Mangalore: It’s a story of the triumph of will. It’s about Arunima Sinha, former National Level volleyball player who lost her leg after being thrown off a running train and then scaled Mount Everest with an artificial leg.
At a motivational lecture to the students hosted by the Yuva Brigade, here in Sanganikethana on Friday, Sinha inspired students to be focused and ambitious. On record, Arunima Sinha is the first Indian woman with an artificial limb to achieve the feat.
She said, “In 2011, while attending a sports workshop at Delhi from Lucknow, I was pushed out of a moving train for resisting a chain-snatching attempt by hoodlums. As a result, another train passed over my legs and I had to spend my entire night between the tracks seriously injured. I was hospitalized with serious leg and pelvic injuries and doctors had to amputate my left leg below the knee, she told students about life at the age of 23.
“It was on the hospital bed that I decided to get into mountaineering and scaling Mount Everest was my dream” Sinha said, asking the students not to give up but fight against all odds.
Sinha had lost her left leg but not hope and her heart. “In 2013, I was on the top of the world – Mount Everest”, she said.
This did not happen overnight. I underwent training for days together. “When my leg started bleeding, I did not give up. I was focused and I continued to work hard”, she said giving examples of her own life. She said those who commit suicide are the ones who don’t fight against odds but give up. “Odd times are momentary, hold on. Don’t give up” she added.
The brave heart also narrated her experience of climbing Mount Everest, connecting it to daily life. ‘I helplessly saw climbers freezing to death, but I survived’. Every person faces tough times and ‘climbing to the top’ is a phrase. You become, the way you think’, she said asking the students to dream big.
“Not all of us are determined. Everyone wants to be an achiever but do not work towards it. Many keep alarm to wake up early in the morning but when it rings, we tend to sleep more. It’s about mind, focus yourself”, she told the gathering of students.
Arunima Sinha also expressed her desire to set up an International Sports Academy for the weaker section at the cost of Rs 25 crores. She said the land is ready and she intends to provide a platform for the have-nots.
Om Prakash, brother of Arunima Sinha, Chakravarthi Sulibele and Naresh Shenoy were present.
