Married To The Olive Green- The good, the bad and the ugly (a book review)

The Good: If you are a newly wed, coming from a civil background then this book with fairly help you. It will set you with what to expect and how to become a basic model Army wife. It has recopies for cocktails, a write up about how to entertain guests and even measurements of things if you want to cook for different number of crowds. Also a lengthy How-to-groom-yourself also makes an interesting read. How to address the officers and seniors could also help you become socially acceptable in the crowd in the beginning years.

The Bad: Its a book especially intended for Army wives in the Indian Army. No Airforce, no Navy, its only Army that has its hold firmly placed of a woman in the man's world. There are rules, rules, rules all over the book. Good thing it hasn't written how to use a washroom. Sadly disappointed with the analysis of how an Army wife should and should not do once she is married. The book is a huge but not so thick (in pages) with a supposed inspirational poem on the duties of an army wife.
It does have these photographs which makes me wonder how long ago this was written. Perhaps when India was still dealing with independence but still following the British traditions. A saree clad woman standing close to a man of importance. She looks quiet yet that smile never leaves her lips. I couldn't see the smile in her eyes.


The Ugly: I do not know what i expected of this book. It is more of a manual but with some interesting bits that spells out how a senior lady is supposed to behave with a junior wife. I should be saying senior OFFICER'S wife but i deliberately missed that part out. Officer is always out of the picture when ladies get together. The rank always stays put though. This is what the book spells out too. It is also a book of rules that  acts only on paper rather than in reality. I don't know for whom this book was written to impress.

I would definitely recommend another edition of this book with the changes that are taking place in the army today. And with wives coming from more modern and good families, they have a different outlook to being an army wife. Its an old wives tale (no use of proverbs here) but this is what the book is about. Its time for something new to be introduced. Its Anna Hazare's time after all.