I was acquainted with her name. I must have read or heard about her in some newspaper or television many years back. Steve Martin quoted somewhere that the public has a short memory. Therefore obviously I did not register her in my cerebral hard disk. She was just another news item like one of those numerous persons and events we read or hear every day. But, not until I stumbled upon her again a couple of months back on YouTube.

It was an old INKtalks video post published in November 2014. Listening to her for 21 minutes in that video completely bowled me over. It is an old story and has been retold many times in articles and videos, but the reason I choose to revisit her story is that in today’s context, her story is very relevant and exemplary. The period, settings and circumstances might be different but we have lessons to learn – from, her setbacks, her fight-backs, her struggles, her grit and determination, her indomitable spirit and her ultimate triumph against all the odds heaped upon her. 

ARUNIMA SINHA – The Indomitable Everest Summiter

I am talking about Arunima Sinha, who made world records in mountaineering history as the first woman amputee in the world and the first amputee in India to summit Mt. Everest. 

Most of the common masses assume that all record makers are extraordinary people endowed with unfailing talent and super-human abilities. We just accept them that way. But what got me hooked was that, neither Arunima looked like one, nor fitted into that image. Just google for images of Edmund Hillary or Tenzin Norgay or Reinhold Messner or Junko Tabei and you will know what I mean. They all have the look of tough and seasoned individuals, while Arunima looked like a normal average girl living next door. She was, until on a fateful night some hoodlums turned her normal life into a worse nightmare and changed the course of her life. 

THE GIRL IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Arunima ‘Sonu’ Sinha was born in 1988 as the third child to Shri Harendra Kumar Sinha and Smti. Gyan Bala in Ambedkarnagar, Uttar Pradesh in India. Her father served in the CISF and her mother was a health supervisor in the government primary health centre. Arunima’s life was typically common like any other middle-class family except that she was an athlete and played volleyball at the national level. Arunima’s family suffered a setback when they lost two family members under tragic circumstances.

She had completed her education and was seeking employment. She had applied for the post of head constable in CISF and had received a call for an interview. Wrong date of birth printed in the interview call letter prompted her to go to Delhi for getting it rectified. But the journey to the CISF head office in New Delhi was destined to change her life and lead her on an altogether different kind of journey.   

A FATEFUL NIGHT, RESCUE, LIMELIGHT AND INSULTS

This is the nasty part of her story which I dislike to hear or to tell. But it needs to be told to set a reference point, so that one can fully understand the odd circumstances that came upon her and the sheer magnitude of willpower that she wielded to overcome these obstacles.

FIRST SETBACK – The train accident

That fateful day was 11 April 2011 when she boarded the Padmavati Express train from Lucknow on a general class railway coach. Arunima had her certificates in a duffel bag and her mobile phone was in her hand. She was donning a tee shirt and jeans and a gold chain adorned her neck. Her gold chain was to become the root cause of the trouble.

In the late-night when the train was reaching Bareilly, a bunch of hoodlums entered her coach and started robbing the passengers. They tried to snatch Arunima’s gold chain. She resisted and fought back. One lone girl against four or five hardened criminals. No other passenger objected or tried to stop the hoodlums. It was an odd match and the hoodlums overpowered her and threw her out of the train. At that very moment another train was crossing and she crashed on it and bounced back and forth between the two trains and her leg came under the wheels. 

And Arunima lay between the tracks with one leg cut off, one leg fractured, a few spine bones broken, and bleeding. While rats nibbled on her wounds she lay helpless unable to move or lift herself as 49 trains wheezed past her throughout the night. 

In the morning villagers found her beside the railway track and took her to the Bareilly district hospital. 

SECOND SETBACK – Losing a limb

At the Bareilly district hospital, her condition was diagnosed as critical and needed an operation immediately. She would have to part with her left leg below the knee. It was not an easy fact to digest. Arunima was an athlete. She played volleyball and football. Her identity, her image, her purpose all stood, ran, and jumped up on her two legs. And now, suddenly, she had to part with one. She would never be the same person she used to be.

THIRD SETBACK – Operation sans anaesthesia

Arunima was not prepared for the next shocker – the hospital had no anaesthetist and no blood bank. However, Arunima persisted with the hospital staff to operate without anaesthesia. She was prepared to endure the pain so that her situation would not worsen further. But the doctors needed at least one unit of blood before the operation. Arunima had no acquaintances, friends, or relatives besides her to donate blood. However, the pharmacist, Mr. B.C. Yadav donated his blood and the operation was done – without anaesthesia! 

