From amputee ex-volleyball player to Everester
By Karan Kaushik
Arunima Sinha is a name which is synonymous with courage and all those adjectives used to describe those who achieve their goals despite all odds. She is the first female amputee to conquer Mount Everest. She is also the first female amputee to summit Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Elbrus, Mt Kosciusko, Mt Carstensz Pyramid, Mt Aconcagua and Mt McKinley, Antarctica. She has been conferred with several honors such as the Padma Shri and the Tenzing Norgay Award.
Arunima shared her life story at an interactive session in New Delhi organized by the FICCI’s ladies wings recently. Excerpts:
On motivation
“I haven’t studied at any of the IITs or IIMs but I’ve been called by most of them to speak and motivate their students,” Arunima told her audience.
But the mountaineer felt that it doesn’t matter how effective a motivational speech is. She believes that the biggest motivations lies within and when people are self motivated they don’t need motivation from others. “When your goal becomes your passion it makes you do what you can’t even do. I climbed Everest with my heart and brain and not with my legs making my way through dead bodies. I never believed that I have an artificial leg”, said Arunima who has a firm belief in the saying “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
Her struggle
However, terming Arunima’s journey motivational would be an understatement. Tragedy struck the young national-level volleyball player in 2011 when she was thrown off a moving train by thugs because she had refused to give them her gold chain. She lost her left leg when a train ran over it. Bizarre conspiracy theories of her travelling ticketless and jumping off the train herself or her trying to commit suicide followed. The public’s perception had reduced her to a victim.
While dealing with murmurs of pity, Arunima decided that she would climb Mt Everest and get her self confidence back. Cut to 2013. Arunima did just that and became the world’s first female amputee to achieve this feat. “Our minds hold amazing control on our bodies and not taking a risk is the biggest risk,” she says.
That, though, is easier said than done. Arunima did a course from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and trained rigorously for 18 months. None other than Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to summit the Everest, had taken her under her wing but not before she had convinced her to do so.
Arunima believes that luck only favours those who dare to attempt the impossible and would settle for nothing less than victory. She, herself, has conquered the highest peaks in the world, something which has taught her the most precious lessons for life. It has made her confident, resilient and brought out the leader within her. “When someone stops you from achieving your goal after you have reached very near to your goal, just move one step ahead and you will find everyone will be following you,” Arunima said.
Arunima runs a sports academy for underprivileged handicapped children. They don’t even have a building till now but she has managed to buy a 50 acre land. Right now her students train on other people’s fields. “They are my life now,” Arunima said. She wants them to get the best possible training. But she has a long way to go. After all, collecting funds is not an easy job.
Arunima now plans to summit her seventh peak but she needs sponsors. “Finding a sponsor is another summit,” laughs the spunky 28-year-old. But she also adds: “The tougher your struggle, the more glorious is your victory.” Arunima is positive about finding a sponsor soon and hopes to go for her next climb around December this year.
Lessons from Rio
“[PV] Sindhu has won hearts across our nation. It’s amazing how Sakshi [Malik] has got a medal in wrestling which is usually seen as a man’s sport. When I started mountaineering, people used to laugh at me, saying that it’s a man’s sport,” Arunima told VON.
Effusive about the gymnast from Tripura, she said, “Dipa [Karmakar] has shown the nation that gymnastics is not just confined to circus shows and her reaching the finals is a commendable achievement. She didn’t even have a costume but still she made it and set a great example for girls in villages. All they need is support from their family and coaches.” “My family is my backbone,” she added.
Asked about the achievements of women in sports and what needs to be done in order to improve sports in our country, she replied: “It’s not just about being a girl; if a girl has talent, she will make us proud. We need to learn from the mistakes that we have done this time and if we do so, we are definitely going to perform much better in Tokyo. If you see, this time, too, all the players have gone there on their own steam. It should be the duty of the nation to stand with them, get them the best possible training from coaches belonging to countries that bag the most medals and to keep them mentally happy and healthy. There is no need to throw eggs and tomatoes at them if they don’t get medals this time, don’t lower their morale. We will definitely improve the next time,” she said.