Ravindra Kumar - Many Everests: An Inspiring Journey of Transforming Dreams Into Reality

Many Everests

Everest for me, and I believe for the world, is the physical and symbolic
manifestation of overcoming odds to achieve a dream.
Tom Whittaker

Many Everests

An inspiring journey of transforming dreams into reality

Ravindra Kumar

First published in India 2017

2017 by Ravindra Kumar

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.

The content of this book is the sole expression and opinion of its author, and not of the publisher. The publisher in no manner is liable for any opinion or views expressed by the author. While best efforts have been made in preparing this book, the publisher makes no representations or warranties of any kind and assumes no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the content and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness of use for a particular purpose.

The publisher believes that the content of this book does not violate any existing copyright/intellectual property of others in any manner whatsoever. However, in case any source has not been duly attributed, the publisher may be notified in writing for necessary action.

BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

E-ISBN 978 93 86141 34 7

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt. Ltd
Second Floor, LSC Building No. 4
DDA Complex, Pocket C 6 & 7, Vasant Kunj
New Delhi 110070
www.bloomsbury.com

Created by Manipal Digital Systems

To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com. Here you will find extracts, author interviews, details of forthcoming events and the option to sign up for our newsletters.

Dedicated to:

All the common people still struggling to realize their unfulfilled dreams

May you swim in the ocean of perfect health, wealth, peace, and prosperity.

Contents

Chapters

When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. Chinese proverb.

I feel this book will never be complete without expressing my gratitude to the people involved in shaping and realising my dreams in life, and in the making of this book.

I am sincerely grateful to all those, who have directly or indirectly contributed, even to the minor extent, in covering the journey of my life so beautifully and successfully. It is due to their assistance and support that I have reached so far and am standing here today. I am especially grateful to my parents, maternal grandparents, and maternal great grandparents for their teachings and their hopes on me. Further, my heartfelt gratitude goes to all those, who contributed in making my journey to Mt. Everest successful, especially both my District Collectors, Sri D. Anandan and Sri A K Singh, and both the Superintendents of Police, Sri Mandeep Singh Tuli and Sri Manoj Tiwari. All other important contributors are mentioned in appropriate contexts in the concerned chapters of this book.

My humble gratitude goes to my seniors in the Indian Administrative Services: Sri Champak Chatterjee, Sri Robin Gupta, Sri P K Jha, Sri B K Prasad, Sri Dharmendra Singh Gangwar and Sri Chanchal Kumar for motivating me to take up the assignment of documenting my journey. Some of them also guided me in shaping this book, especially Sri Robin Gupta and Sri Dharmendra Singh Gangwar.

I had faired the daily routine of journey to Mt. Everest while I was posted as Sub-Divisional Magistrate in South Sikkim District under District Magistrate Sri Prabhakar Verma, but this book took present shape during my posting as the Additional District Magistrate in North Sikkim District under the District Magistrate Sri Chewang Gyatso Bhutia. My sincere gratitude goes out to both of them. I cant ignore the silent support from my helpers, Jeevan and Phurden, in Sikkim. They had been a constant support during my stay in North Sikkim and had helped me to devote myself to this book completely by taking care of the domestic front.

Further, I cant miss to express my deep affection to my wife, Diksha, who read the final script and gave me valuable inputs on minor modifications required, while I was busy in my day-to-day job in Sitapur District of Uttar Pradesh, my posting at the time of publishing this book.

I also wish to extend my gratitude to my service senior Sri Abhijit Sinha, my cousin Mrs. Abha Rani Singh & her husband Sri B R R Kumar, and Sri Dharmveer Acharya for helping me approaching the publishers. I deeply acknowledge the constant support of Sri Praveen Tiwari, who enabled me to get this book published by Bloomsbury Publishing.

Finally, I am grateful to the Government of Sikkim as well as the people of Sikkim for providing a peaceful work environment and zero political interference, without which, neither I could have saved sufficient time to devote for this book nor could write with a cool and focused mind.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

Plato (fourth century BC)

M ore than two years have passed since I ascended the Everest. Many people suggested that I should write a book about my journey. I had penned down my daily activities during my mountaineering training at HMI Darjeeling, at the pre-Everest training camp in Chemchey, as well as during the two months of my Everest expedition. I had made this a habit to cater to my own reference in the future, just so I could relive those sweet memories.

As I would ponder about the suggestions to me for writing a book, I would think of what it would contribute to the world. But I had have my answers: the daily schedule of an Everest summiteer, the climbing skills, precautions to be taken while climbing, etc. The only problem was that the answers for these are already available on the internet as well as in the books and biographies of many legendary mountaineers, who have successfully climbed the Everest many times. And I believe they are more experienced mountaineers than I am. Of course they are, theyre professionals! I am just an amateur who was zealous enough to learn the skills of mountaineering few years ago. I had my motives behind this venture. Learning from the Sikkim earthquake of September 2011, I knew it would make me able to overcome the physical barriers of connectivity like the disruption of roads in case of a natural calamity in the hilly state of Sikkim. I was brimming with this idea to help the locals in times of need and hardships. Later my eagerness to learn mountaineering turned into a passion to climb any peak. And from that passion stemmed wild desire to climb Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world! So, in a year, during which I thought, planned and trained, I reached the zenith, without attempting any intermediate peaks. I had no history of climbing and no one in my family did it either. So, if I write a book as a mountaineer then honestly, it would be writing a book for the sake of writing one and not to contribute something new to the world.

I had once thought of writing a motivational book but there are thousands of those available in the market and on the internet. Then what could I possibly do? I had also wondered if I should give up the idea of writing the book. But, no, I couldnt.