Celebrating Everest
Climbing mountains, they say, is 98 per cent attitude and 2 per cent aptitude; a lesson that applies to life as well. On International Everest Day in memory of the first summit of Mt Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa on May 29, 1953 four mountaineers from Delhi-NCR share with The Morning Standard the life lessons they learnt while scaling the world’s highest peak.
Love Raj Singh Dharmashaktu, currently scaling Mt Everest for the eighth time
The top of the Everest will always give you a new force to do something extraordinary. The Nepalis call Mt Everest Sagarmatha, which means Goddess Mother of the World. To me too, it signifies all that a Mother’s love stands for tall and proud, yet so vulnerable to mistreatment by humans. Just like the well-being of a family is connected to the well-being of a mother, the well-being of humans is connected to the mountains. Mt Everest is treacherous yet so gentle, remote yet so close to heart, calm and serene yet full of energy, and harsh yet compassionate to those who come. These are the qualities I have learnt from her.
Aditya Gupta, corporate honcho, summited Mt Everest in 2019
The Everest allows you to experience a ‘lifetime’ in a matter of weeks that creates unique opportunities to learn from situations which have relevant parallels in life. It reinforces the fact that success depends on your ability to have such a sharp focus on the positives that the negatives don’t hold water. When faced with a huge task, break it into small portions and complete it one at a time. Everest taught me to expect the unexpected, without fear. Don’t wish away a threat, but accept and tackle it. Just as a climber has limited supply of oxygen, in life our time is limited. So, use it judiciously. The compounding power of saving 30 minutes every day by better time management turns out to be enormous when calculated over a couple of decades. Everest teaches the value of time better in 45 days than what life teaches in 45 years.
Col Ranveer Singh Jamwal, three times Mt Everest summiteer, and the first Army officer to complete Seven Summits
The mighty Everest teaches you to be patient and persistent, just like life in the Army does. You can overcome every challenge. It tests your every muscle and sinew, and to me it is Mt Everest’s own way to let only the deserving reach the summit. Mountains make you humble humility comes when you realise that you are just a speck in the whole cosmos. It flattens the ego by checking the arrogance man has. A lot of determination and will power is needed to summit Mt Everest. This is also apt for the present pandemic we can overcome even this with proper care, caution and consistency, will power and determination to succeed. The mountains teach you to be prepared for any unexpected situation, eventuality and face it with a calm mind. Scaling a mountain surely prepares you for a bigger and far more unpredictable journey that life is.
Ravinder Kumar, first IAS officer to summit Mt Everest, District Magistrate, Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh
On Everest Day, I heartily congratulate all the successful summiteers till date and also extend my deepest condolences to the family members of all those who laid their lives on the slope of mighty Everest. I climbed Mt Everest on May 19, 2013, from Nepal and on May 23, 2019, from Tibet. Thus, I got a chance to experience the climb on both its popular routes, from the S outh and the North. I have observed that people generally come with the aim to conquer the Everest. But after both my climbs, I feel that people should rather aim to conquer their own limiting beliefs and aim to stretch their physical and mental limits to the maximum. This is what Mt Everest teaches you. As I summitted the peak, my first thought reflected a triumph over nature, but it was immediately replaced by an immense respect for Mother Nature. Another learning I got is that we must not pollute hills, but take steps to conserve them so that the ecological balance is maintained. I appeal to all future aspirants of the Himalayas, especially Mt Everest, to develop an utmost respect towards mountains and its fragile ecosystem.