HYDERABAD: Four years ago, little did Prathyusha Parakala know that the chance of a lifetime which she missed then would come back to her. Going on an Antarctic Expedition is her lifelong dream and it is so close to coming true that she can barely contain her excitement. Talkative yet impeccably articulate, Prathyusha is a breath of fresh air with her optimism and drive. As she was pursuing the a two-year long Fellowship where she taught government school children as a part of Teach for India, she found herself in a talk by Robert Swan, the first person to walk on both South and North Pole.
“By the end of the talk about the situation of our world and the need for us to conserve it, I was teary eyed,” she confesses. So off she went to sign up for the Leadership Programme led by Robert Swan. The programme was meant to test and select worthy candidates for the expedition to Antarctica to promote the dangers of climate change. But there was a catch. “I still had three months to finish my Fellowship with Teach for India but I had to leave for the expedition in a month. So I had to choose between the commitment I made to my kids and the expedition and I chose the kids,” says Prathyusha, referring to the children she taught as “my kids”.
This year, however, opportunity knocked on Prathyusha’s door again. “I got selected again and I am one of the few from Hyderabad to be picked for the expedition. The expedition starts on February 26, 2018, and I need to source money to make it happen,” says Prathyusha who is taking help of crowdfunding. A biker, traveller and a trekker, Prathyusha is no alien to adverse climactic conditions. “I have done the Chadar Trek to Ladakh, where the temperatures are so high that the river freezes over.
It gets as cold as -30 degrees outdoors. I know Antarctica is way worse, but the vision is enough to keep me going,” says Prathyusha, who is also an RJ. And what is this vision, we ask. She gets explaining, “It is both micro and macro. This years rains were devastating for Hyderabad. They have been that way for coastal cities like Chennai and Mumbai, but we only realise the seriousness of it when we are present in the situation. Antarctica is the same. The poles are the most sensitive to global warming, but we don’t realise that in the mainlands. I want to be present there, gather information and learn band apply it when I get back home.”
Back home for Prathyusha is also an ecologically aware space apparently. “My parents are nature lovers too. We have about a 100 plants on our terrace and we pay extra money to the municipality to water the trees in our frontyard which we refused to chop down,” she chuckles. With her vision so firmly held onto her path ahead, she treats this journey of a lifetime to be something beyond herself. “I’m not going as a tourist. I have gotten selected and will be put through a training and filtering process. This is a public promise I intend to keep,” she asserts on a parting note. Those who wish to contribute to her crowdfund can visit, www.generosity.com or mail her at prathyusha312@gmail.com.