"I used to parasail and paraglide with Kamal's help. Then, out of the blue, when I opened the paper one day, I was surprised to see Kamal's photograph in the front page. Kamal was the first Indian to have jumped over both poles."

She was disappointed a bit too. Kamal had never told her that he was going to achieve such a big feat. After pestering him for a year, she managed to get the details of the expedition group that organised the Air Force man's feat.

She got Kamal's help to get thorough to an expedition organising group. Having kept things under wraps, she had to break the news to her parents when the money angle came in.

He parents, as expected went ballistic. Then Sheetal brought Kamal home and the parents seeing an outsider willing to help their daughter, decided to pitch in and support her too.

She began scouting for sponsors. As the date for the expedition drew close, there was hardly any sponsor in the bag. To compound her troubles, she met with a road accident and ended up on a hospital bed with 10 stitches to her head.

"The first thing I saw when I came to were the locks of my hair lying around the bed. I realised it was a bad injury. With my parents, friends and Kamal standing around the bed, the first words that I managed to blurt out were: 'Iska matlab nahi hai ki mai North Pole nahi jayegi'. (does not mean that I will not go to the North Pole)."

Against the doctor's advice and her mother's attempts to lock her up at home, Sheetal and her dad went to the Tata Motors headquarters in Mumbai. Sheetal's dad works for the company. She wanted to meet Ratan Tata and ask for a sponsorship. Tata's secretary, who met them first, told them that the company sponsored only cricketers and tennis players. He asked her why she wanted to spend so much and jump over the North Pole. "Sir, we are good only at standing on the outside and applauding other people's achievements. When there is a chance for one of us to make the whole world stand aside and applaud us, we raise so many doubts," her father answered.

This bold answer earned the father and daughter an audience with C R Ramakrishnan, the president of the company. There too, their resolve got them through.

Ramakrishnan told them that the company could grant Sheetal Rs 5 lakh and asked her dad what he will do for the remaining amount at such short notice. Her dad again put his foot down: "Sir, you release my PF Money, I will use that." That sealed it. Tata Motors agreed to sponsor her to the tune of Rs 10 lakh. "When everything was settled, one tiny problem remained. I hadn't told my mother that I would be going alone. I had to break that news to her. When she told this to some relatives of ours, the only things they said were, 'what if she never returns, what if she is maimed for life?'. This is the best my loved ones could do for me!"

After comforting her mother, when Sheetal boarded the flight to Frankfurt, she realised that it was the first time she was sitting on a plane.

Image: Sheetal with her father.

Back

|

Next