However, this season he surpassed all expectations and took the world by surprise. He successfully conquered the highest peak on earth and proved that he may have lost his limbs but definitely not his dreams.
He was born in Ramechhap in 1980 into a middle class Brahmin family. As a child, he remembers being very mischievous. Quite a prankster by nature, he had many loyal playmates. He reminisces: “One day, we ran away and came to Kathmandu. Of course, our families came to look for us and we were caught at the Min Bhawan bus stop and dragged back home.” [break]
Although an extremely naughty and headstrong child, Sudarshan Gautam had always comprehended the value of education. In 1996, just before his family migrated to Kathmandu, he passed SLC from a local school. And he managed to do it while writing with his toes. His efforts were openly commended by the state authorities and he enrolled himself into Min Bhawan Campus as a student of commerce.
Photo courtesy: sudarshangautam.com
Driven by the desire to try something newer and tougher, he once again took everybody by surprise when he drove a car in Baneshwor with his feet. After he achieved this latest feat, his willpower strengthened. He was getting media coverage and people had started to know him and talk about him. He slowly started to realize that with self-confidence and diligence, nothing under the sun was impossible.
“I know I was already doing a lot for someone with no hands,” he says, “But the desire to push my limits never abandoned me no matter what I did or how much I did.”
Gautam was just fifteen years old when he lost both his hands. He was flying kites with his friends when he met with a life altering accident. The kite got stuck in an electric pole and he got a fateful shock when he went to retrieve it. This momentous incident cost him his hands but he never lost the spirit to struggle and the will to survive.
It was in 2005 that he came across a news piece in a newspaper. It was about some inexperienced Japanese citizens scaling Mount Everest successfully. That little story planted into his mind the seeds of conquering the highest peak in the world. He now had a new dream: To kiss the pinnacle of Mt Everest.
However, things were not that easy for someone with no hands, and more importantly, no sponsor. At that time, he had no money to attempt an endeavor as huge as climbing the Everest. Gautam reveals that even this time around, in 2013, he had to accomplish the mission at personal costs. The only difference was that now he could actually afford it.
That being said, the task ahead was not easy and it demanded a lot of patience, strength, willpower and courage. His limits were tested as he kept reminding himself that even if he returned from ten meters below the summit, he would still be considered a failure. He knew that he was not a professional climber and didn’t even try to act like one. He took all the help he could from his guides, the Sherpas. They had attached ropes where his arms were supposed to be. Then he was pushed and pulled simultaneously as they ascended the peak.
He had taken some training about balancing one’s body on ice since 2008 at the Canadian Alpine Club and had also gone through an intensive six-month mountaineering course in California. Before this twenty one day expedition to Everest, he had already scaled Mt Rambunt and Mt Langtang. Those experiences boosted his confidence but sometimes his fellow climbers’ attitude demoralized him. At one point he actually started to believe that he was on a “doomed’ mission. “People often said that I was doing this for media attention and that I would end up dead or as a complete failure,” he reveals.
But the dream that had now turned into an obsession somehow drove him on. However, Everest was turning more and more difficult with each step. When he reached Hillary Step for the first time, he felt that he could not go on anymore. There were dead bodies everywhere in the vicinity. A new fear gripped his heart. Even if he were to reach the summit, what would happen on the way down?
However, despite the skepticisms, criticisms, difficult trials, rocks, glaciers, snowstorms, unmanaged human traffic, and excessive fatigue, he and his team succeeded in reaching the summit.
Was there the same excitement and sense of victory that was earlier anticipated? Gautam describes the feeling that arose with stepping on the summit as a mixed one. They had already lost a Bangladeshi climber on the way uphill. “The sorrow of his death had tainted our victory,” Gautam says.
Bittersweet emotions aside, his worst fears came true on the way down. At South Pole, continuous snowstorms had blocked their way. Everybody was totally exhausted. They had not eaten properly for a couple of days and were also running out of what little oxygen was left. They immediately radioed for help. Fortunately, it arrived right away in the form of a helicopter with the help from the Canadian Government. “It was a rescue done on the highest spot on earth,” Gautam reminisces, “I owe my life to that skilled pilot.”
He also gives credit to his family that stood by him through thick and thin and made the seemingly impossible feat a reality. He reveals that he missed them during the worst as well as the best moments on Everest. They were in his mind during his time on the summit and also when he was in mortal peril on his way down.
Gautam, who takes words as the finest way to express his emotions, is planning to release an autobiography and a documentary about his time on Mount Everest. Also a singer who has sung songs like “Timi behuli banera jaanda,” Gautam finds spiritual solace in poetry. He has also published an anthology entitled “Udghosh.”
Gautam also loves traveling. He has visited many countries advocating for the differently abled of the Third World countries. He is also involved in the political scenario in Canada. He believes that Nepal ought to create more opportunities for those who may be physically fragile but have a lot of mental willpower and spirit.
“Honestly, I’m doing stuff in Canada that I couldn’t even have dreamt of in Nepal,” he shares. “Climbing Everest is one of those many things.”
Reverting to the issue of conquering of Everest, he equates his daily routine of doing everything with legs to scaling a new Everest everyday. He believes that nobody is “handicapped” if one works incessantly and rigorously towards one’s dream. “Everyone has his own Everest to conquer,” he smiles. “The idea is to never let your dreams die.”
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I live my dreams daily!
