Sandhosh Kumar - An adventurer, who did not exist for me until today...

There are few channels, I would love to watch, when Mom/Ani/Suresh have the heart to unglue themselves from the television set and hand over the remote control to me. Today was one such day, when I got to watch NDTV Hindu.  The reporter/journalist hidden inside me, loves Jennifer Arul and her shows.

Jeniffer is one step above her peers.  With her warm smile and easy to talk to nature, she is an expert in bringing out the best from anyone. A keen listener, she picks her questions from the answers of the person whom she interviews.  The continuity is simply amazing.  When you complete watching her show, you can be assured of knowing the celebrity inside out.  What more! Her's is always a honest show, artificiality never creeps in.

Today, I watched her in NDTV Hindu, "We Connect". Jennifer met Sandhosh Kumar, an adventurer, who was born in Pondicherry, did his schooling in Chennai and currently living in Singapore.  He gave up his lucrative career as a Banker, for taking up the challenge of climbing Mt. Everest, with a noble cause attached to it.

In his words, "I attempt to reach the highest point in the world to raise funds and awareness for the prevention of child sex abuse in India." Child sex abuse, prevalent widely is not taken very seriously in India, is what Sandhosh feels.

He shared the challenges he faced while climbing, Mt. Everest and on how he overcame them.  His love for mountains is obvious and very infectious.

Now! There! something Viji and Sandhosh share. It's love for Tibet :)

Ah! there is another thing, though I don't have anyone in my family who climbed Mt. Everest, my dad is an artist and his first caricature was on Mt. Everest.  When my Dad was 14, (the year is 1953) he drew a cartoon on Hillary and Tenzing's successful mission on climbing the Mt. Everest.

The joke got published in a Tamil Magazine, where a Woman, standing at the bottom of the stairs, calls out to her husband, who was sitting on the first floor, to share the news.

Wife: "Darling, Hillary and Tenzing succeeded in climbing Mt.Everest.
Husband: Hey! Common let me read the news too... pass on the newspaper, please...
Wife: Sorry, Dear! I can't climb the stairs.

A clean joke, from a 14 year old boy.  When I read it now, am not sure if it's a great joke, but when he sketched it again for me it was funny and I loved it.

It would be really great, if we can support the cause too.  Try out the links and if you are convinced, then extend your helping hands.

A very practical and down to earth guy, he told Jennifer, that mountaineering is not a career for him.  He loves it as a sport and being quite an expensive hobby, he would want to work and also pursue his dreams on doing his MBA from the prestigious Kelloggs University in the US.

Congrats! Sandhosh. All the very best to you!

All the best to me too! My dream is to go to Tibet and trust me when I say that, I try hard to equip myself in achieving this goal of mine by climbing three flight of stairs every day to go to Atlas - my office gym, exercise for 15 mts and I climb down the stairs, on my way back too.  That's what I would call an inclination and zest to achieve things. Bravo! Viji... You will do it, one day or other!