Answering the call of the Mountains : Twin Wonder girls

"The mountains are calling and I must go."- John Muir

Most of my young life, I have lived in the hills. And wherever I go, the sight of a hill makes me feel at home. I have grown up climbing trees and chasing streams of water in the monsoons and catching tadpoles in puddles after the rains. I have trekked and climbed hills in slippers and suffered muscle cramps and sore feet and cuts. But I have also felt the thrill of being in the thick of Nature, feeling small in front of rivers and mountains and amazed at the boundless energy of the wild.

Last year, I was invited along with my sisters, to attend the Mussoorie Writer's Festival at Woodstock School and the theme being "A Mountain Festival : The Himalayas", we had the wonderful opportunity of learning so much about the unique flora and fauna of the Himalayas, efforts at cleaning up the mountains, preservation and education efforts and sat through exhilarating accounts of mountaineers, nature enthusiasts and environmentalists as they shared their experiences in stories, photographs and films over the course of a week. It set me wondering what it is about the mountains that attract so many people to seem to not care about the perils of mountaineering and all the discomforts, not to mention the amount of funding and training that is required to do serious summiting. I could only marvel at the enthusiasm they had and ask myself if I would ever be up to some serious climbing. I do have an idea of how it feels to be on top of a hill and looking around and below at the vast expanse of green or brown and blue or white, feel the cold crisp air whip your hair and whistle in your ear. It is wonderful. But the Himalayas and Mount Everest. Hmmm. Magnify that a hundred or even a thousand times and I can't even begin to imagine.

Over 4000 people have summited Mt Everest and there are more people in the fray to attempt it. There is immense beauty and the call is stronger than ever. Now that there are better equipments and know how, it would also seem even more feasible than ever and there will always be more people who will want to be on top of the tallest peak in the world and to many it won't matter if he or she is the first or the thousandth. And then again, it matters to be first.

Sometime ago, I picked up an edition of the National Geographic Magazine commemorating 50 years since Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Mt. Everest and I was completely absorbed by the picture he drew. The mountains came alive for me. I could feel the icy cold, the wind and the pain almost for real and imagined the sight of the world from up there.

Two days ago, I signed up to be a part of a LIVE blogging event powered by blogmint at FICCI's TURF 2013 - the 5th Global Sports Summit and I ran into three young people who had actually been on Mt. Everest and a few more and are raring to climb some more. I'm flabbergasted and yet their excitement was infectious. I don't see myself gearing up to go on an expedition like that anytime soon but well, I do wish them the very best.

So there is Arjun Vajpai, youngest Indian to summit Mt. Everest and Nungshi and Tashi, the world's first twins to climb Mt. Everest and I met them all in one go. How cool is that?
Sometime ago, I had read somewhere about two young ladies, twins from Dehradun who had gone on to create the world record of being the first twins to summit the Everest and they were Indians. The first thought I had was that their parents must be totally cool to let their girls do this. And the next thought was Wow! way to go girls!

Tashi & Nungshi at Turf 2013, FICCI, New Delhi

From the little trekking I have done, I know that it takes a lot of effort, discipline and patience to climb. And Everest is the mother of all climbs in a lot of ways. Extreme temperatures. Extreme everything. And being me, when I met them, I just had to ask how they dealt with the female monthly afflictions and answering the call of nature while on the climb and if being girls made it all the more difficult as the press would like to point out. (We girls got it bad! and men will act like they didn't hear or saw this bit. Hmmm. It happens you know, like the birds and the bees. It's got to be dealt with. Ahem.)

Pic courtesy: Nungshi & Tashi

Nungshi says "It is not that since we are girls, we should get special attention. It was of course more difficult in ways that are unique to being a women, but being women, we adapted to the circumstances pretty quick. Throughout our mountaineering journey, we have been pitched against men but we don't look at it from a man vs woman perspective. It is about doing the best one can in any circumstance."

Pic courtesy: Nungshi & Tashi

"Of course, it is a moment of pride that we, two girls could do this like a lot of men have done and yet we also have to acknowledge that we are as good and even better on some counts at doing this. We consistently did better than the boys in training school. Only 3 people in the training program got graded A and it was the two of us and a boy."

Nungshi & Tashi

For these twins who have traipsed around the country, courtesy of their Army father, they are delighted to have been able to see much of the world and from the top of the world too.And more of the world to see.

At FICCI's TURF 2013 Inauguration, their presence was acknowledged. "Our dad is our core inspiration and our Mother our support team. We continue to nurse our dream of doing the Seven Summits, the highest on every continent of the world. Funding is a major challenge. We have been travelling, networking and raising funds as well as promoting peace through adventure sports. We have so many dreams and the mountains have taught us that life is infinitesimally precious and we got to live while we can." says Tashi.

And while we chat, a man walks up and hands over his card and asks if they would like to get in touch with him as he is documenting twins for a film. I ask the girls what are the other things they like to do.
"We sing, play a little guitar, big time in sports playing hockey at the regional and national levels." Nungshi further explains, "We have been offered modelling assignments too. But we are right now focused on building our life skills and funds for the next climbs. Platforms like TURF 2013 also allows us to meet and get in touch with potential support. Our parents have spent a fortune to fund our dreams and we are looking at ways to harness more opportunities to fuel the rest of our dreams."

We also connected over the fact that I am from Nagaland and since they have spent considerable time in the Northeast, especially Manipur and Nagaland, we have much to share including the curiosity their names generate - Nungshi is an obvious Ao Naga name and Tashi, a Tibetan one; and share notes on the state of affairs back home. We exchanged contacts and move on to the next session while I am left with the thought in my head that these girls will surely go on to create history, shattering myths and breaking moulds that the male dominated world puts us women in. And I truly wish them the best as they draw closer to conquering more summits not for the sake of reaching each but to show respect to the mountains that beckons them and rediscovering themselves on each journey they take.

Special Note:

Thanks to Blogmint, India’s first and only paid bloggers network and the online media partner for FICCI’s TURF 2013 for allowing me to be a part of the LIVE Blogging experience.