Service children grow up with many limitations and learn to manage in all sorts of circumstances, with whatever little they have. They grow up moving from place to place, school to school, home to home…leaving old friends…making new ones…sometimes living in small towns, sometimes in big cities and other times in the back of the beyond. In this, they learn to adapt and survive.
There is no denying it… They are different… They stand apart!
Growing up in Cantonments makes them part of a large extended family. This is where service children understand what it really means to defend your country and to die fighting for it.
Sharing with you the uniqueness of a Fauji brat upbringing-
You have travelled to beautiful undiscovered locations, all thanks to your Fauji parents postings. And even after you grow up you remain a traveller at heart.
After every 2-3 years, you need to pack all your belongings and load it in the truck and send it off to the new posting place (all the way from Chandigarh to Dimapur). Shiftings and postings are routines for you. So by the time you are packing for college you are already a pro.
While a lot of people start partying when they go to college you have been doing it every week since you were a child. So by the time you grow up you are a natural at being an ace at parties.
From shifting houses, schools to towns you have done it all. Sigh…..The heartbreak of your best friends dad getting posted out. But shifting to a new class in the middle of a semester is never easy unless you have mom and dad helping you copy notes.
The kind and amount of disciplines that you get in the defence environment and schools are higher compared to the civil environment.
Any dress other than the uniform is called a Civil dress for the defence kids. The discipline is learnt not only from the school but from parents. They know how to be punctual and the first priority is to be always on time.
Maintain long-distance relationships well
Your serving father/mother has to stay away usually for long periods of time in places with poor internet or mobile network connectivity. You have seen your parents being strong for you even when one of them is in a high tension area. And even in such cases, their love for each other grows stronger and stronger.
Defence Brats– Unless you lived it, you just won’t get it.