The power woman

Arunima Sinha - Fighting The Unfortunate With Great Confidence

Aashvi Vig, AIS Noida, X L

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trials and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” While this quote by Helen Keller has inspired many, it was Arunima Sinha who adhered to it strictly. A mountaineer, born in Ambedkar Nagar, Lucknow, Arunima has been awarded several accolades for her courage and bravery, but her story which is now full of glitter and achievements started with an extremely unfortunate event.
On April 12, 2011, she boarded the Padmavati Express train where some goons attempted to snatch her bag and gold chain. All eyes were open and witnessing the crime being committed, yet Arunima was left to fend for herself. As she fought to protect herself and her belongings, the goons forcefully pushed her out of the train. At the same time, another train running on the parallel track crushed her leg below the knee. She was down on the track throughout the night in pain, bleeding, and she counted how at least 49 trains passed her by, yet not a single soul came to help her. Finally, in the morning, she was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment, where the doctors announced that her leg had to be amputated. The news travelled fast through the media, and soon she was even offered a 5 lakh INR compensation, but no such amount could change or bring back what she had lost or even soothe the past she went through. But as she was being treated at AIIMS, she heard of Bachendri Pal and got in touch with her. The ambitious soul in her had decided to scale the Mount Everest and prove how strong she truly was.
The will and determination of any ordinary person would have been shattered. However, Arunima was not one of those people. She showed immense courage and came back even stronger. She decided to do the unthinkable and started chasing her one dream that gave her the strength to keep going in life. She wanted to be the first female amputee to climb Mount Everest. Mindful of the same, she trained vigorously with the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering for over 18 months. Her patience along with her strong willpower, steadfastness, and perseverance helped her to overcome the negativity that came from the loss of it all. She broke the barriers of the dark and silence around her. Despite her deprivation, she neither indulged in any self-pity nor lost her self-confidence. That’s how, under the able guidance of Pal, Arunima reached the summit of Mount Everest at 10:55 am on May 21, 2013, becoming the first female amputee to scale Everest.
After climbing Mount Everest, Arunima Sinha’s next goal was to climb the seven highest peaks of all seven continents. By 2014, she had successfully climbed the six summits in Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, Australia, and North America. And on January 4, 2019, she climbed the final summit in Antarctica and became the first female amputee in the world to climb Mount Vinson. This completed her mission of hoisting the Indian Flag on the seven highest points across the seven continents, teaching us that grit is what heroes are made of.

The freelance rise

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A not so negative but upsetting side
Similar to any other job, freelancing comes with its own pitfalls...
The biggest challenge that most freelancers face is the lack of a safety net. There is no social protection, nor are there any full-time employee benefits to be enjoyed. From health benefits and paid vacation plans to unemployment insurance and severance pack, to the chance to use a company’s car and having paid fuel, the benefits of a traditional job are numerous. According to Statistics, around 27% freelancers whose gig job is their main job have no retirement savings; an additional 53%, with no traditional job training benefits to support them, cite cost as the main barrier to improving their skills. 
nFinding steady work is the toughest assignment in the world of freelancing. Projects can begin and then get shelved or sometimes clients may end a contract early. Pandemic made things worse as 52% gig workers lost their jobs without any prior notice and around 41% received less work.
nAs per a survey conducted by FlexJobs, 65% freelancers see finding clients as their biggest challenge. This lack of clients is directly proportional to a lack of meaningful reach. As a result, freelancers often find themselves in the need of forming connections and gaining contacts in their respective fields in order to increase their outreach.
nAnother common downfall to being a freelancer is that you will ultimately be isolated from a team or company. Solitude is often the main villain in the story of a freelancer. Around 16% freelancers state loneliness as the biggest drawback. (The State of Remote Work 2021 report).
nWhile freelancers can set their own fees to meet their income (and clients’) needs, they are also responsible for collecting payment. Unfortunately, there are countless clients that either take too long to pay or do not pay at all.

