Not long ago I was passing by a garden, a bird stole my attention. A nest was being built by the bird. The structure and architecture of the nest were so enchanting, it was built with perfection and symmetry and the bird was building it tirelessly. I figured it out that nature is more creative and inspirational than us. Often we try to seek inspiration from movies, books, motivational speeches, and so on but we forget that we all are surrounded by the biggest source of inspiration and we call it “Nature”.
From nothing to everything nature shaped the world and whatever is created by nature exists in a balanced form. Nature is all-rounder because nature is good at architecture, nature knows science and nature is a magician. How? Go and check northern lights! The most fascinating piece of the creation of nature is “A Human Brain”. From the invention of “the wheel” to the advent of “Artificial Intelligence”, the brain discovered everything and still spreading ideas. We all are gifted with eyes, ears, hands, legs and we are programmed by nature to use them for survival so that is the only rule.
Some people come, follow the rule though fail and go but some people come, break the rule, and not only they survive but become eternal in history. Sometimes nature or maybe an incident snatches the abilities of people but those people challenge nature and create their own rules. This miracle happens when our body and physical abilities fail but the mind dominates.
Question: how legends are born?
Not always passion drives a person to the top but adverse situations also may lead a person to an unexplored path. A 24 years old girl faced death but she refused to die, she survived a suicidal mission and became a quintessential example of inspiration for everyone who dares to live. This is the story of an unsung hero “Arunima Sinha” who narrated her story of courage in history with a prosthetic leg.
She is known as –
• Sports Person
• Indian Mountaineer
• Motivational Speaker
She is known for –
World’s first female amputee to climb “Mount Everest”
The journey of her life –
The story of Arunima Sinha starts on 20 July 1989 in Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. Her father served in the Indian Army as an Engineer and her mother was a healthcare supervisor. Her father passed away when she was 3 and henceforth her sister’s husband started looking after her family.
Career –
She was fond of sports like cycling, swimming, and football. Later she became a national volleyball player. Later on, she wanted to join paramilitary forces so she tried for it then she got a call letter from CISF. She decided to go to Delhi to take the exam needed to join CISF and while moving to Delhi she faced an incident that changed her life.
The Train Incident –
The date was 12 April 2011 when Arunima took Padmavati Express from Lucknow to Delhi. While traveling some robbers in the same compartment of train started threatening people and snatching things, they tried to take bag and chain from Arunima but her sportive spirit was not letting them steal her things then she was pushed by robbers out of the running train. When she was pushed out meantime a train came from a parallel track and she got hit by that train, fell on the ground, and her leg was crushed by train below the knee.
The next moment she started losing her consciousness and she drowned in pains. She was lying on the track and screaming but no one was there to hear her pains and later she realized that her left leg got broken. She says,
“Some uninvited guests (Mice) came there and started eating her broken leg”
She was unconscious though was watching mice eating her leg and she got fractures in the spinal cord, she was lying the whole night on the track letting 49 trains pass over her legs and intense pains. We can’t even keep ourselves in her shoes.
The next morning she was taken to a government hospital by locals in Bareilly. When she opened her eyes she was informed by doctors that it is necessary to cut out her broken leg to stop the further infection in the body but the hospital did not have facilities of anesthesia. Arunima allowed them to cut her leg without anesthesia, she endured the pain and she lost her leg. This courage is surreal!
On 18 April 2011, she was rushed to All India Institutions of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for further treatment. She spent 4 months at AIIMS and then she was provided a prosthetic leg free of cost and a metallic rod was installed in her other leg. Then she was offered a government job and the Indian railway also offered her job.
Later inquiry by police on this incident resulted in an outbreak of rumors and allegations that were absurd according to Arunima. According to the inquiry, people said she did not have a ticket so she jumped out, she wanted to commit suicide so she jumped. These rumors devastated her mind, it broke her self confidence.
To prove these rumors and people wrong she decided that she wants to prove herself. In the hospital even she was not given discharge she took the biggest decision of her life to save her self-confidence and refused to make a wheelchair her companion. She decided to climb Mount Everest. Her family supported her.
After knowing these people started making fun of her, they started calling her psycho and demoralized her. But she had made her mind so she was unstoppable so she did not give attention to naysayers.
“Attacking people with disabilities is the lowest display of power I can think of”
– Morgan Freeman
Mission Mount Everest –
• Her first step towards Mt. Everest –
When Arunima stepped out of the hospital after discharge she refused to take rest and go home instead she headed towards Bachendri Pal
(First Indian women to scale Mount Everest in 1984)for guidance. When Bachendri Pal met Arunima, she couldn’t stop tears in her eyes and she said to Arunima,
“My child you decided to climb in these situations. You have achieved Mount Everest now just a date remaining to the world to know”
• Training for the ascent –
She started her basic training at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi (India).
Recollecting the experience of training she says,
“During training, everyone would go further and I was unable to walk faster because my wounds were not recovered yet, my leg would start bleeding whenever I tried to walk faster and the prosthetic leg would get detached. These series of incidents devastated my mind but I was not ready to give up so I started motivating myself”
After 8 months she reached a peak with additional weights before everyone. Wow, this is so magnetic and she proved that the biggest motivator is just YOURSELF. Everyone appreciated and encouraged her.
• Completion of a dreadful dream:
Mount Everest
“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves”
-Edmund Hillary (The first mountaineer to scale Mount Everest)
well said because Everest demands dedication, will power and sacrifice of fear.
1. From base camp to summit-
Arunima was afraid of sponsorship but she got sponsorship from TATA steel. Arunima reached Kathmandu with Bachendri Pal and the team then they reached Everest base camp where Sherpa (a local guide) came to know about Arunima’s prosthetic leg and refused to climb the mountain with her. Somehow Bachendri madam and Arunima convinced Sherpa.
