While it’s common for girls to give up their passions and engage in homemaking in most Indian parts, Maj Deepika Rathore took the road less travelled by to chase her dreams. She had the courage to pursue her dreams and that made Maj Deepika Rathore the only lady from Indian Armed Forces to have conquered Mt. Everest twice.
Maj Deepika is an ex-NCC cadet from Rajasthan. She had been a part of Republic Day Parade in 2002 and had represented India in Singapore in the Youth Exchange Programme. Apart from this, she had won a national level silver medal in guess what? Dancing! So yeah, the word ‘multi-talented’ will surely define her best.
But wait, that’s not it. She had developed mountaineering as her hobby since her NCC days when she was first rejected for the Basic Mountaineering Course at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) in Uttarkashi for being underweight. But she, however, convinced the doctor and signed an undertaking to overrule her medical hurdles, clearing her basic and later, advanced mountaineering course with flying colours.
Deepika later joined the army in 2011 in the Army Ordnance Corps through then WES (Women Entry Scheme). When she was posted in the Leh-Ladakh sector, she went on an All Army Everest Expedition, climbing Everest with pride.
After this, as her luck and will would have it, she was approached to lead an NCC girls expedition to Mt Everest in May 2016. She accepted the offer under the command of Col Gaurav Karki with pride and they created a world record of ‘Largest number of women climbing Everest from a single organisation’.
Incidentally, the team left for Everest from Siachen camp just a day before the deadly avalanche in which many Indian soldiers, including Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad, were buried alive. News of the incident served as a reminder of the dangers of their mission. To keep their morale high Rathore told them, “If you feel you are strong, no one can stop you. If you think, you can. Brave soldiers like Hanumanthappa are a constant source of inspiration to us all.”
The team had 2 girls from Leh, 2 from Manipur, 1 from Darjeeling, 2 from Uttarakhand and 1 from Rajasthan and Mizoram each.
I was lucky enough to have a talk with Maj Deepika during the All India Vayu Sainik Camp-2016 and ask the question to her that kept me tickling since the start of her talk – “What motivates you to keep going and achieve new feats, especially when you are a class 1 gazetted officer in the armed forces? You can just sit back and relax.” First things first, this question had offended the other officer standing by but I purely had no intentions of offending anyone. What I meant to ask was, what was her inspiration of risking life and climbing mountains when your life is already going all well.
In her witty reply, she said “You know, kuch logon ko keeda hota hai kuch karte rehne ka. Wo keeda mujh me hai. I like the adventure. And I do it all while earning a handsome salary. So, why to back-off?”
By her looks, she looked nothing like a mountaineer, just a beautiful lady officer who came to deliver a lecture. But as we listened to her we realise that it was her mental stamina and will to do that helped her achieve this feat. ‘You do not need a muscular body to touch the sky, all you need is a muscular mind’ is what we realised that day.
This was what she said “Yes, you do need physical strength for such expeditions but more than that you need mental strength. It is the test of your indomitable courage and strong willpower to face the challenges and hurdles that come on the way.”
But, “What About Studies?” Was the Question on Fire:
Lastly, one question asked to her was the question in mind of each and every cadet listening to her. Recalling that she have had been to RDC and YEP, it was asked: “how did you manage your studies along with all this?” Her response was, “You need to manage it anyhow. That defines the officer in you.” At the same time, do not sacrifice studies for anything else as, at the end, it is what will save your day.
At the end, she said “Truly, life in the services provides one with many different opportunities. I love mountaineering and thanks to the army I have had the privilege of scaling the Mount Everest, not once but twice”.
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