Arunima Sinha, a National-level volleyball player who lost one of her legs in a train mishap in 2011 and thereafter scaled the Mount Everest with a prosthetic leg in May 2013, spoke about her future plans in a one-to-one with The Hindu here on Friday.
Some excerpts:
Q: What are your future plans?
A: On the social life front, I’m setting up a sporting academy for the disabled and the poor. As far as scaling mountains is concerned, I have already scaled Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa (May 2014) and Mount Elbrus in Europe (July 2014) and decided to scale four taller mountains in the world — Kosciusko (Australia-Antarctica), Aconcagua (South America), McKinley (North America) and Vinson (Antarctica).
Q: Tell us more about the sporting academy.
A: The Academy, named as Pandit Chandra Shekhar Vikalang Khel Academy, is coming up in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh near Lucknow at an estimated cost of Rs. 25 crore. It is meant for the disabled and the poor. I have bought about 10 bighas of land for the purpose and have already started indoor sports activities like badminton. About 24 kids are undergoing training. For outdoor sports activities, I need more space.
Q: How do you fund the academy?
A: As of now, funding is from my own income which comes through sponsorships and awards received. I hope the governments would lend helping hand. As of today, we are staying in a rented house and diverting all the income towards the academy.
Q: How do you look after expenses towards mountaineering?
A: Luckily, I did get sponsors for the expeditions. The cost of Everest expedition was about Rs. 25 lakh and the Tata Steels had sponsored it. For the remaining six expeditions, BVG India has come forward for sponsorship, otherwise the expeditions would have been impossible.
Q: How you were able to achieve something that was even beyond normal people?
A: The injuries and subsequent incidents inspired me to do something. I converted my weakness into my strength and made it my weapon. My elder brother Omprakash and mother were with me always in achieving the target. However, getting people around me understand what I was doing was something difficult. They used to say, “ Langdi to hogayi; abhi paagal bhi hogayi kya (Already you have lost a leg; have you now become insane)?
Q: What is your message to the youth?
A: If god closes one door, he opens 10 other doors. I believe I’m alive today to achieve something. Set the goal and work relentlessly without fear.
