Mysuru: “I faced a lot of obstacles while training more than 15,000 elite Indian forces for the past 20 years. But I managed to overcome it,” said Seema Rao, India’s first and the only woman commando trainer.
She was speaking at ‘Leadership and Management Lessons from Armed Forces by Dr. Seema Rao and Major Deepak Rao’ that was organised by CII-Yi Mysuru Chapter in association with Namma Mysuru Foundation at B.N. Bahadur Institute of Management Sciences in city recently.
She briefed about her stint as trainer along with her husband Major Deepak Rao. Even after endless troubles in her life, she chose to never give up. Even when she and her husband were facing monetary issues they never started charging money for their training.
Her training demanded travelling to some of the riskiest areas and because of her work commitments she even had to miss her father’s funeral. She has trained many units including BSF, Navy, ITBP, NSG Black Cat Commandos and several other academies.
“My father was a freedom fighter and he used to tell us how the people fought for the freedom. After getting inspired with him, I also decided to do a bit for my country. Though initially during my school days I was scary and weak, later on I developed confidence. When I was 16, I met Deepak who taught me martial arts,” she said.
A section of audience at the session hosted by CII-Yi Mysuru Chapter in association with Namma Mysuru Foundation.
In a world where a girl child is aborted or killed after the birth, the couple adopted a girl child. Seema Rao is also one of the rarest people in the world who have mastered the art of Jeet Kune Do (martial art founded by Bruce Lee in 1967) and she further got authorised to teach the same.
“All of sudden when my husband told to shoot an apple which was kept on his head, I did not know what to do but he instilled confidence in me and I was bang on target,” she recollected.
In her advice to the audience, Seema Rao said, “Don’t just blindly jump or get into something, think a little bit and go ahead. Keep improvising and don’t be happy wherever you are, keep innovating. Nothing is ever lost in trying, but it’s sad if you don’t even try. Open your mind there will be many obstacles at that time, greater the obstacles, create energy in you.”
Arjun Ranga, Chairman, CII Mysuru, also spoke. Ravi Shankar, Co-Chair, Yi Mysuru Chapter, Dr. R. Mahesh, Chairman, B.N. Bahadur Institute of Management Sciences, Maj. Deepak Rao and S.K. Dinesh, President, Namma Mysuru Foundation, were on the dais.
This post was published on September 11, 2017 6:47 pm