She was on the base camp that is a small world of white and cold beauty. She found it hard to walk on the snow and came to know that her leg was slipping but somehow she managed to walk and started her climb. Khumbu glacier (Icefall) is considered dangerous because most people either get trapped here or die, Arunima successfully passed the icefall.
There are a total of 4 camps till the summit, on
May 2013 Arunima reached at camp 4. There she experienced very disturbing things, she was surrounded by dead bodies of mountaineers and those people died for the same goal that she was going to accomplish. She says,
“I promised those dead mountaineers that I will complete your uncompleted dream (To reach the summit)”. She headed forward leaving the fear far behind and after reaching to Hillary Step her Sherpa informed her that her oxygen was about to end and she was asked to return. Her dream was in front of her and just a few miles away, she was able to see the summit and she did not want to return so she refused. Somehow she convinced Sherpa and she followed the way to the summit.
2. On the TOP of the WORLD, on the SUMMIT:
The date was 21 May 2013 at 10:55 am she reached on the summit (8848 meters) and became The First Female Amputee to Scale Mount Everest.
She shares her experience on the summit,
“My happiness was on cloud nine, I was not able to anything but just the view from the top”
Sherpa asked her to return but she asked Sherpa to click a photo of her, Sherpa got so furious though he clicked some pictures of her then he asked her to leave again she refused and asked him to make a video. After listening to that Sherpa got so much anger with her and started scolding her but then when she gave a reason that why she wanted to make a video of her Sherpa started making a video of her. And the reason she gave was,
“Even if I die while returning just send this video to my country so they will know that within 2 years after my accident I reached the top of the world and I did not climb by my legs but with my mind”. She took 54 days to reach the summit.
3. From the summit to pages of history:
This is how history was created and the glass ceiling was broken with a prosthetic leg and a powerful mind. Arunima safely came to base camp and when she returned she wasn’t the same, an optimist inside her climbed the mountain, and a winner returned! Then she was appreciated by the whole country.
• Now she has dedicated herself to social welfare and also she wants to open a sports academy for differently able kids.
• Then she wrote an autobiography named “born again on mountain” and launched by PM of India Narendra Modiji in December 2014.
• In 2015 she was awarded by the Padma Shri.
• Then she was again awarded by “Tenzing Norgay highest mountaineering award and Arjun award as well.
Awards she earned:
• First lady award (2016)
• Malala award
• Yash Bharti award
• Rani Laxmi bai award
“It always seems impossible, until someone does it” -Nelson Mandela
The extraordinary power of Unstoppable Arunima:
She did not stop till 8848-meter tall mountain but her next goal was to conquer all the highest seven peaks in the 7 continents. She has shown us the power of a positive mindset. She has covered six peaks in North America, South America, Australia, Asia, and Africa.
On 4 January 2019, she conquered the seventh peak of Antarctica and again she became the world’s first female amputee to scale Mount Vinson.
Answer: This is how legends are born,
Their actions, their powerful and unique mindset make them a legend.
A quote by Arunima Sinha –
“Abhi to iss baaj is asli udaan baki hai,
Abhi to iss parindey ka imtehaan baaki hai,
Abhi abhi to maine laangha hai samandaro ko,
Abhi to pura aasaman baki hai”
• What her story represents?
Arunima was demoralized, she became a victim of media witch hunt, People took doubt on her capability and started mocking how she is going to climb without a leg. People thought she has gone crazy and that is the symbol of a legend.
Her climb broke the delusion of people who were thinking disabled women can’t do anything. She had thousands of reasons to give up but she chose to fight. She embraced the risk of death rather than sympathy for life. Between a glass half full and a glass half empty, she chose a glass that was half full. People skip meals (fast) to live longer but she escaped death to become eternal.
Acceptance and moving on matters the most and she too accepted herself and despite getting depressed she chose to hustle. Her broken leg stopped her life for a while but her prosthetic leg is unstoppable now.
Her life was destroyed but her destruction created history.
Darwin stated but Arunima proved the theory of “survival of the fittest”.
If the mind is fit, the body automatically becomes fit.
If we embrace risks, fear automatically vanishes.
She is Arunima Sinha,
Even the coldness of mountains failed to eradicate the heat of a thousand fires within her.
Conclusion:
1. The names given below are of the people who refused to walk on pre-defined ways but explored new ways and became an example of motivation.
• Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay:
First climbers who confirmed to have touched the summit of Mount Everest
• Junko Tabei: (Japanese mountaineer)
First women in the world who scaled Mount Everest
• Bachendri pal: (Indian mountaineer)
First Indian women who reached the Mount Everest
These legends proved that no energy is greater than your willpower and dedication and belief, not even 8848 m high Mountain.
These women proved that even Everest never makes difference between men and women, the one who is worthy will win. The one who shows courage to try unexplored things will make records.
Conclusion 1:
Becoming second is an option but
Becoming the first is a choice.
People given below are those worriers who never let their disability overtake the ability of their minds.
• Stephen Hawking: (An English cosmologist, author, and physicist)
He was unable to walk and talk and even move but his extraordinarily intelligent brain traveled the time, universe, and even black holes.
• Nick Vujicic: (American evangelist and motivational speaker)
He was born with the absence of legs and hands but his mind was enough for him to survive.
We normal people waste our time in blame games but some differently able people come and achieve things that we normal people can’t even think of. Physically fit people with the handicapped mind are weaker. We should learn to respect what we have and make full use of it and we should thank nature for such blessings.
Conclusion 2:
People are handicapped by the body, not by mind.
