‘Determination Makes Success Possible’ Says Everester Arunima Sinha

Our Correspondent

Itanagar: Everester Arunima Sinha on Thursday exhorted the sportsmen of Arunachal Pradesh to pursue their dream with determination so that nothing could deter them from achieving it.

The lady, who hails from Amedkarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, was addressing the National Sports Day function here organized by the state Sports and Youth Affairs department.

The day her leg was amputated, Arunima took a pledge that many would find even difficult to comprehend. Her objective, from that day onwards, was not simply to prove her proficiency with a prosthetic leg, but was also to conquer the highest peak in the world – Mount Everest. The sense of accomplishment was what brought back her fearlessness as well as made her a motivation for everybody back home.

As a national level volleyball player, Arunima was an unstoppable soul. When a gang of robbers drove her out of a moving train in 2011, she firmly concluded that she would not cringe down.

She was tired of people looking at her with pity in their eyes and mountaineering caught her eye. She found it as a perfect action to symbolic and tangible achievement. It literally embodied the spirit of fighting and conquering obstacles.

“On May 21, 2013, I reached the Everest summit. Earlier, my Sherpa had informed me that my oxygen supply was critically low. Save your life now so that you can climb Everest again later, he said pragmatically. I said, If I don’t climb Everest now, my life will not be worth saving,” she said. “I erected the flag of my country on the peak, deposited some pictures of my idol Swami Vivekananda next to it. Then I used the last vestiges of my oxygen to take pictures and videos of myself on the peak. I knew I was probably going to die. So it was important that the visual proofs of my achievement make it down to the world. Fifty steps later, my oxygen finished,” Arunima Sinha added.

She said she had little patience for wonders of faith, destiny and the like.

“We chart our own destiny. It is my firmest conviction that luck will favour those who have the drive and the tenacity to win. As I lay suffocating and gasping for breath, I came across an extra cylinder of oxygen. My Sherpa quickly latched it on me. Slowly we embarked on the precarious downward climb. Far more deaths occur on the downward climb than the upward one on Everest and now that I had survived the worst,” she said.

The Everster added that climbing mountains has yielded the most valuable life lessons for her as it had taught her about confidence, leadership, resilience and team building.

“But above all it has taught me the power of humility. It does not matter what you achieve in life. What matters is how those achievements make you a better person. How you treat others is at the core of what makes you a good human being,” she pointed out.

“Failure is not when we fall short of achieving our goals. It is when we don’t have goals worthy enough,” she said.

Arunima appealed the budding sportspersons of the state to shed of negativity in life and always think positive to excel.

“There are ups and downs in life but you have to conquer it with determination so that you can achieve the goal you have set,” she said adding, that she had not summit the Everest with her amputed leg but with her determined heart and mind.

Former Indian Football team captain Potsamgand Renedy Singh, who was also present on the occasion, urged upon the budding sportspersons of the state to work hard adding that there is no short cut to success.

“Our duty is to create a platform for our youth so that they can excel in sports,” he said and appealed the state government to provide the required infrastructure so that sportsmen of the state perform better in national and international event.

State Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Mama Natung addressing the function informed that the state government had attached priority in the sports sector.

“The motivational speech of Arunima Sinha will surely inspire youth of the state and they could excel in their respective fields,” the minister said and exuded confidence that the sportsmen of the state would able to bring laurel in the days to come by winning medals at international and national sporting events.

On the occasion, cash incentives were also provided to the sportsmen who won medals in international and national sporting events in the recent past.

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