In Love With Mountains : Sreesha Ravindran

A multitalented personality with extraordinary and exemplary skills, dare to dream attitude, and a strong determination  to succeed are just a few words to describe Sreesha Ravindran. Born in Kerala, but settled in Bangalore, this young lady has achieved great heights and displays a huge sense of accomplishment. She is a dancer and a mountaineer by passion, and also working as a Finance  professional. She plans to pursue a degree in Bharatnatyam- a classical dance form. A source of inspiration to all ladies who would usually push their passion to be the last priority in life more so after marriage and family. She contributes her credit to her parents motivational force towards her passions.

As it is said, roads to success are paved with thorns, so also life had its own challenges for Sreesha. She says there were several episodes of procrastination, guilt-ridden days, feeling of unfit, her beliefs questioned and so on. She would be dissuaded by many on her plans of mountaineering as this was the craziest and a wildest thought a woman could ever have, especially when she has the glorious title of a mother, a wife and a daughter-in-law in a patriarchal society like India. Life was pretty much easier before marriage as there were less restrictions and rules to be followed.

Sreesha has attempted many adventurous trekking and also scaled many mountains by herself. Recently she had her son accompany her on few of her treks. She feels that as she inherited this deep desire for trekking from her father- an independent and a self made man, who has always been her role model, she too should introduce the passion for trekking in her son from his earlier days. She describes one such adventurous experience which has been one of her memorable stunts – During her descent from a mountain i. e Stok Kangri in Leh, Kashmir, she experienced acute mountain sickness. The thought that her young son was with her started hallucinating her. It was like a life and death situation – says Sreesha. It was extremely difficult to balance reality and hallucinations as the descent was from a steep glacier and chances of accidents were high. With the help of her technical guide and training her mind to stay alert with the critical situation she succeeded in her descent. This incident not only increased her self confidence but also proved to be an important learning experience in life. Climbing mountains helps to learn a lot from life, Sreesha says, “You learn to adjust your needs to minimal, enjoy nature, meet different types of people, get to know different lifestyle and so on.” According to her, travelling is the best teacher of life. 

Strong determination, a positive and carefree approach, and following one’s intuitions are just few of the success mantras that Sreesha follows. She aims high for her future, is always ready to face the perils and dreams to scale as many mountains as possible. Her message to ladies goes thus – “Never think about others’ opinion as it imprisons you from inside. Always move ahead in life without any guilt or hesitation along with a positive attitude”.

 Wishing you good luck for every test of life, Ms. Sreesha Ravindran!