To live a life of adventure, you don’t need testosterone. Ketaki Desai Get women who are doing the impossible or at least the very impossible, whether it’s swimming in the icy Antarctic or jumping off high bridges
Archana Sardana | 49
first citizen base jumper
As a child, Archana Sardana used to watch people sky diving on TV and wondered what was wrong with her. “What crazy people,” she remembers thinking. I wish that kid could see her now – a 49-year-old BASE jumper who was the first Indian woman to jump over things like bridges and tall buildings with a parachute. Apart from being a skilled sky diver with hundreds of jumps under his belt, he is also a scuba instructor who overcame his fear of water. Having walked barely a kilometer before marriage, she is now the woman who, after a parachute accident that could have seriously injured her, appeared to jump again the next day. He has also done a ‘free fall’ from a height of 13,500 feet and BASE jumped off a 400 feet high bridge in Utah.
Premlata Agarwal | 59
48. But the oldest Indian woman to scale Everest
Padma Shri awardee in 2013, Premlata discovered mountaineering by chance and not by choice. “I wanted my daughters to indulge in adventure activities and of course, met the great mountaineer Bachendri Pal, who saw the potential in me and inspired me to join the field of adventure,” says the mountaineer, who is also the first Indian woman to scale all the seven highest peaks in the world. “My journey from being a housewife to the top of many peaks around the world has definitely changed my life. I am a much more confident, positive, task-oriented and optimistic person now.”
Bhakti Sharma | 32
all five oceans have been swam
For Bhakti Sharma, after swimming the English Channel when she was only 16, she decided what her next goal would be – to swim in every ocean in the world. The most challenging were, of course, the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. To prepare, she did everything from swimming in Udaipur Lake in winter to submerging herself in a small pool filled with ice. “I don’t like monotony and I don’t like to give up. Swimming itself has been so challenging, that’s what attracted me to them,” says the 32-year-old PhD student, who currently lives in Gainesville, Florida.
He remembers a young woman swimming in Udaipur or Mumbai and being told that her V-neck swimsuit was inappropriate because there could be clever men around. “When I started swimming in open water, we did some press. I’ve been asked several times, ‘If you’re a swimmer, why are you so fat?’ I had to explain to them that I need to gain weight because I swim in cold water and I need protection. The standards we hold athletes, especially female athletes, are unfair,” she says.
Priyanka Bhatt , 36
Has run 20 ultra marathons
Priyanka Bhatt’s busy corporate career kept her busy but one day she signed up for a 5km run and found herself out of breath after 100m. “I realized that I was 29 and still I couldn’t do it. I decided to spend half an hour every day to get better at running,” says the 36-year-old Mumbai resident. A month later, he covered 10 km. In the third month, she worked her way up to the half-marathon. And soon, the idea of a 12-hour run caught her fancy and found her passion. In 2019, she represented India in the 24-hour world championship. Represented and covered a distance of 190 km.
One of the challenges she has faced has been the lack of both institutional and individual support for sportspersons, especially women in sport. “Even with my family, they have supported and proud of my achievements, but I am asked, how much more do you want to run? what will happen? when will you get married? When I am running I run in dust and sun, so I get tan. I’ve been told to make sure my skin doesn’t look like that,” she says. But he is very clear on one thing. “It doesn’t matter to me what others think of me, only what I think of myself.”
Archana Sardana | 49
first citizen base jumper
As a child, Archana Sardana used to watch people sky diving on TV and wondered what was wrong with her. “What crazy people,” she remembers thinking. I wish that kid could see her now – a 49-year-old BASE jumper who was the first Indian woman to jump over things like bridges and tall buildings with a parachute. Apart from being a skilled sky diver with hundreds of jumps under his belt, he is also a scuba instructor who overcame his fear of water. Having walked barely a kilometer before marriage, she is now the woman who, after a parachute accident that could have seriously injured her, appeared to jump again the next day. He has also done a ‘free fall’ from a height of 13,500 feet and BASE jumped off a 400 feet high bridge in Utah.
Premlata Agarwal | 59
48. But the oldest Indian woman to scale Everest
Padma Shri awardee in 2013, Premlata discovered mountaineering by chance and not by choice. “I wanted my daughters to indulge in adventure activities and of course, met the great mountaineer Bachendri Pal, who saw the potential in me and inspired me to join the field of adventure,” says the mountaineer, who is also the first Indian woman to scale all the seven highest peaks in the world. “My journey from being a housewife to the top of many peaks around the world has definitely changed my life. I am a much more confident, positive, task-oriented and optimistic person now.”
Bhakti Sharma | 32
all five oceans have been swam
For Bhakti Sharma, after swimming the English Channel when she was only 16, she decided what her next goal would be – to swim in every ocean in the world. The most challenging were, of course, the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. To prepare, she did everything from swimming in Udaipur Lake in winter to submerging herself in a small pool filled with ice. “I don’t like monotony and I don’t like to give up. Swimming itself has been so challenging, that’s what attracted me to them,” says the 32-year-old PhD student, who currently lives in Gainesville, Florida.
He remembers a young woman swimming in Udaipur or Mumbai and being told that her V-neck swimsuit was inappropriate because there could be clever men around. “When I started swimming in open water, we did some press. I’ve been asked several times, ‘If you’re a swimmer, why are you so fat?’ I had to explain to them that I need to gain weight because I swim in cold water and I need protection. The standards we hold athletes, especially female athletes, are unfair,” she says.
Priyanka Bhatt , 36
Has run 20 ultra marathons
Priyanka Bhatt’s busy corporate career kept her busy but one day she signed up for a 5km run and found herself out of breath after 100m. “I realized that I was 29 and still I couldn’t do it. I decided to spend half an hour every day to get better at running,” says the 36-year-old Mumbai resident. A month later, he covered 10 km. In the third month, she worked her way up to the half-marathon. And soon, the idea of a 12-hour run caught her fancy and found her passion. In 2019, she represented India in the 24-hour world championship. Represented and covered a distance of 190 km.
One of the challenges she has faced has been the lack of both institutional and individual support for sportspersons, especially women in sport. “Even with my family, they have supported and proud of my achievements, but I am asked, how much more do you want to run? what will happen? when will you get married? When I am running I run in dust and sun, so I get tan. I’ve been told to make sure my skin doesn’t look like that,” she says. But he is very clear on one thing. “It doesn’t matter to me what others think of me, only what I think of myself.”