This is a story of the triumph of will. A story of courage, determination and dedication. A story of hope and resilience in the face of challenges.

Arunima Sinha is the perfect example of , ” If there is a will, there is a way.”

I heard the story about Arunima Sinha and completely mesmerized by it. I am so much inspired by her story that I decided to write about it and want to share with everyone around me. Believe me you are more inspired than ever before with this story.

Arunima Sinha is an Indian mountain climber and sportswoman. She is the world’s first female amputee to scale Mount Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), Mount Elbrus (Russia), Mount Kosciusko (Australia), Mount Aconcagua (South America), Mount Denali (North America) and Mount Vision she is also a seven time Indian Volleyball player.

CHILDHOOD OF ARUNIMA SINHA

Arunima Sinha was born in Ambedkar Nagar near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh Her father was in the Indian Army, and her mother was a supervisor in the health department. She had an elder sister and a younger brother. After her father died, her mother tried to take care of her family.

Arunima liked football and also was a national volleyball player. She wanted to join the paramilitary forces. She got a call letter from the CISF and faced her life-changing accident while travelling to Delhi. 

LIFE CHANGING ACCIDENT

Sinha, a former national volleyball and football player,boarded the Padmavati Express train at Lucknow for Delhi on 12 April 2011, to take an examination to join the CISF. She was pushed out of a general coach of the train by hooligans wanting to snatch her bag and gold chain for personal favours. Recounting the incident, she said:

I resisted and they pushed me out of the train. I could not move. I remember seeing a train coming towards me. I tried getting up. By then, the train had run over my leg. I don’t remember anything after that.

Immediately, as she fell on the railway track, another train on a parallel track crushed her leg below the knee. She was rushed to the hospital with serious leg and pelvic injuries and lost her leg after doctors amputated it to save her life.

On 18 April 2011, she was brought to the All India Institute Of Medical Science for further treatment, spending four months at the institute.She was provided a prosthetic leg free of cost by a private Delhi-based Indian company.

DECIDED TO CLIMB THE MOUNT EVEREST

She was an amputee, and people were looking at her with pity in theie eyes. But whenever she saw her missing leg, see used to think, she will never let it be her weakness.
She was terrified with her disability and the people were criticizing her. then she decided to answer them with action not words.

She was on the hospital bed and was reading a newspaper. She read an article about Everest. It mentioned that there are 15 roots that connect to the Everest. Out of those 15, 14 have been targeted by mountaineers and onet root is yet to be followed. See decided that day to conquer this route number 15. Inspired from Yuvraj Singh, she decided to be the first Mount Everest climber with one prosthetic leg. Ponded on the most Impossible Dream she could set for herself.

She had many options of choosing something easier, but Mount Everest is a game where you can develop yourself confidence and she wanted to do that, also see want to convert her weakness into her strength. Everyone laughed on her dream but she was so determined to do that make it possible.

After deciding to climb the Everest, she needed a guidance from Bachendri Pal( the first female to climb the mount everest). After describeing my dream to her, She told me very nice thing, ” Arunima in this condition you made such a huge decision no that you have already conquered your inner Everest, now you need to climb the mountain only to show the world what you are made of.”

After met Bachendri Pal she didn’t turn back to her home. started training from there. since then she stayed on the mountains. the reason was she had to acclimatize. Everest is the highest peak in the world. it took 52 days for her to complete the mission before starting the Summit. she had covered the peaks surrounding Everest to acclimatize by body.

She did a basic course from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, the best school of it’s kind in Asia. this was followed by 18 months of rigorous training there was no Sundays, no Diwali and no Holy. Smaller but no less dangerous mountains had a couple of near death experience and underwent mind numbing, exhausting, spirit crushing pain. She was not used to carry her weight so she learn that first and then she used to take weight of small stones and have trained herself that way.

KEY CHALLENGES IN CLIMBING THE EVEREST

She started her expedition on 1st April 2013 and reached the summit of Mount Everest on 21st May 2013 exactly after 52 days. Her first feat on the way to the Summit was wrought with injury. She was so happy to have reached the base camp that she lost herbalance and fail to the ground injuring herself in the process. There were many points in the trek where there were no ladders to support her other side of the wide gap. She was forced to on such instances jump across gaps, which if she missed, would have ended her life.

Her prosthetic limb posed some unique problems sometimes blood used to come out of the stitches. the ankle and heal would constantly swivel as she tried to climb, causing her to lose her grip often.