By this time, her family members had arrived and given her the much-needed support. Word had spread across the hospital and strangers came to have a look at her. They had never heard of such bravery from a girl. Everybody was filled with awe and respect for her. The doctors said that she was a special girl. Her brother-in-law voiced that God must have had bigger plans for her. 

A local daily covered her story and soon national dailies took up the story. Soon her case became national news and grabbed the attention of the public. Politicians and bureaucrats started coming. Some financial and medical support also came along and she was shifted to King George Medical University in Lucknow and then to the AIIMS, New Delhi for further treatment. The celebrity beautician Shahnaz Hussain facilitated her training in the hospital itself and she earned an International Diploma so that she could run a franchise after her release from the hospital.

FOURTH SETBACK – Mud-slinging 

Everything seemed to be going well and Arunima was looking forward to living a normal life again. But that was not to be. Some outrageous allegations and malicious criticisms began to be leveled against her, like, she was traveling ticketless, that she had tried to commit suicide by jumping from the running train, that she was not a national player, that she was a sympathy-monger and an opportunist, etc. She and her family countered all these allegations. She also had the support of well-wishers, a few politicians, and the media. Following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) the Allahabad High Court directed the Railways to pay her compensation of Rs. 5 lakhs.

Others in her place would have got a medical handicapped certificate and a reserved government job and led a settled life. But she was an athlete and a fighter. She had rebounded with grit and determination. Her daredevilry was evident by her resolve to bounce back.

“None can defeat you until you concede”

– Arunima Sinha

FIRST RESOLVE – A crazy resolution

One day Sahid while she was still in the hospital, her brother-in-law suggested that she should climb Mt. Everest since no female amputee had ever done so and she could create history. At first, she was reluctant but, she had no other option. In the light of the events that had unfolded before her over the last few months, she resolved to take up the challenge and prove her mettle, even though it was going to be a tough journey. 

SECOND RESOLVE – Walking again 

Now that she had a mission to accomplish, Arunima’s joy knew no bounds when she got her artificial limb. She used to walk alone supporting herself on the walls of her hospital cabin much against the objection of her doctors. Given her condition, it was quite risky. Though she ultimately convinced them, she did not reveal to them why she was so eager to walk normally again. The doctors could not believe their eyes because normally a person needed almost a year to walk comfortably on artificial limbs, Arunima could walk effortlessly with only a few days of training.

THIRD RESOLVE – Seeking the mentor and training

Once out of the hospital, she tried to contact Bachendri Pal, India’s first lady Everester. Finding her mobile number was not an easy task, but Arunima somehow managed it. She wanted to meet the first Indian lady Everester. Apart from her near ones, Arunima had not revealed her true intentions to anyone. Either people would have laughed at her or discouraged her, and Arunima was not going to accept either. For five days her calls got no response. On the sixth day, she got Bachendri Pal on the line and expressed her desire to meet her. Bachendri Pal invited her to Jamshedpur.

Losing no time Arunima dashed to Jamshedpur and was at Bachendri Pal’s office. Ms. Pal was aghast. Here was a young girl straight out from the hospital with an artificial left limb and a steel rod in her right leg and telling her she wanted to climb Mt. Everest. Bachendri Pal saw the grit in her and was supportive and told her “In your heart, you have already climbed the Everest, now you merely need to prove it to the world”.

Arunima now had to start training at the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation at Uttarkashi under Bachendri Pal as her Coach and Mentor.

FOURTH RESOLVE – The gritty training

About a year later from the day of her accident, Arunima was at Uttarkashi to begin her training. The instructor took stock of her condition and started her training the very day she had reached the camp, it was to be a 250 ft. uphill climb and back to the camp which Arunima did in 2 hours. 

The next morning she was to do it’s double and had to join a group for a 9 km trek. Gradually the distance, the trek, and her carrying load became tougher. But as the saying goes – When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Arunima was stopping at nothing, she surpassed each challenge and got better with each passing day. 

FIFTH RESOLVE – Completing the mountaineering course

Now Bachendri Pal advised her to do the basic mountaineering course in Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) at Uttarkashi. However, the NIM authorities refused to admit her because the institute’s rules prohibited a physically challenged person from getting into the course. Somehow, Arunima’s grit worked and she was admitted. But the doctors didn’t agree, again she persisted and got them to agree. She became the first physically challenged mountaineer to receive training at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering. During her training, she performed well and excelled greatly building up her skills and stamina. 

