VIRUDHUNAGAR: Icy winds cut through the layered gear across her face as she gasped for thin air. But, for Muthamil Selvi Narayanan, a sole vision remained crystal clear-- once she reached the summit of Mount Everest, it would be a reclamation of her identity, often shrouded under the many roles pinned on women. The 35-year-old Virudhunagar native's remarkable journey to becoming Tamil Nadu's first woman to scale Mount Everest.
"I got married at the age of 18, right after I had completed only class 12. Soon, I became a mother of two. I constantly felt the urge to reclaim my identity. So, in 2015, I pursued my Bachelor's degree in Computer Application and later secured a job as a Japanese Language interpreter," she said.
Determined to challenge more societal norms, Muthamil Selvi embarked on a mission to empower women and inspire them to fight for their goals. In 2021, she dismounted from a 155-foot-high mountain near Sriperumbudur, blindfolded. "The move was to bring awareness among men about the need to support and encourage their wives," she said.
After one of her daughters raised concerns about a news of a girl from Coimbatore who died by suicide due to sexual harassment, she dismounted from another mountain blindfolded the same year, alongside her two daughters to create awareness on violence against girls and to emphasise the need for paternal support.
"To motivate women to pursue their goals, I was driven to bigger missions," she said. She found that despite Mount Everest being first climbed around 73 years ago, no woman from TN has achieved it and decided to take up the challenge.
"I knew the journey wouldn't be effortless, and I knew I had to fight for it," she said. On May 23, 2023, Muthamil Selvi broke all barriers and became the first woman from Tamil Nadu to summit Mount Everest. In the subsequent years, she had also summited Mount Elbrus in Europe, Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount Aconcagua in South America, Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, and Mount Vinson Peak in Antarctica. In 2023, she was given the Kalpana Chawla Award.
Since her first summit on Mount Everest, Muthamil Selvi has interacted with over one lakh school and college students in around 150 institutions across Tamil Nadu. Through her talks of struggle, perseverance, and determination she encountered during the summits, she noted that she motivated the students to face the struggles and fight for their dreams.
"Every summit I have scaled taught me several life lessons and I would undertake many such things that come in my life. I feel my purpose lies in spreading the words of such lessons during the journeys that would bring a change in people," said the TN 2023 Kalpana Chawla Awardee.
"I feel my purpose lies in imparting the lessons I learnt during these journeys," she concludes.