Every climber has to traverse four camps on route to the peak. Once you’ve reached camp four, there’s 3500 feet to the summit. This area is known as the death zone, notorious for the number of lives it has claimed. She saw dead bodies of mountaineers scattered all around. Some had turned into skeleton and some were covered with sheets of snow. A Bangladeshi climber she met earlier breathed his last right before her. Ignoring the cold fear in the pit of her stomach, She trudged on. She told herself that neither she can go back from here nor she can die before reaching the summit. Our bodies behave according to how we think. She firmly took stock of her fears and told her body that dying was not an option. Seeing her struggling immensely with the artificial leg, her Sherpa kept on advising her to return back. But, she overturned his advice. She told him that she just can’t die before conquering this mountain. Thereafter, he started motivating her for the rest of the expedition.

FEELING OF SUCCESS

May 21st was the best day of her life. She had turned her weakness into a winning force on that day and had answered the whole world. she still can’t fully explain that feeling, of spending those few six to seven minutes on the summit. She felt like throwing her arms in the air and screaming. She wanted to tell everyone that she is on top of the world, especially to those people who thought a woman and an amputee couldn’t do it. She took off her mask and screamed, and her Sherpa (the local guide for the expedition) just stared at her. At home you have so different feeling about your national flag but on top it is completely different. She felt very proud at that moment.

She used to feel bad when people called her crazy, when she was on her hospital bed and planning to climb the Everest. But now when people call her crazy about her goals, she feel happy. Now she understand, if people say you are crazy about your goal that means your goal is very close.

Her dream is to climb the highest peaks from each continent around the world. So far she have accomplished six – Mount Everest in Asia (May 2013), Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa (May 2014), Mount Elbrus in Europe (July 2014), Mount Kosciuszko in Australia (April 2015), Mount Aconcagua in South America (Dec 2015), Mount Carstensz in Indonesia (July 2016). She want to dedicate her achievements “to those who lose hope” so that they never lose heart and achieve their dreams. By conquering all the seven summits she will prove that physical disability can never be a hindrance in achieving your life’s goal if you have mental strength, strong will power and firm determination.

WHAT TO LEARN FROM IT?

Climbing mountains has yielded the most valuable life lessons for her. It has taught her about confidence, leadership, resilience, team building and leadership. But above all it has taught her the power of humility. It doesn’t matter what you achieve in life. What matters is how those achievements make you a better person. How you treat others is at the core of what makes you a good human being. Mountain always teaches to lean down.

Swami Vivekananda has always been an inspiration for her. His quote, “ARISE, AWAKE AND STOP NOT TILL THE GOAL IS ACHIEVED” inspired her a lot in making my dream come true. As tribute to his teachings she place his photograph on the summits that she conquer. It is the influence of Swami Vivekananda that after that tragic incident she got an aim of her life and she didn’t lose hope. She is grateful to his teachings and his lessons. He is a master for her, a source of inspiration and motivation for her. She will be devoted to him till she die. His thoughts and ideals have influenced her deeply and motivated her to do something in life not only for herself but also for those who are like her. His inspiration has driven her to establish a sports academy for the physically challenged people. she also took inspiration from Yuvraj Singh and other famous personalities who won over cancer and other life threatening conditions to bounce back and prove their mettle.

HER CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY

She started writing the book when was on AIMS bed and Mr. Omprakash (bhaisaab) motivated her a lot for this. She inspired to write the book ‘Born again on the mountain: A story of losing everything and finding it back’

She deliver talks and motivational lectures on several forums. She want to help physically challenged people to achieve their goal so that they can also become self-dependent and nobody looks at them with pity. She run a non-profit school Shahid Chandrasekhar azad viklang academy(Freedom Fighter Chandrasekhar Azad Sports Academy for disabled children) where we have almost 150 underprivileged handicapped children. Her dream is to make these physically challenged people achieve their dream. She want to train them, make them independent and strong through sports. The objective of her sports academy is to provide training to people with physical disability and to empower them through our complete support so that they can get equal opportunities and full participation in society. Also now she is on a mission to make Jalalpur rid from Hepatitis-B. She is giving free vaccinations to them and have almost reached 2 lac population. (lac in the Indian numbering is equal to one hundred thousand).

SUMMARY

Failure is not when we fall short of achieving our goals. It is when we don’t have goals worthy enough. Never forget your goal, respect it and work hard and you will be the winner.

She reiterate this small hindi poem she wrote when the journey gets too blurry:

Rehne de aasma, zameen ki talash kar
Sab kuch yahi hai, kahin aur na talash kar
Jeene ke liye, ek kami ki talash kar.

[Let the sky be and seek the earth
All is here, search not elsewhere
To live beautifully, seek life in dearth]