Visakhapatnam :

A boat or the sea doesn’t differentiate between a man and a woman and there are no shortcuts to the physical and mental fitness required to sail the open seas, says Lt. Commander Vartika Joshi, who is set to lead India’s first all-women crew to sail the oceans.

Lt. Commander Joshi, along with a crew of five women, will soon go globe-trotting. Their adventure is likely to start in 2017. The team stood out at the just-concluded International Fleet Review (IFR) where the crew was on INSV Mhadei, a sail training boat of the Indian Navy on which they are currently training.

“We are training every day for the sailing and it requires a hard level of physical activity. You have to be physically and mentally very strong and there is no short-cut to it,” Lt. Commander Joshi told IANS in an interview.

“It does not matter whether you are a man or a woman, you have to do what you are required to do,” said the sailor, who is a naval architect by training.

The crew is being trained by Commander Dilip Donde, the first Indian sailor to circumnavigate solo across the globe on INSV Mhadei.

Commander Donde, in the same tone, said a sailor is a sailor, irrespective of gender.

“The sea does not differentiate between a man and a woman. A sailor is a sailor,” Commander Donde told IANS.

Asked about his guru mantra to the team, the commander said: “Never let your guard down… You have to be on your toes all the time.”

Riding the open seas in a sailing boat is not an easy feat to pull off.

The crew needs to be aware of every inch of the boat, which they may need to repair themselves in case of damage. Weather in the open sea also remains unpredictable, and smaller boats face more challenges.

Lt. Commander Joshi was confident.

“This is certainly Mission Possible. We have been taking special training on circumnavigation since (last) April. The course included navigation, equipment, managing a crisis or distress situation and communication courses,” she explained.

The team sailed to Visakhapatnam for the IFR from Goa, and is now on its way back to continue the training.

The boat on which the journey will finally be undertaken is at present under construction in Goa, and the crew has to familiarise itself with every inch of the vessel.

Apart from Lt. Commander Joshi, the team includes Lt. Pratibha Jamwal and Lt. P Swathi in the core group, besides Lt. Vijaya Devi and Sub Lt. Payal Gupta. A sixth member is yet to be named.

INSV Mhadei had been used by Commander Abhilash Tomy for his own solo, unassisted, non-stop circumnavigation under sail.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by IANS / February 15th, 2016

Adilabad Additional Superintendent of Police G.R. Radhika performed the feat on September 7 after a gruelling climb for over 10 days.

As any mountaineer would do, G.R. Radhika, the frail-looking police officer in Adilabad District of Telangana also swears by Sir Edmund Hillary’s belief, “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” And her concurrence with the legendary mountaineer does matter as she has become the first Indian woman to conquer the 7,077-metre Kun mountain, the twin of Nun, located in the inhospitable Zanskar range of Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir.

Adilabad Additional Superintendent of Police performed the feat on September 7 after a gruelling climb for over 10 days. The Indian Mountaineering Foundation subsequently declared her to be holding the record for an Indian woman.

“I am a bit of a risk taker,” reveals Ms.Radhika about her personality which evidently craves for challenges that go beyond the ordinary ones faced by women. “I was brought up more like a boy than a girl,” says the younger one of the two children of a teacher couple as she tries to reason out her craving for adventure.

She likes to accept challenges which is why she quit her earlier job as an English language lecturer and took up policing. Despite her inclination, there was nothing to write home about in her 8 years as a cop until the opportunity to climb the rugged mountain came her way.

It was in 2012 that this mother of two children belonging to Anantapur District in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, her birth place and Kadapa, where she grew up, got to know about mountaineering as a sport. One of her friends suggested she get trained in mountain climbing after she successfully completed the difficult pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Mansarovar in the Himalayas, Radhika recalls.

This set in motion her as yet short yet illustrious association with the sport. She finished her basic and advanced mountaineering courses which was, among other things, a confidence-building exercise.

“As part of the course I climbed the 5,980 mtr high Golep Kangri peak, also in the harsh Zanskar range in 2013,” Radhika states. “The following year, I scaled the 6,443 mtr high mount Menthosa in Himachal Pradesh which was all technical climbing,” she adds.

The policewoman enrolled herself for the Kun expedition with a recognised mountaineering outfit and set off towards it in the latter half of August. The team consisted of 7 muntaineers, some of them much experienced.

“Five of them dropped out on our way to the peak,” Radhika remembers trying to drive home the point about the difficulty quotient which even had her lose 4 kg of her weight. “Kun is considered more difficult because of its numerous crevasses and the ‘walls’ which meant a vertical climb of even 300 mtr at some place with a load of 6 kg,” she shrugs off a shudder as recent memories came flooding back.

Having seen her team mates back out did not diminish the gutsy woman’s enthusiasm in any way though she swears that it was only will power that kept her driving towards the peak. “The peak was visible but seemed ever so far thanks to he fatigue,” she recalls of her final effort.

“It took a few seconds for the feeling of victory to register,” she observes of the moment when she made it to the top. “I felt happy when it was confirmed that I was the first Indian woman to achieve the feat,” she adds, a wide grin breaking on her face.

Radhika is seriously contemplating making an attempt at scaling Mount Everest. “I have not decided as yet but I am definitely inclined to do so,” she asserts.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Telangana / by S. Harpal Singh / Adilabad – October 04th, 2015