Next on the advice of Bachendri Pal, she scaled the 21798 ft Chamsar Kangdi summit in Ladakh. She was now ready for Everest.   On 25 March 2013, Bachendri Pal called her to New Delhi to announce her attempt to scale Mt. Everest at the Delhi Press Club. The Tata had sponsored the expedition – Eco Everest Expedition 2013. The Eco prefix meant that the expedition members will bring back all their wastes and garbage. After making the initial arrangements she flew to Kathmandu and then to Lukla wherefrom the journey to Everest began. 

SIXTH RESOLVE – Summiting the Island Peak, her first World Record

Before Everest, Arunima had created a world record. To acclimatize and garner experience, she climbed the 6189 m high Island peak. The Island peak is technically tougher than Everest. And she was the first amputee to do so. After successfully summiting the Island Peak, Arunima reached the Everest Base Camp on 11 April 2013. This was exactly two years from the date when she was thrown off a running train. In the bygone two years, she had undergone immense pain and suffering. Fate might have made her handicapped but in her heart, she never accepted it and didn’t take it lying down.

FINAL RESOLVE – Summiting Mt. Everest, two Records

Arunima left Camp 4 for the summit on 20th May 2013 at 4 p.m. along with Sherpa Neema Kancha, her guide who would accompany her to the summit and back. 

Mt. Everest is one of the most dangerous places on earth. Climbing Mount Everest is pitting yourself against insurmountable obstacles and heavy odds. The human body cannot survive in that inhospitable environment. Each step threatens to snatch your life. One little error can be fatal. It is like pushing yourself to the last brink of your mental threshold and physical endurance and restraining yourself from crossing the irreversible limits. On the icy playground above 25,000 feet, all human logic, reasoning, and energy dips to the lowest level and the cost of even a minor slip of error is death. 

Despite all odds and near-death experiences, on 21st May 2013 at 10:55 a.m. Arunima Sinha stood atop Mt. Everest, the highest point on planet Earth. At that moment she had created two records. She was the first female amputee in the world to conquer Mt.Everest– a World Record and the first Indian amputee to do so – an Indian Record.

Summiting Everest was just half the battle won. Descending the mountain and arriving at the base camp safely and alive was equally difficult and dangerous and not everyone makes it. For Arunima, even coming back was an arduous task. However, she made it. At last, she fulfilled her dream.

RECOGNITION AND ACCOLADES

The news of her triumph had reached the world and wherever she went – the local populace, administrators, politicians, Chief Ministers, Prime Minister of India, everybody gave her a grand reception and showered her with love and adulation. She was also given cash rewards. She had become a youth icon. 

Arunima, however, did not stop there. In the following years, from 2014 till 2019, she went on to climb the highest peaks in each of the seven continents. She became the first Indian amputee to summit all the seven highest peaks. In 2019, she climbed her seventh peak, Mt. Vinson, in Antarctica and became the world’s first female amputee to do so.

12 LESSONS FROM ARUNIMA’S LIFE

We all have our own metaphorical Everest to climb and conquer at different points in our life. Although the circumstantial and situational settings may be different, the phases and conditions of struggle are almost similar. We can learn a few lessons from her life to acting as a motivation.

CONCLUSION

However, though, success did not come easily to her. Arunima’s journey had been a tough one with sacrifices of blood, sweat, and tears. Her grit and single-minded determination carried her through and helped her to change her would-have-been-ordinary-life into that of once-in-a-lifetime celebrity status. 

In 2014, Arunima Sinha received the Amazing Indian Award from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. In 2015, she received Padma Shri, the 4th highest civilian award, and Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award, the highest mountaineering award in India.   

Today, Dr Arunima Sinha manages her dream project the Shaheed Chandra Shekhar Azad Viklaang Khel Academy, a sports academy that aims to help physically challenged youths achieve their dreams. She is also a motivational speaker and is on the panels of the London Speaker Bureau and TEDx. 

Arunima has authored a book named “Born Again on the Mountains” in which she tells the story of her conquest of Mt. Everest, in simple language and is a must-read for anyone who is looking for some raw motivation. On her website http://www.arunimasinha.com/, she had humbly dedicated her achievements to “all those who lose hope”.  Arunima’s achievements have proved that it is not a physical disability, but a mental disability that stops us from believing in ourselves and achieving our life’s goals.

Mt Everest Featured Photo Credit- Sergey Pashko, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons