With the theme 'Balance for Better' for this Women's Day, Arunima Sinha has stated a perfect example for every woman, who dream to achieve big despite suffering from physical breakdown, who want to build up a balanced future for herself and for the people related to her, and the reason she does so, is for something better.
Arunima Sinha was born in 1988, in Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. She was a national level Volleyball player with the possession of an impregnable spirit. On 12th April 2011, when she was twenty-four, she boarded the Padmavati Express train at Lucknow to Delhi to join CISF, unfortunately, she met with an accident; she was thrown out of the train by robbers when she refused to hand over the gold chain she was wearing. Immediately, as soon as she fell on the railway track, another train on a parallel track crushed her leg below the knee. She was sprinted to the hospital with serious leg and pelvic injuries and lost her leg. After that, doctors amputated it to save her life.
"I was an amputee now, and people were looking at me with pity in their eyes. I decided then and there that I would do something to prove myself. And mountaineering was the only option. It was the only option where there were no chances of saying sorry. If you committed a mistake, life would be the one saying sorry to you."
The worst tragedy turned Arunima into a world champion. Following national outrage, she was offered compensation of US 3,100 by the Indian Sports Ministry, the Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Ajay Maken announced an additional Rs.200,000 (US$3,000) compensation as medical relief.
"There's a small district 200 kilometers outside of Lucknow called Ambedkarnagar. That's where I am from. My father was an engineer in the army and my mother a supervisor with the health department. He passed away when I was three. I have an elder sister and a little brother. Upon my father's death, my sister's husband, whom we fondly call Bhai Sahib, became the family's de facto patriarch." She added when asked about her family.
She was adamant to win the Mt. Everest, so she started with the basic course from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering with scrupulous training sessions of 18 months. "I climbed smaller, but not less dangerous mountains had a couple of near-death experiences and underwent mind-numbing, exhausting, spirit-crushing pain. I supported myself with a grant from NIM. Then Tata Steel provided me with a generous sponsorship that let me focus exclusively on the impossible task that lay ahead." says Arunima.
She was inspired by Yuvraj Singh after she was released from hospital; she went to meet the first Indian female Mount Everest winner Bachendri Pal instead going home. She was so enthralled after her meet with Bachendri Pal that she started taking training from her. On 21st May'2013, she finally reached the peak of Mt. Everest as a part of TATA Group Sponsored. She aimed to win seven summits of seven continents, and she has made India proud with completing her '7 Summit Challenge' with unfurling Indian Flag on highest peaks of 7 continents such as Everest in Asia, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Kosciuszko in Australia, Elbrus in Europe, Aconcagua in Argentina and Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia and lastly, in the year 2019, she has made a World Record of becoming World's 1st Woman Amputee who climbed Mount Vinson of Antarctica, which is the highest peak of Antarctica, and made to the name of our country India.
Her achievement was extolled and commended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and millions of netizens.
Arunima Sinha was honored with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India. Even her book 'Born Again On The Mountain' was launched by the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi in December'2014.