A not so statutory but legal tide
As surprising as it may sound, freelancing is often encouraged by governments around the world as it increases self-employment quotas along with generating more employment opportunities. As such, US leads the world in the trends of gig economy where over 50% of the jobs can be worked remotely. India comes in a close second as an estimated 56% of new employment in India is generated by freelance companies across both the blue-collar and white-collar workforce.
Adding to which, in September 2020, the Government of India brought a new labour code - ‘The Code on Social Security 2020’, which extended social security to the unorganised sector workers, including gig workers, by providing them benefits such as retirement benefits, health insurance, employment injury benefits, etc., amongst others. But that’s not all, the central government has also signed MOUs with several gig platforms to augment social welfare. Case in point – the 2019 partnership between Uber and Ayushman Bharat that aims at providing free healthcare to drivers and delivery partners, or the 2017 partnership between UrbanClap and National Urban Livelihoods Mission that ensures jobs with minimum assured monthly wages, at least 15,000-25,000 per month, for the urban poor.

Evidently thus, most countries have begun to realise that freelancing would soon become a core force on the stage of global economy; with the incessant rise of technological innovations and increasing preference for freedom of work over stability, this sector is destined to see a meteoric rise, and thus shall soon solidify itself as an economic powerhouse.

Reimagining past perfectly

What can be more powerful than mastery over words combined with an unhindered imagination? With her recent achievement at YUVA, the Prime Minister’s scholarship-cum-mentorship scheme to promote budding authors, Amity’s Kainaat Arif (Page11) has proven that such a talent can truly exist. Kainaat has been selected as one of the 75 under-30 young authors to receive this award, and what’s even more heartening is that she is also one of the only two under-15 authors whose story has been selected from amongst 16000 entries pan India and abroad. This triumph becomes even more significant considering that the book proposals underwent a tough process of scrutiny by experts.
I am not surprised, however, at this victory as I am aware of the sheer discipline with which Kainaat has worked on this well-researched 3000-word story. A fictionalised account of a true incident from India’s historical past, the story reimagines the murder of Lord Hardinge through the eyes of a 11-year-old.
In Kainaat’s achievement, in fact, is also a message for every child to learn. It is only when you can look back into the past intuitively and intelligently that the true pursuit of a better future can take place.
I have always envisioned nurturing creative talent at Amity through various platforms, GT being one of them. I know that a penchant for weaving words into stories remains a passion for many of my Amity alumni whether they are full-time journalists, lawyers, or army officers. I hope to read many more of these fascinating tales in the future as well.

Rhythm of Life

Some people come into your life and leave a mark forever; one such great personality whom I have had the fortune to meet is the late Kathak maestro Pandit Birju Maharaj. The recent news of his demise came as a shock, but when my sadness ebbed a bit, I was transported to the happy memory of my first interaction with the legendary Kathak exponent. Those were my early years at GT and he had agreed to be our very first celebrity interviewee. Having watched his Kathak recitals on Doordarshan, I had always been in awe of his graceful mastery over movement, and I used to devour every newspaper article published on him and his performances.
Naturally then, I was both excited and nervous to meet him in person as the interview was to take place at his Delhi residence. I remember seeing his house and being filled with admiration. Simple yet elegant, it reflected his personality in every way. When he entered the room, it seemed as if it was filled with the presence of divinity itself. Gentle, courteous, and humble, he spoke in a voice that was soothing and enchanting. When asked what dance meant to him, the reply he gave was as mesmerising as his portrayals of Lord Krishna on stage. “Everything is dance. The entire existence - of nature in plants, flowers, wind, rain, sun, moon, stars, sky, me and you - is dance. Life itself is dance.” It was a novel experience for me as I had never till then met a person who had explained the beauty in everything around us in such an evocative manner. His legacy is testimony to the fact that life is simple and joyful. All we need to learn from him is to flow with the rhythm of nature and be true to our inner self.

GT M@il

Dear Editor,
This is in reference to the article ‘Adversarial enemy’ published in the GT edition dated January 17, 2022. Distinguishing between an enemy and an adversary by their rationality in thought, decision-making, or through the alignment of goals (or lack thereof), is a crucial life skill that determines the approach we may harness when faced with unexpected encounters. The article mentions examples like lawyers in a courtroom, football matches between friends, and standoffs between different political parties, which act as food for thought for a reader and makes one thoroughly analyse the nature of enemies and adversaries encountered at various stages of one’s own life. The article also inspires one to dive deeper into the abyss of often unpleasant exchanges of thoughts and find converging perspectives.
Resham Talwar
AIS Saket, Alumna