Endurance and Perseverance Matter- contd

by Pushpa Raghuram
(Bangalore, India)

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Through this article, I am also paying my tribute to the late Padma Bhushan Mihir Sen, the first Asian to conquer the English Channel in 1958 and the only person to swim the oceans of the five continents in the year 1966. A great human being, who merely introduced himself to me with just his name while not flaunting any of his titles.



My salutations to Mrs. Seetha Rao, who was humble enough to teach swimming to a mere child despite training herself for her own project. I called her before writing about her, to get to know about her achievements. She had this to share: “For the past 25 years, I have been participating in master swimming competitions at the state and national levels and have won over 300 gold medals The channel swimming was in 2009 July and that year happened to be my father's 100th birthday. He was the one who taught us children to swim in the Omkareshwara temple tank in Madikeri Coorg way back in 1958. Despite having crossed 55 years of age, I planned to be a part of the relay team to cross the English Channel from Dover, UK to Calais, France. I am now 74 and have the same enthusiasm to get up every morning and swim for an hour to start the day.”



For her, age is just a number, and I bow before the Septuagenarian. If it had been a video call, she would have seen my awe struck face. An expression which was unfortunately not there when I personally saw Mihir Sen for I did not know about his achievements then.



While congratulating Ms. Kirti Chalam who is in her twenties, I also send my best wishes to her – may she continue to cycle and swim her way to more accolades and recognition.




As I was concluding my write-up, I heard this song on Shankara channel:



aMbiga nA ninna naMbide

jagadaMba ramaNa ninna naMbide.

tuMbida harigOlaMbiga adake oMbattu Chidravu aMbiga…



It seemed such a coincidence that the song was about a person considering himself as a boat (body) with nine holes (nava randra) which was floundering in the water of samsara. The cry was to the boatman (god) who alone could help the boat cross safely.



I switched off the TV and retired for the day. I could not decide whether my eyelids closed because they were surrendering to sleep or because they were surrendering to the aMbiga, who has been helping me constantly navigate the ocean of life.



Stay safe, dear friends. May your ambiga be with you always.

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