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Salaam
Memsaab: Seema Rao
From
Shirish Daftary
This amazing
woman has been training India’s Special Forces for 20 years
without compensation! From babies to boardrooms, today’s
women can juggle several roles with panache. But there are
some women who do more than this, going beyond the
challenges of their personal lives to be of service to a
larger cause. The amazing Seema Rao is one such woman and
this is her story. a 7th-degree black belt holder in
military martial arts, Seema Rao is India’s only female
commando trainer. A prominent expert in close quarter
battle, Seema has been giving commando training to various
armed forces in India for 20 years, without taking any
monetary compensation in return! Seema is also a combat
shooting instructor, a firefighter, a scuba diver, an HMI
medallist in rock climbing, and a Mrs India world pageant
finalist. This incredibly multifaceted lady is also one of
the only 10 women in the world certified in jeet kune do, a
unique martial art form created by Bruce Lee in the 1960s.
Seema Rao is the daughter of freedom fighter Prof. Ramakant
Sinari, who helped in the liberation of Goa from the
Portuguese. The deeply patriotic Seema grew up listening to
stories of India’s struggle for independence and always
wanted to serve her country. She finally had the opportunity
to convert this desire into reality when she met her future
husband, Major Deepak Rao, at the age of 16. Major Rao had
been practising martial arts since the age of 12 and it was
he who introduced Seema to this empowering field. Major
Deepak Rao is Seema’s co-pioneer in the field of close
quarter battle training. In 2011, he received the president
of India’s rank award for his 20 years of contribution to
the Indian army. Others who have been honoured with the same
award are Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Abhinav Bindra. After
marriage, the couple continued to learn and excel in martial
arts, shooting, and weapon defence while they simultaneously
pursued an education in medicine. After becoming certified
doctors, Deepak equipped himself with the prestigious CLET
law enforcement certification, while Seema did her MBA in
crisis management. The formidable couple then started
thinking about how they could channelize their desire to do
something constructive for the country. after much thought,
they decided to train the soldiers of the Indian armed
forces without accepting any compensation in return. there
were two factors that inspired them to take up this
herculean challenge. One was the desire to serve the
personnel who guard India and the other was their
instinctive need to remain engaged in combat and martial
arts. So, in 1996, they approached the service chiefs of
army, navy, bsf nsg. The chiefs were impressed with the
couple’s dedication and decided to try out their training
programme. There was no looking back after that. Seema has
since spent 20 years as a full-time guest trainer of the
Indian armed forces. the journey wasn’t easy. the couple had
to face several financial hardships in the initial years of
their marriage but they stuck to their decision of not
charging a single rupee for their work. Also, since Seema
was constantly travelling to hostile locations, through
harsh weather and inhospitable terrain, she could not even
attend her father’s funeral. Realising that it would be
impossible to carry a pregnancy through, given her rigorous
training schedule, Seema consciously decided not to have her
own child and instead adopted a girl. In the course of work,
Seema also suffered multiple injuries that included a
vertebral fracture and a severe head injury that made her
lose her memory for months (she could not recognise anyone
but her husband). She was also shot at by insurgents but her
determination to serve her nation never wavered. along with
her husband, Seema has provided training to almost every
elite unit of the Indian forces, including the NSG black
cats, marcos, garud, Para commandos, BSF, The Army Corps
Battle Schools and its commando wing. She has also trained
officers of the national police academy, the army officers
training academy and the police quick response teams of
almost every major city in India. Though Seema has
repeatedly proven herself in the male-dominated field of
commando training, she still meets trainees in every course
who are reluctant to learn from a woman. In an interview
with Naaree,
Seema said:
“Not only did i have to discipline them, but i also had to
gain their confidence in my ability to teach. However,
eventually, I have always managed to earn the respect of
commandos that i have trained.” in 2009, after training the
garud commandos, Seema was invited by the air force chief
for the official IAF para jump course. Here, she earned her
IAF para wings, another rare achievement. Seema is also the
only external combat training resource appointed by the
Indian government to date and, with her husband; she has
received 4 army chief citations, a record unparalleled by
anyone. Seema’s strength lies in her skill in close quarter
battle (CQB) – the art of proximity combat that focuses on
physical prowess, skill, and protocol. It involves
techniques like reflex shooting with rifles, quick shooting
with pistols, and bare-handed combat. It also entails the
precise use of knives, bayonets, and other appropriate
combat weapons. Room combat and confined space combat such
as anti- hijack operations also come under the purview of
CQB. In her interview, Seema laughingly said: “I can shoot
an apple off a person’s head from 50 yards without giving
him a scratch and I can evade a speeding bullet aimed at my
head with ease.” Seema and her husband have also developed a
unique and modern method of CQB exclusively for the use of
Indian forces. The advanced commando combat system, or bison
system as it is called, is different from the conventional
CQB. in this system, the reflex shooting method is unique
and the unarmed methods can quickly handicap or cripple the
enemy with the least effort. The team tactics in bison
system differ from conventional western CQBs and are unique
too. the Raos have also developed an indigenous method of
reflex shooting, which is known as the Rao system of reflex
fire. Says Seema: “the conventional methods of shooting
generally uses up many seconds to aim precisely and then
shoot. This is beneficial in long range combat when the
enemy is say 300 yards away, covered by a rock. But when the
enemy is just 20 yards away and in front of you, quick
shooting without using too much time for precise aim is
needed. To cater to this need in modern warfare, we devised
the Rao system of reflex fire. The Indian forces have found
this very beneficial.” the Rao couple has also established
the unarmed commando combat academy (UCCA), an elite
military martial arts academy, to help train the Indian
forces and also to publish training books for the forces.
The academy also offers training in jeet kune do and a
variety of other exotic martial arts to civilians. There is
also an unarmed combat black-belt program for civilians.
Says Seema: “with UCCA, we have published seven books till
date and three of these are limited editions for the
exclusive use of the Indian forces. Our book encyclopaedia
of close combat ops is the world’s first encyclopaedia on
CQB training and it has found a proud place in the FBI
library and the Interpol library. Seema feels very strongly
about women’s safety and has designed a program specially
tailored for women to help them deal with harassment,
molestation, sexual assault, and rape. Called dare (defence
against rape and eve teasing), the program equips women,
both mentally and physically, to face adverse situations
posed by potential eve teasers, molesters, and other sexual
assaults. She has also produced and acted in India’s first
mixed martial arts movie, hathapayi, which revolves around a
woman protagonist. This movie portrays the martial art of
jeet kune do for the first time in Indian cinema. Seema has
been bestowed with several awards during her amazing and
inspiring journey. They include the world peace award at
world peace congress in Malaysia and The US President’s
Volunteer Service award. But the greatest award, according
to her, is the deep satisfaction she gets from training the
Indian armed forces. To date, Seema has trained more than
15,000 soldiers in modern close quarter battle and has no
intention of hanging up her boots anytime soon. She has
proved that ordinary citizens can do extraordinary work for
their country and that a woman can do anything she puts her
mind to. As this bold and courageous woman, who calls
herself 47-years-young, says: “it’s not easy. It never is.
But who likes it easy anyway. Bring it on!!”
"The
greatest inspiration you can ever get is to know that you
are an inspiration to others." |
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