Mountaineering should be promoted among girls in MP
| Date :03-Jun-2019 |
Mountaineer Ratnesh Pandey along with Megha Parmar and Bhawna Dehariya during their expedition to Mt Everest.
By Shaily Acharya:
Still, there are many professions and careers which are considered to be of male bastion. One of them is mountaineering. However, women have stepped into many of male dominated sports and proved their mettle. Two young girls from Madhya Pradesh- Megha Parmar and Bhawna Dehariya, have successfully scaled Mount Everest to prove that women can also reach the great heights of unassailable mountains. “If you have passion and perseverance in you, nobody can stop you from achieving the goal,” believe Megha and Bhawna, who converted their dream into reality by completing summit of Mount Everest under the guidance of Ratnesh Pandey.
Despite various obstacles in life, on May 22, Wednesday, Sehore’s girl Megha Parmar and Chhindwara’s girl Bhawna Dehariya climbed the highest peak of Mount Everest at 5 am and 9.30 am respectively. They shared their thrilling experience of their voyage to Mount Everest with ‘The Hitavada’ and spoke at length about them. Megha Parmar (24), who is a middle class girl, came to know about mountaineer Ratnesh Pandey through a newspaper and contacted him as she also wanted to be a successful mountaineer. The first ever attempt by her to scale Mouth Everest was done last year, but she fell short by 700 metres from the set target. Failing to reach till set height of Mount Everest, she fell into depression.
But she overcame depression to realise the dream and finally, she achieved the desired success on May 22 at 5 am. She is first female from Madhya Pradesh to reach Mount Everest. However, she faced rough weather and obstacles in way of achieving the success. She suffered from snow blindness, which left her hospitalised for three days. “Dharti Gol Hai, Wahan Jaa Kar Pata Chala…… I also fought with scarcity of oxygen at the top of Mount Everest and managed to cope with the situation with the help of Sherpas accompanying me. They are the real heroes of mountain.
Thereafter, I promised two things including plantation every year and helping people who need assistance,” said Megha. While Bhawna Dehariya said that, it was ten years ago that she saw the dream to become a mountaineer and to scale the great heights of Mount Everest. “Dream seeped in my heart in 2009 when I met an instructor during an adventure camp. Then, I pursued its courses and promised myself if I became mountaineer, then definitely I would climb Mount Everest. I achieved this goal facing many odds like my oxygen cylinder regulator got leaked and it was really life threatening experience for me. I am very thankful to Chief Minister Kamal Nath for giving wings to my dream. Now, I want to climb other six summits of continents too.” During the summit, mountaineer Ratnesh Pandey who accompanied Megha rescued three lives of mountaineers from Argentina and Nepal. While having conversation with ‘The Hitavada’, mountaineers from Madhya Pradesh shared their views:
Ratnesh Pandey “Girls need to be encouraged for mountaineering in State” Ratnesh Pandey, mentor of team Madhya Pradesh and notably, the first one who sang National Anthem at Mount Everest believes that “Mountaineering needs to be promoted in our State and females should also come forward to convert their dreams into reality. Women empowerment with regard to mountaineering is required in the State. Each girl should have will power like Megha and Bhawna.A proposal in regard to mountaineering in the State is in pipeline under State Government.”
Megha Parmar “Grab the opportunity, prepare well for it and achieve it with zeal and dedication” Megha Parmar, first female to climb Mount Everest from the State, says “Opportunity knocks your door rarely and if it does, then grab it, prepare well for it and achieve it. I would like to say to the persons who give up quickly and take wrong steps like suicide so never fear from failure, try again with firm determination defeating failure and success will be yours.
I also beat my failure and achieved my goal so why cannot you?” Bhawna Dehariya “Be mentally more strong than physically and you can do it” Bhawna Dehariya, another female mountaineer, who climbed the Mount Everest from Madhya Pradesh says “Fear should be thrown out by stepping ahead towards your goal. Mountaineering can be done with firm determination and complete preparation, have complete information as incomplete knowledge is very dangerous. Being mentally strong is more important than being physically. With all this, I fulfilled my dream, which I dreamt 10 years back successfully.”