Aditya L1 project director, mother of two, Nigar Shaji’s advice to parents on raising kids

Aditya L1's flight towards the Sun is the culmination of the hard work of several people under Project Director Nigar Shaji. With 35 years of service in ISRO, Shaji has made illustrious contributions to the Indian Remote Sensing, communication and interplanetary satellite programmes at various responsibilities, sources in the space agency said. 

Apart from gaining laurels for her work in various space missions including the Aditya L1, the ISRO Scientist, in a social media post has also posted a story of ‘Appreciation’, citing a story about a job interview and through it sharing advice on raising children the quality of developing empathy in them. The child will thus not fall into the trap of ‘entitlement mentality’ explains the ISRO scientist and a mother of two. 

The ‘Appreciation’ story

The story is about a job interview wherein the interviewer, who is director-level personnel, was looking for a candidate who would have an empathetic attitude toward his team members. He asked the youth about his family background. In the conversation, he realised that after the death of his father, it was his mother who worked as a clothes cleaner to pay for his educational expenses. After realising the youth never helped his mother in cleaning the clothes at home, the Director asked the candidate to go back and wash her mother's hands to come back again the subsequent day. 

While washing his mother’s hands the youth found out they were so bruised and wrinkled by washing clothes over the years that she was shivering because of the pain. The youth realised the pain his mother had to persevere to pay his school fees. After cleaning his mother's bruised hands, he quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother. He had understood the reason why the Director had asked him to wash his mother's hands. 

The Interview continues…

The next day when the candidate went back to meet the Director, who conducted the interview a day before and asked him to express his feelings, he said with tears in his eyes that he learnt three things:

Number 1
“I know now what appreciation is. Without my mother, I would not be successful today.”
Number 2
“By working together and helping my mother, only I now realise how difficult and tough it is to get something done.”
Number 3
"I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationships.”

The director said, "This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired,” the director said.

Nigar Shaji’s learnings and advice for parents

Nigar Saji later interpreting his learnings from the story in the social media post said, “A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop 'entitlement mentality' and would always put himself first. He would be ignorant of his parent's efforts." She later poses a question to the parents, “He will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying the kid instead?,” she questions.

At the end of the post she advises, “You can let your kid live in a big house, give him a driver & car for going around, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. Tell them to travel in a public bus. It is not because you do not have money for a car or to hire a maid, but it is because you want to Love them in the right way.”