Parampara. Pratishtha. Anushasan. For Jyoti Mamgain, these famous words uttered by Amitabh Bachchan in Mohabbatein, defining the ethos of an all-boys’ school, seemed like these were penned to describe the world she had entered into, the Indian Army, by virtue of her marriage to an army man.

In these delightful vignettes, the author introduces us to little-known aspects of life behind the cantonment walls. It’s a world that flummoxes her with cryptic messages like ‘sab Tik Tok hai’ and ‘guarding the igloo’ (in the searing heat of the Indian plains). Where wives of army personnel are veritable ichhadharis, shape-shifting beings, who can take on multiple avatars over the course of a day. Where a ‘black box’ takes on an entirely different meaning. It is also a world that unfolds scenarios that never cease to surprise her even after all these years – for example, the quiet, shy lance naik at the billing counter transforming into an Ed Sheeran and Kishore Kumar at a cocktail party.

Quirky and fun, Drills, Thrills and Spills: An Army Wife’s Tales brings together two disparate worlds and demonstrates how what emerges from the collision is a whole new experience that exemplifies ‘method in madness’. Or should that be madness in the method?