How I met Na’vi from Avatar

I am Major Neethasha Hebbar K , a commissioned officer from Indian Army, served in Operational areas and was involved in training Officer Cadre, and transforming them into not only warriors but scholar warriors.

My topic for today is “How I met Na’vi  from  Avatar”

I can see many tangled looks .

Yes people I did meet Na’vi  !!

Now the story goes like this ……..

I preferred two stars on my shoulders better than millions in the sky

I preferred to wear dog tags and combat boots to work than pearls and sensible shoes

I choose to do the impossible

I choose to be a soldier

An Indian Army officer

The pride of our nation!

Served in the Educational corps for ten years , trained and groomed 2000 scholar warrior, the present officer lot in the Indian army and yes… I take great pride in saying this.

Ok let me continue…..

Days and years passed by , got married to an infantarian, mothered two brats Aditya  and Ayan .

The need to be with my boys made me quit my job, but yes the confidence of getting back at the opportune moment was very strong . Six years passed by I am a full fledged home maker.

The army posting cycle …… got us to Bangalore after residing in most of the remotest and border areas in India.

With 30 plus black trunks and n number of cartons fully loaded in truck and  my angel now turned devils two in number ,came to the most happening city Namma Bangaluru.

With kids in school, I decided to pursue my dream…. Got the right platform through the Iron Lady program.

The intensity of the program was catching up, long sessions….longer assignments

 but I didn’t want to give up , I was so very confident of self that I can do it again….. as I have all the 15 OLQ still ingrained in me.

It was one of those days, long long ILP session …loaded with assignment, this mom gets back home. With a given time I had to finish my household chores, look after my devils ….sorry my angels ……do my assignment, mail it, get the feedback ,amend if required, again mail and wait for the response.

To finish the task in hand as fast as possible ….. I took the younger one for shower, along with his dirty canvas shoes to be washed and laundry to be done. I told him, “Junior, you are old enough to do your own task and help your Amma out”. Like a dedicated soldier he followed my instruction and in no time I finished my laundry, the shoe was sparkling white and I gave him a bath.

Next was my elder sons turn…… gave the same instruction and I settled in front of the laptop to finish my assignment. So immersed was I that I didn’t know it was nearly an hour …..and Aditya  still not out of the wash room. I jumped from my bed and barged into the wash room ……

People, it was here that I meet Na’vi ….

Aditya wanted to impress his mom he wanted his shoes shine better than juniors … he opened the bathroom cubboard and in the process of taking the Blue Robin liquid , which was half closed, dropped it with his butter finger all over him , over the white tiles and on the white canvas shoes .

Now knowing his moms temper he was in a frantics effort to clean and cover up the mess. But in vain . It was here that I enter the scene…. My  Na’vi was cute , lil plumpy and without a tail….. not scary but scared.

I restrained all my rising temper and just smiled at him …. And now my extra duty starts ….. A work which would have finished in an hours time , I took complete two hours to scrub scrub scrub and clean up Aditya, the tiles and the shoes.

Lesson learnt …….never mix Time Management , Multi tasking with Parenting .

I havent failed , but I just found ten thousand ways that won’t work

Since all present here are in  same shoes …I  feit better to share some of the tips/ lessons I grasped out of this episode.

Time Management and working mom:

v   Don’t fall into Multi tasking trap

v  Tackle your hardest thing first

v  Take advantage of in between minutes

v  Pause Before Saying Yes

v  Assign a time limit to everything you do

v  Keep one calendar

v  Have a day-care Plan B (and C, and D). 

v  Learn how to delegate. (If I was smart and sensible in delegating the task I would have caught up on my sleep too….)

With this I would culminate by stating…..

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us

And don’t ever ever ever compromise parenting with any other task, as …..

What you will remember is the time you spent – time you truly spent, physically and mentally – with those you love

Sometimes you will never know the value of those precious moments until it becomes a memory.

Happy living!!