Quotessence
Home / Topics / Army Life Quotes

Army Life Quotes

Browse 24 quotes about Army Life.

Army Life Quotes

“The FRG … was the closest thing any of them had to family, this simulacrum of friendship, women suddenly thrown together in a time of duress, with no one to depend on but each other, all of them bereft and left behind in this dry expanse of central Texas, walled in by strip malls, chain restaurants, and highways that led to better places. Most of them had gotten used to making life for themselves without a husband, finding doctors and dentists and playgrounds, filling their cell phones with numbers and their calendars with playdates, and then the husbands would return and the Army would toss them all at some other base in the middle of nowhere to begin again.”

“Trees talk if you care to listen. I know that now but back then, I had only heard the old oak tree outside my window back home. I’d heard it breathe. Yes, breathe. On the cold nights when I sat up prepping for my exams, when the rest of the world fell into a deep slumber, I heard the Old Oak: a bit eerie, like an old man, its breathing, laboured and arrhythmic. I wasn’t hallucinating; Picking up my stopwatch, I checked if there was a pattern and there was one. A clear and loud inhalation and exhalation, almost human-like. I wondered if the Old Oak was trying to communicate with me. Tell me its story?”

“El ejército inculcó el sentimiento de la responsabilidad absoluta y fomentó también el espíritu de decisión. Contrariamente a lo que ocurría en la vida corriente, saturada de codicia y de materialismo, el ejército educó al pueblo hacia el ideal y hacia la devoción por la patria y por su grandeza. El ejército fue una escuela de educación del pueblo, unido frente a la división de clases y quizá su único defecto fue el de haber instituido el sistema del servicio voluntario de un año; defecto decimos, porque debido a ese sistema se dañaba el principio de la igualdad absoluta, colocando al individuo de mayor preparación intelectual fuera del marco común, lo contrario de lo cual es lo que precisamente habría sido lo provechoso. Ante la carencia del sentido real de la vida que dominaba en nuestras clases elevadas y su alejamiento de su mismo pueblo, habría sido el ejército precisamente el único capaz de influir benéficamente, evitando, por lo menos dentro de sus filas, todo aislamiento de la clase llamada intelectual”

“फौजियों के जीवन को एक बात सबसे अलग बनाती है कि हम किसी स्थान को सैलानी की तरह नहीं, स्थायी निवासी की तरह देखते हैं। अढ़ाई-तीन वर्ष के लिए किसी जगह पर स्थायी निवासी की तरह रहना और फिर नई जगह पर वहां का बाशिंदा बन कर पहुँचना...।”

“फौज अनिश्चितता का दूसरा नाम है। यहाँ का जीवन 'अचानक कुछ भी हो सकता है' या 'हालात कभी भी बदल सकते हैं' के सिद्धांत पर काम करता है। यहाँ मौसम से ज्यादा हालात बदलते हैं।”

“मुझे उस संस्था को अपना हिस्सा लौटाने का मौक़ा मिला जिसने मेरे जीवन को नई पहचान दी। यह मेरे लिए हर दिन बहुत कुछ नया सीखने का समय बन गया। सैनिक परिवारों की परेशानियां, अकेली महिलाओं के जीवन की जद्दोजहद, उनकी काउंसलिंग, वोकेशनल ट्रेनिंग के बाद हमारी महिलाओं के लिए रोजगार की तलाश में सिविल सेक्टर से बातचीत में मदद करने जैसे अनगिनत काम...”

“Army Brat: an acronym for Born, raised and transferred. Brats, irreverent, sometimes more reckless than courageous and unabashedly basking in the reflected glory and adoration our fathers deservedly received. But mostly we were gypsies--agile quick-witted and tough bunch of youngsters growing up in a world that barricaded the rest of the universe out and kept us cocooned within ours. The brats moved every two years across the country, from one cantonment to another, inadvertently learning to adapt and engage faster than their 'civilian' counterparts changed their iphones. Resilience was a byproduct of this lifestyle. Our wings were our roots. And those wings had brought my father to Tawang, a sensitive military base near out border with China.”

“Anyway, the MI-17 made for one hell of a ride. It was a monstrous chopper, more like an armoured tank in the sky. Th e insides had a few metal seats on either side. First-come-fi rst-served, you sat wherever you found space. The mothers took the seats and the brats sat on the cold metal floor, among camouflage-green nets, wooden boxes and miscellaneous military cargo. As the chopper rose, I peered at my father waving from the small helipad made by plateauing a mountain top with the Army’s engineering expertise. Some moments stay with you forever. Th is particular one has stood the test of time. As we fl ew off to the safest military base, I stuck my nose against the tiny window and kept waving back till my father became an olive-hued speck on the concrete helipad.”

“The other gem was Tawang’s gift to us: A tiny purebred Apso, whom we called Mickey. A beautiful ball of white fur, a hopping rabbit, with heart-melting puppy eyes hidden behind shaggy Apso hair, perfect in all ways, well almost. Except Mickey farted. Farts so potent and loud, it was hard to believe a pintsized dog was capable of generating such toxic fumes. Strangely, he saved his best ones for the weekly ladies’ get-together at home. ‘Your dog is dangerous,’ one of the ladies said laughingly to my mother. ‘This fellow will break wind and run off and we’ll be left wondering which one of us did it.’ The modus operandi was simple. He would come hopping into the living room for tasty treats and while the ladies were fawning over him, Mickey broke wind. There was a hushed silence as the fumes spread quickly, and the ladies silently wondered which one of them was the uncouth culprit. It took them a few visits to figure this out, by which time Mickey the Fartonator had been confined to the veranda. My poor mother was always at the receiving end courtesy our dogs and, well, me!”

“Bhalu looked like an unkempt, wild version of the most majestic dog I had ever laid eyes on – her name was Grace. My Grace. A German shepherd, a monster puppy who grew up to be a lady. Forever remembered fondly (by me) for taking regular puppy-sized dumps in Neha’s slippers and shoes, for being the reason Neha and I would have to figure innovative ways to save ourselves and run for cover if she were in the vicinity, for chewing up our toes like her life depended on it, for shredding curtains, socks, shoes and anything she could get a hold of with rare delight, for a bark so fierce yet feminine that people feared pressing the bell at our gates.”

“As we continued walking, the pebbles by the bank made a pleasant crunching sound under our feet. Their edges were polished to perfection by the continual friction of the water – revealing their innermost colours like polished diamonds. A particular stone caught my attention. It was shining among a sea of smooth grey ones. Picking it up, I gaped at it. This one was grey in colour like all the others except it had bands of iridescent blue running across its width. The bands were the same magnifi cent hue of blue as the skies above. Did it break and fall from the skies and soak up the grey from its common companions? Was this some kind of fall from grace, because it really didn’t seem to belong where I found it. I smiled at the treasure I had chanced upon and popped it in the bag on my shoulder. This was going back with me. A forever memory of this day.”

“Neha’s walk across the river felt excruciatingly long. Like a rubber band stretched to its limits. It is peculiar how moments of happiness and euphoria seem to pass over like greased lightning when compared to the ones filled with pain or anxiety. I often ask myself if happiness is genuinely fleeting or if we are hardwired to believe that human beings are born to suffer, and for that very reason tend to sadistically amplify and stretch our anxieties? Could our age old conditioning be in cahoots with Loki? Maybe, maybe not. I am still debating this, internally...”