Street kids from Darjeeling on a high at rock-climbing finals

On Friday, as most of the children made it to the finals one by one, the exuberance was heightened by a sense of pride. “When I am hanging from a 50 feet-high wall, there’s just one thought in my mind, I’ve got to reach to the top. I cannot give up halfway,” says 14-year-old Kavindra Tamang, who started rock-climbing two years ago. Another orphan, Nisha Gurung, 13, has qualified for the Delhi round in her second attempt. “I didn’t do very well last year. This time, I successfully reached the top of the wall,” she says, dreams of a gold medal sparkling in her eyes. Rajiv Chhetri, 13, who wants to be a professional climber, was abandoned by his parents. “Both of them live in Darjeeling, but they don’t want me,” he says. Right now, however, his climbing speed is all that occupies his mind. “I have to be faster in the finals,” he says.

Sekhar Biswakarma, an instructor from the Himalaya Mountaineering Institute accompanying the team says the chances of gold medals coming their way are “higher than other years”.

“When these boys and girls come to us, they are malnourished. We have to fortify them as rock-climbing requires great physical strength and stamina. Climbers have to balance their body weight, sometimes with one hand, as they climb higher,” says Tshering Bhutia from the Edith Wilkins Foundation. Colonel Ajit Dutt, president of the jury of the Indian Mountaineering Federation, says rock-climbing will be introduced as an Olympic event in London and efforts are on to develop “an international-level team in India”.

Which spells immense possibilities for these nine children. After all, “Citius, Altius, Fortius,” the Olympic motto, has always been their motto.