The Rainbow Meet ! |
The embedded connotations are a bit surprising. It is after all just a bunch of ladies getting together to play a round of Tambola, sing and dance some, eat food and go home. Ah! But nothing could be further from the truth. A typical ladies' club is the fair, featured and fascinating face of India’s armed forces. Symbolic of a plethora of its characteristics, the meet is a lesson in hierarchy, protocol, polite conversation and an esprit de corps. It is also a forum. Under the regular format of a paper game, an ice breaker or so and the invariable ramp waddle, the pink book gets a circulation, unseen and unnoticed.
The Garden Meet |
Black Archer Gals ! Taporis all.... |
As a bride, I was disdainful of the mere notion of women getting together. I was sure they did not get beyond exchanging recipes and notes on maids. It began with my welcome meet. Over the years, I became a regular and the more I attended, the more I converted. The get togethers were invariably done well. I can’t recall attending a shabby meet ever. It was shocking......the quality output the station ladies were able to conjure with limited resources on out of civil radar, bases. Give them a dozen or so dupattas, some petals and colored paper; the rugs and brass curios went from home and hey presto, you had a theme meet materialize as though by magic.
The periodic circular intimating an impending meet would be received with some amount of dismay, to begin with. Eventually people would get there. There would be a quaint formality, a girl’s day out with a dash of ceremony. It has to be said that the husbands suffered at times. Their dinner would be lack lustre because the "mem sahibs" would be full to the gills with the ladies' meet fare
Come on Brut...... |
A custom that kept divergent people connected. An unofficial forum for the better, brighter, bitter halves. A grape wine to rival the most authentic of official networks. A phenomenon called ladies' meet.
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