You know you are a fauji brat when..

Okay I had to share this one!!!

• You were born in a MH- possibly with Pop not being around on the big day due to being required to go suddenly 'on duty' at short notice !
• Half your toddler years were spent with Dad being away!
• You went to school either on Bhaiya's cycle or in a Shaktiman
• You know what a Shaktiman is! ( No! it isnt the TV serial about half man and half machine starring AB look alike)
• Jeeps & Jongas don't excite you - they were your regular mode of transport!
• Your entire family (including the inevitable pet dog !)could survive in one room temporary accommodation with 25 trunks/wooden crates, the shell-based table lamps, lovely artistic drift-wood, a centre table, few 'peg' tables and of course-two bhaiyas flitting/hovering around.
• The smell of Brasso & shoe polish was regular morning staple.
• Mess was not what you created in your room, it was where you went every Friday for the free movie and the Sunday south Indian breakfast or Biryani/Chole- Bhature lunch.
• Baccha party is not a party dedicated to you, but yes it’s the clan name you earn as you learn to belong to the regimental parties with the rest of the “just as lost” kids sit together, whiling away time, while our parents conveniently join the main “party”.
• 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.
• 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!!!
• You attended many many May / Navy Queen Balls before you knew what Miss India was.
• Your mother regularly got dressed, perfumed and disappeared for the Ladies Club.
• You knew towns like Mhow, Wellington , Fazilka, Pallawala, Twang and Bomdilla etc, which are generally extremely difficult to locate on any standard map of India.
• You weren't a millionaire but hey you had access to Olympic style Swimming, Horse Riding, Squash, Tennis, Flood- light lit Badminton courts and boy oh boy, Golf !!
• You can still take one quick look at the epaulets and figure out the rank.
• 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.
• You remember the fun you used to have in the grilled 3-ton vehicle that was your regular school-BUS for years together.
• You know the full form of words like 'OG', "OLQs", 'CO' etc and that the meaning of "field' is not what is as given in the dictionary.