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If one talks about sports in India, what are the first few things that come to mind. Cricket? Tennis? Football? Maybe Badminton, considering a lot of players are doing well in that field. But one thing that may not come to your mind straight away would be skydiving.
What may not further strike your mind straight away is the thought of an Indian winning medals in it.
But, interestingly, that isn't the case. Meet Shital Mahajan, A skydiver who has found accolades coming her way internationally but hasn't found any from India. She has to her credit an astounding 655 jumps and also A, B, C and D licenses from the United States Parachuting Association, which now permits her to compete in events all around the world. Mahajan also has to her credit 5 World Records and. 14 National Records. She is also a coach and a recipient of the Padma Shri in 2011.
Sadly, her accomplishments hasn't found any coverage or voice of praise back home either on social media or on any other mediums and as a result of that her achievements among the Indian public is largely unknown.
When asked about how she developed an interest in skydiving, Mahajan revealed,” I started skydiving in the year 2002. I deliberately wanted to do something different. In our society, there is a taboo that a girl can't do this and that. I wanted to erase that stereotypical image of a woman from people's mind. They think a woman is supposed to serve her family, raise kids and only do household work. When I started to face similar challenges, I decided to break barriers,” she said in an interview to ibnlive.com.
“Then I happened to meet one of my friends' brother, Air Force officer Kamal Singh. I came to know about skydiving from him only. Then I took coaching from him. I wanted to do skydiving so I asked him how can I start. His answer was "since you are a civilian, you need to go abroad for skydiving as it cannot be done in India."
Then I decided if I have no choice than to go abroad to learn, then why not at a special place like the North Pole,” she added.
Mahajan also revealed her extremely impressive list of achievements.
“Presently I have 14 national and 5 world records in my name. On 18th April 2004, I became the first woman in the world to execute a sky-dive from North Pole, and that too without any prior training. There wasn't any land for my landing, so I had to land on an ice slope in a freezing temperature of minus 37 degrees, from a height of 2400 feet. Following my first world record, in the year 2006, I became first woman to perform sky fall from both South Pole and North Pole. Chasing achievements and records, the biggest accolade in my career came my way in the year 2011 when I was awarded the fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, from the then President Pratibha Patil,” she said.
Had to convince my parents at the start: Mahajan
Since there aren't facilities for Skydiving in India, Mahajan is forced to train overseas. She also wished to change the current scenario one day.
“I usually practice skydiving in Spain, Finland, California and Arizona (USA). There are still no proper rules and regulations for skydiving in India. I want to make all this possible in India one day,” she said.
Mahajan also spoke about the expenses incurred in skydiving.
“The expense of one jump is 20 dollar in US but in India it costs 20-22 thousand rupees. We, at our institute, are trying hard to bring it to a nominal price of 9-10 thousand rupees,” she said.
She further admitted that the process to get her parents on the same bandwagon as her did take time, but she eventually managed to convince them.
“My parents didn't support me initially but later on I convinced them. When I asked them I want to do skydiving, their answer was “have you gone mad! In our family no one has even travelled in an aircraft and you want to jump from it!" They said girls can't do such dares. But I had a strong determination, so I convinced them. I clearly said, it's my life and if I were to die, it will solely be my responsibility. They said "we can't allow you to risk your life". Then I started blackmailing tactics (laughs) by threatening to leave home. Girls leave their home for marriage, but I wanted to leave to sky-dive,” Mahajan said.
