Guest: Ms. Ishani Sawant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ms. Ishani Sawant, a young upcoming rock climber and mountaineer from Pune represented India at the International Youth Summit organised by UIAA (Apex International Rock Climbing and Mountaineering Federation) in Toulouse, France last month. Only 15 youth climbers from all over the world were selected by French Alpine Club for a week of “multi-pitch climbing” in Pyereness Mountain Range of France.

Breaking all gender stereotypes and leaving her career in law behind, Ishani is an adventure professional who trains cadets of the prestigious National Defence Academy (NDA) in climbing, has several records on her name and hasn’t ever let anything or anyone stop her from reaching the top, quite literally. Currently she is conducting adventure events for blind and people with disabilities with Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation.

 

(i)My Learning Takeaways or Life Lessons from the Guest Talk-

​

• It does not matter whether you are boy or girl, if you have determination and belief in yourself you can achieve anything in life. You can persue any career you want to , just have faith in yourself and be your own support when nobody else supports you.

• There are many things you will have to hear about yourself , which will demotivate you and make you think whether you will be able to achieve anything or not, but never let those things overpower your self confidence.

• When you decide to achieve what you want , when you decide to risk what you have, in order to get what you want, then remember you are making a decision for yourself and whatever may be the result , you will not regret later for not even opting to achieve it.

• Just never give up , and you will have what you once wanted to have.

 

(ii)How can I relate the Guest Talk to the course ‘Living Conversations’ –

​

I totally relate this Guest Talk with our course ‘Living Conversations’ because the way she spoke about her journey in about one and half hours, covering everything important so efficiently , with so much grace,confidence and clarity and when she talked, it was visible in her voice and tone and also in her expressions that she was happy by what say was saying . And this is exactly what our course of Living conversations focuses to teach us, to talk in way that affects and inspires others in a positive way. Truly, Ishani Sawant Ma’am has set an example for this.

 

(iii)What I liked most about the Guest Talk-

​

The thing I liked most about the Guest Talk was that how Ishani Ma’am talked about each and everything with so much clarity. She never hesistated to talk about the tough part of her mountaineering journey where she had to face challenges like being descriminated because of being a girl and also about the expenses which were quite high for her when she started this journey. She talked in a way which felt like I am listening to my elder sister’s journey and not of a stranger.She not only talked about herself but also tried to help us students by telling us about courses and opportunities we can get if we were interested in mountaineering and this quite impressed me. In short , she tried to cover everything important in those one and half hours and I was really happy and surprised to see this.