In her latest book, Aditi Mathur Kumar writes what it takes to be an armyman’s wife. Iknoor Kaur gets her talking on her experiences
In India, it goes without saying that marriage for any girl is a lifetime commitment pact with not only the boy, but also the boy’s family. For an army wife, however, the definition of family doesn't remain the same. Family for her would mean her husband’s entire regiment of men, apart from her in-laws. We haven’t come across many “working women” of today who have dealt with that too well. Aditi Mathur Kumar made an exception. Her recent book, Soldier & Spice — An Army Wife’s life (Westland), is all about how a civilian girl turned army wife loves her new-found life.
The book revolves around the life of a girl called Pia, who is a civilian with absolutely no army background. She falls in love with an army guy and marries him to eventually find out that she was clueless about this demanding profession. The book takes you through one year of Pia’s life, narrating her humorous experiences.
Aditi doesn’t like to call Pia her personification, but the similarity between the two dismisses that. Prior to her marriage Aditi was a workaholic in the advertising industry. For her parties meant getting drunk and anything apart from that was work. It was once she “incidentally” fell in love with an army man that work took a backseat and parties suddenly became high teas and ballroom dances. Pia’s character reflects a lot of that. She explained, “She’s 26 years old, very bubbly, gets easily hurt and is a typical metro girl. She is also childish, cute, warm, loving and imaginative. She moves away from her usual life and goes into one where she has to wear heels and be lady-like. She enjoys it because it is like an adventure for her.”
Aditi feels that the book is inspired from all the army wives she has met so far. She said, “I have met all kinds of army wives — the ones who were army daughters and then became army wives, those who were civilians like me, or some who have always been in the North East and ended up marrying a Tamilian who is in the army. There are so many experiences that I have heard of from so many people and been a part of.”
Aditi admitted that she wrote the book out of sheer restlessness and boredom. “I was pregnant and my husband wouldn’t let me work. For an Internet addict like me who always needs something to do, there was suddenly nothing. So my husband asked me to write. When I was not married I was intrigued by the army. And now I am a part of it. So somewhere at the back of my head it has influenced my writing.”
The book is essentially humorous with spits of emotion. She shared, “I write humour easily. Putting emotion down on paper exhausts me. So, most of the book is humorous. However, there is a part where Pia’s husband has an accident and she realises that she needs to grow up and take her responsibilities seriously. So a bit of it is emotional too.”
Since the book covers only the first year of Pia’s life as an army wife, Aditi hopes to write a series of the book too. She said, “I want to write about army kids now. So, probably I’ll write about Pia becoming a mother. It is only a thought as of now.”