Many years ago, a little girl put on her father’s boots and placed his beret on her little head. Then, wrapping his scarf around her neck, she stood before the mirror and saluted.
A minute later, she stomped around the house. The uniform fascinated her.
Her father was in the army, and the little girl wanted to emulate him. She wanted to join the army. Alas! The army hadn’t opened its doors to women. The only women allowed to join the army were doctors and nurses.
Forty-two years later, a woman sat watching a spectacular Passing out Parade at the Officers Training Academy (OTA). Tears flowed unabated as she watched her young daughter taking part in the slow march. Marching to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, proud and erect, they marched towards the Final Step. Yet another batch of budding army officers took their first steps towards fulfilling their dream.
The woman was the little girl, who had once wanted to join the army. She was also my classmate. I want you to write about the women officers, she said, when we met soon after the commissioning of her daughter.
Ever since I wrote Boots Belts Berets and On the Double, I have been asked why I haven’t written a book about the officers, who passed out from the OTA. The response to those two books has been stupendous, and I have received dozens of emails from young men who decided to join the army after reading them.
The first time I thought of writing about women officers was when I met a smart and capable captain. ‘Why haven’t you written about us?’ she asked.
At that time I was writing another book, so I shelved the suggestion. But it couldn’t be shelved too long. The demand for a book on women officers was coming from all sides.
It was only after I saw Captain Tania Shergill leading an all men contingent at the Army Day Parade in 2020 that I knew it was time to write the book. Shergill also achieved the honour of being the first woman parade adjutant for Republic Day, 2020.
I realized that women officers had carved a special niche in the Indian Army, and were likely to achieve many more laurels in the future.
Since the passing out of the first batch of women officers in 1992, OTA has trained hundreds of young women, each one of them having gone through the same rigorous regimen as their male counterparts. They have competed against the men and won the coveted Sword of Honour, and proved themselves many times over.
Today, they serve in signals, engineers, army aviation, army air defence, electronics and mechanical engineers (EME), army service corps, army ordnance and intelligence corps. Right from carrying out mining and demining work, to manning the weapon systems in air defence, they are carrying out their duties in an efficient manner.
These girls come from diverse backgrounds and regions, but the one factor that they have in common is their zeal to serve the country. The Girls in Green is a tribute to these girls, who braved many challenges to reach where they are today.
Like in Boots Belts Berets and On the Double, both of which deal with the training of cadets in NDA and IMA, The Girls in Green is all about the extraordinary camaraderie that binds these army girls together. The bonds that are forged out of blistered feet, bruised bodies, rivulets of perspiration and broken egos last a lifetime. Personal comforts are sacrificed for the comfort of one’s comrades. Individual aspirations are secondary to those of the company. Days roll into weeks and weeks morph into months as the training continues, each hour bringing fresh challenges. It is camaraderie and laughter that helps them survive.
As in the earlier books, there is enough fun and humour to keep you laughing. But there are poignant moments as well. Fun, adventure, thrill and emotions blend together to create an interesting account of the rigorous training the girls go through.
Writing any book is an all-encompassing and time-consuming job but writing a book about the army takes much more. Although it is fiction, the details have to be right, and this requires an extensive amount of research. I had to visit the OTA a couple of times and interview several officers who were kind enough to share details of training and the life in the academy. I wish to point out that I have taken the liberty of embellishing and altering some details to suit the story.
None of this would have been possible without the cooperation of the many women officers who have passed out from the elite academy. I am indebted to each one of them for their time and support.
I am thankful to my family and friends, who cheered me through the long process of research and writing.
I am sure you will enjoy this one.