mix of trunks, government issue furniture, school uniforms, belts, cap badges, tins of shoe polish, webbing and the million other things that occupy a serviceman's house. While the profession of military service is a serious one, with risks to life and limb, it is a different world in the cantonments where they live. This is a book about the lighter side of life in the Services away from work, in the houses that they occupy for short periods before moving to another station on transfer, to take up new assignments, as seen through the eyes of a child, a wife and a serving officer. The book consists of several short stories spanning a period of around 75 years from pre-independence India to the present.

About the Author: Kris Tee was born into an army family as the youngest of three siblings. An average student in school and in sports, he was always an above average dreamer, with a propensity to disconnect himself from the surrounding chaos, while staring open mouthed at an insect on a tree trunk, or, even a lizard stalking its prey!

Like every army brat, he studied in a number of schools across the country, eventually completing his schooling from Loyola, Pune. Thereafter, he hung around Fergusson College and Vaishali Restaurant, eyeing the girls, before joining the Academy. There he excelled in slipping out on Sundays without a liberty pass, and without getting caught, till the Navy pressganged him.

He tramped around the Navy’s training establishments, where, he mainly spent time polishing and talking to his trusty bike. Often he could be spotted traipsing along some hillside path around Lonavala, or gazing at the flamingos in the salt pans near Jamnagar. Reluctantly put to work on various ships, he succeeded in giving any unwary senior a hard time. He could occasionally be found in the sonar compartment trying to talk to dolphins and whales.

• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: White Falcon Publishing; 1 edition (2020)
• Author: Sanjay ‘Kris Tee’ Tewari
• ISBN-13: 9789389530872
• Product Dimensions:  12.7 x 1 x 20.3 cm

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