Scaling success

In another inspirational feat for the Telugu States mountaineer, Neelima Pudota brought laurels to her city after scaling 8,650m out of the 8,848m on Mt Everest.

The achievement is not only joyous for Hyderabadis but all Indians are delighted at this feat, particularly the youth. Endowed with multi talent and qualities, the woman has shown that with hard labour, dedication and devotion one can encounter the toughest job in life.

This was Pudota’s second attempt at scaling the mountain; she previously failed to complete the expedition after being injured in the Nepal earthquake of 2015. With the climb of Mt Everest, she earned the laurel as the first woman from the newly formed State of Andhra Pradesh to reach the height.

Because of the harsh climatic condition, she could not scale up another 198m. During that time climate was so harsh that one Sherpa who accompanied her suffered from severe mental trauma. In the last week of May, two mountaineers from West Bengal faced the wrath of the mountain; one died and the other one was severely injured in the same activity.

Prior to this feat, Pudota scaled Stock Khangri of Jammu and Kashmir (Ladakh) at the height of 6,153m and Mera Peak mountain of Nepal at 6,424m. She also trekked Afarwath Glacier, Thajiwas Glacier and the hills of Kerala and Maharashtra.

Further, she successfully, completed the cycle riding covering a distance of more than 510 km in 2015 from Bengaluru to Hyderabad within four days as a part of golden jubilee celebrations of Border Security Force (BSF) and to support Para-athletics through Aditya Mehta Foundation.

Pudota, the daughter of Showraiah, a businessman from Hyderabad and Kondaveeti Papa who works in NIRD & PR, Hyderabad, was born on June 7, 1986, in Hyderabad. From childhood, she took a keen interest in co-curricular activities and thus proved herself as a recognised Bharatanatyam dancer and Carnatic vocal singer.

She is also trained in Kerala’s martial art and is a polyglot. As an NCC cadet she proved her prowess in school days. She is basically an engineer and worked for a software company Cognizant, Hyderabad. Later, she gave up the job for the sake of mountaineering as one-year vigorous training is a sine qua non for such adventurous activity.

The present generation can take a lesson or two from her as she has shown that ‘if there is will there is way’. (The writer is Professor & Head (CPME) NIRD.)

By Dr Shankar Chatterjee