ARUNIMA SINHA ----------- THE STORY

Arunima Sinha was born in 1988 in Uttar Pradesh, India. Arunima is the first female amputee to climb the Mount Everest. Her father was an engineer in the army and her mother a supervisor in the health department. She was just three when she lost her father. Her whole family loved sports. so it was natural for her to join volleyball and football, which she loved to play. She was a former national volleyball player. She completed her law and started her job hunt but in vain. In 2011, she applied for CISF. She received her call letter, but to her surprise, there was an error in her birthdate, so she had to leave for Delhi to rectify it as soon as possible.

Image Source

Arunima boarded the general compartment of Padmavati Express at Lucknow for Delhi on April 11th, 2011. According to her, the crowd was crushing and she squeezed herself into a corner seat. Unaware of her fate, she made herself comfortable and started off thinking about her future and joining CISF, when suddenly some four to five thugs got close to her and started pulling her bags and her only valuable gold chain. Arunima refused to give her valuables, as it was her mother's gift and she retaliated. It is a common sight in U.P, where criminals or thieves enter the railway compartments and loot the passengers. She was a single female passenger, an easy prey for them. She retaliated by kicking and punching, she fought with them as much as she could, but in vain. The whole compartment was jam packed with passengers, but nobody came to rescue the girl. They just pulled her and threw her out of the moving train. She fell on the opposite tracks, just before she could understand what was happening, a fast moving train ran over her left leg .

It was later discovered that around 49 trains had passed her when she laid helplessly, profusely bleeding on the tracks for the whole night. Rodents were feeding on her bleeding wounds. The pain and agony she went through that night were horrifying, with her shattered dreams, she just hoped if she would be alive the next morning. The next morning she found herself in the Bareilly District Hospital. Her left leg had to be amputated immediately to prevent Gangrene.

Arunima lying in the hospital bed was fighting for life, unaware of her becoming a sensation by T.V and Newspaper. Now the U.P government and the national government got involved and shifted her to AIIMS, where she could at least receive better medical care. Initially, she was offered compensation of INR25000 by the Indian Sports Ministry. But later, Minister of state for Youth Affairs and Sports AJAY MAKEN announced an addition of INR200000 compensation. Now she was targetted with many stories, some saying she was traveling without ticket and seeing the collector, she jumped off the moving train and some others stated she attempted a suicide. The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court ordered Indian Railways to pay another compensation of INR500000 to Arunima Sinha.

One can't even imagine as to what was Arunima going through at that point of time, battling for life as well as ways to shut people's mouth. Left leg was amputated and a rod inserted in her right leg. Devasted, shattered but she didn't give up. Lying on the bed all alone, she thought of doing something unique. She got lots of sympathies and a little monetary funds pouring in here and there. She remembers Yuvraj Singh who had sent her a cheque of one Rs.lakh. He was also a part of the inspiration to her, the way Yuvraj Singh fought cancer and joined Indian team back.

Image Source

Now, Arunima decided to climb Mount Everest. According to her, every girl cannot climb the Everest to prove herself right. But she was adamant. Nobody could change her mind. She was laughed off initially, whenever she tried to speak about climbing Everest. Some even felt that trauma had affected her mental state too. She now started walking with her prosthetic limbs. As soon as she was discharged from the hospital, she immediately headed to meet BACHENDRI PAL, THE FIRST INDIAN WOMAN TO CLIMB THE EVEREST. Bachendri Pal agreed to help her in all possible ways and told her that she already had climbed the inner Everest but it was now only for the world to see she had to climb the real mountains.

Arunima set for her dreams and joined 'The Nehru Institue of Mountaineering,' the best of its kind in Asia. Her eighteen months of vigorous training made her strong day by day. Though she started climbing smaller and dangerous mountains, she felt horrible pain and even underwent certain near death experiences. Her prosthetic limbs gave her constant trouble, her ankles and heels would swell while climbing. But, she crossed all hurdles, pain and finally reached on top of the world.

On 21st may, 2013, she reached the Everest Summit. She reached on top and erected the Indian flag along with her idols image.i.e SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. It took 52 days for her to reach the Summit. She finally fulfilled her dreams and was the happiest person, she started clicking her pictures to prove what she wanted to. In her own words, she even felt for a moment that she was about to die as her oxygen supply was low. Luck, this time, was on her side, she successfully returned back conquering the world, her dream to climb the Everest was now accomplished. Arunima became the ''FIRST FEMALE AMPUTEE TO SCALE EVEREST''.

Arunima, in her own words, said that her strong will power, dedication,hard work, confidence, courage,team building and above all her faith didn't let her down. She now wanted to climb the highest peaks of all the continents.

Image Source

So far, she has achieved climbing -

• Everest in Asia
• Kilimanjaro in Africa
• Elbrus in Europe
• Kosciuszko in Australia.
• Mt. Aconcagua in South America.
  ARUNIMA is now dedicated to social welfare and she also runs a nonprofit school for poor and handicapped children. The Shahid Chandrashekhar Azad Khel Academy is her dream, her life. She also donated all her financial aids towards the betterment of her academy . She is a proud author of her book --- "BORN AGAIN ON THE MOUNTAINS'', which was launched by our P.M Shri Narendra Modi on dec 2014.

Image Source

Arunima was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015. Here she mentioned that one doesn't need a leg to climb the Everest but a brave and a strong heart............................