“I have always wanted to be strong. When I was in school, I was bullied by my seniors for my poor strength. I took it as a challenge to develop and acquire that strength by training. My father was a freedom fighter. He fought the Portuguese in Goa. He would come home with inspiring tales. That’s probably what motivated me. I went on to study medicine, where I met my partner who was training in military martial arts back then. I saw him and decided to train too. I later went on to learn taekwondo as well. Today, I’m the highest ranking female instructor in Jeet Kune Do (founded by Bruce Lee) in the world. Both my husband and I were always ready to take risks and adventures. So it wasn’t a surprise that we went on to learn many martial art forms, before we became trainers. It was a big decision to put our careers in science aside and train police and military persons on the field.
It all started with no armed combat. We started to give training across the country. Financially, we would’ve made much more money if we continued as doctors. However, our happiness was in training the armed forces, especially in close quarter battle. We were just two enthusiastic youngsters trying to make a difference.
Today, we have trained, in the last 22 years, without any compensation, over 20,000 soldiers of India’s elite armed forces in Close Quarter Battle (CQB), which is armed and unarmed battle within 30 yards.
We spent many months travelling. We were both supportive of each other, so our families didn’t say much. We were clear that it’s what we loved and wanted to do. Today, I can shoot, punch and do many physical activities. But it required many days of constant exercise and training. However, when I’m on the field, many only wonder if what I’m doing is a man’s job. I don’t think it is restricted to any gender. There’s nothing like being “not good enough.” I adopted a girl child who’s now a pro MMA fighter and I am a proud mother. I balance my personal and professional life. I’m stronger than ever now – Mentally, physically and emotionally!
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