Mumbai college girl conquers Golep Kangri
Stuti Joshi has becomes the only woman to have done a solo ascent of a 6,100 m peak in Ladakh.
“I want to be a legend in mountaineering’,” exclaims 20-yearold Stuti Joshi, the first ever woman to do a solo ascent of Golep Kangri in Leh. The young woman, a final year undergraduate student in Arts in Mumbai University, says she “belongs to the mountains”, and is determined to get into mountaineering after she finishes her degree.
In a candid chat over coffee, she talks about her daring journey to Golep Kangri, a semi-technical peak which involves ice-climbing, rock-climbing and crossing crevasses. “There is a lot of snow on the mountain. One wrong step can get you into the ice,” she informs.
Stuti has also successfully completed a cycling expedition of nearly 500 kilometres alone. The Leh-Ladakh expedition, which lasted for three months last year, included five solo cycling trips at a height of over 3,500 metres, and four mountaineering expeditions over 6,000 metres.
She says self-motivation as well as encouraging words from senior people in the field of adventure sports helped her overcome anxieties and travel to unknown lands. With just a bicycle as her companion, Stuti traversed through the challenging roads of Leh-Ladakh, made difficult choices in terms of picking up the routes, faced odds, and was rescued by good Samaritans.
“A senior German cyclist met me in Ladakh during my expedition and told me he was very proud of me, as he had not seen any other woman undertake such a solo expedition,” she says with pride. “When I started climbing Golep Kangri, I asked for directions. After some time, I reached the first summit and thought I had achieved it. But thankfully, people told me that there were four summits and the last one was Golep Kangri,” she adds.
The trip also brought her in interface with people of Leh and Ladhak, and Stuti says it was quite an experience. “I saw the life of Leh-Ladakhis from close quarters. I grazed their sheep, danced with them, cooked with them, saw Pashmina wool being removed, met monks and discussed life with them,” she says joyfully.
Stuti says her parents supported her despite initial reservations. Her parents are natives of Uttarakhand, but Stuti was born and brought up in Mumbai. Her father is a media professional. Her mother works with ONGC.
She was introduced to mountaineering barely three years ago when her parents stumbled upon a course in mountaineering and informed her about it. “Incidentally, when my father was young, he had done the same course. My mother found out the details about it and I decided to pursue it,” says Stuti, who has completed basic and advanced mountaineering courses from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling in the years 2013 and 2014.
After these courses, she charted her own path to scale four mountains in Leh-Ladakh and cycle through the hilly terrain. Since then, she has not looked back.
She plans to undertake special training in Europe. “I intend to go to France first, and may be to Germany and Greece. France is where sports climbing began. It has the world’s best infrastructure for climbing,” Stuti said, adding the woefully inadequate infrastructure in India is behind her resolve to train abroad.
She is desperately looking for sponsorship as she would require around Rs 20 Lakh for her Europe trip. She says she dreams of doing solo ascents at Mount Everest without oxygen support, El Capitan, Mount Blanc. “Solo climbing teaches you to be calm, patient and focussed,” she says enthusiastically. “Moreover, I want to explore other cultures. The more alone I am, the more I will discover myself.” With the online shopping industry booming, the demand for such models is growing rapidly. Those associated with the industry have no qualms in feeding this fascination for everything foreign and white. It’s business after all. “E-commerce is all about image. When one is shopping online the only way for the seller to grab the buyer’s attention is by showing a great image. These models do just that. Their skin tone and features add value to the garments,” says Shankey, a studio manager for Fashion and You, a popular clothing website.
With about 20 modelling agencies in Delhi that offer 10 to 15 foreign models of both genders, aspiring Indian models are facing a tough competition. “One of my very first shoots was with two girls from Slovakia and I was very apprehensive. I forced the stylist to give me a better look so I could at least stand out, if not look better than them,” says Yamini (name changed on request), a newcomer in the modelling industry. Sidhant Sudhan, a stylist working with Yamini, and who has worked for websites like askmebazaar. com, quickly explained the model’s comment by saying, “It’s of course very hard to compete with white models in India, not because Indians are any less, but because buyers, Indian people, have this bias for the white skin.” Patients coming to AIIMS from all over the country are marred by lack of basic facilities such as food and accommodation besides having to wait endlessly for an appointment with the doctor.
When this reporter visited the hospital, the marked absence of waiting parlours was evident as patients were seen lying down on the ground or taking shelter at the parking lots.
Savitri Sondya, whose husband is suffering from throat cancer, had brought him to AIIMS all the way from Satna with the hope
“They come from across Europe. We have tie-ups with agencies in their countries and we get them on contract basis,” said Dhruv Gupta of Mascot Models Management, a modelling agency. Gupta is the agent for 15 women and five men. “The modelling agencies are responsible for their stay in the country, including their work and accommodation,” said Gupta who has been running Mascot for four years with his brother.
“Most such agencies are located in south Delhi, and the apartments where the models stay are nearby too. I put up seven girls in a four BHK apartment, and we have another smaller apartment in Malviya Nagar and another one in Greater Kailash,” said Gupta. Aditya of Auraa Models, an agency which handles 12 models from Europe and serves clients such as Jabong, Myntra and Flipkart, says, “Foreign models are actually cheaper than good Indian models. A European model gets Rs 12,000-15,000 for an eight-hour shoot, which can go up to Rs 25,000 if the A photographer with a leading e-commerce website said on the condition of anonymity that these models are selected with the target buyers on mind: those residing in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. “A large percentage of our buyers are people from small towns. It is a novelty for them to buy clothes from websites. Seeing the clothes on a white model just increases the value for them,” he says. “I am often involved in the casting process. The agencies send their newest model selections and the studios book them for shoots. The surveys on which the advertising is based, show that the white skin works anytime.”
Sudhan, the stylist, says that these models have to come to India as there are fewer opportunities for them in Europe, where the market is near saturation at any point, whereas “in India they are treated as great beauties because of their fair complexion, brown hair and height”.
Simona, a model from Slovakia, has been working in India for three months, which she did last year as well. In broken English, she explains that she started modelling in India and has not been able to get a break in her own country.
The scene is similar in Mumbai, says Sahil Qureshi, a cosmetologist and former model. “A lot of Brazilian boys have now entered the Mumbai fashion scene. Some designers choose models according to their garments. They want western models to wear western clothes and they leave the ethnic wear to Indian models,” he says.
But that is not the case on most websites, where the western models rule.
When asked if they would use an African model, Shankey of Fashion and You said, “Not African African, but yes the demand for dark-skinned (read, Indian) models is growing. The websites’ target is the buyer in the second and third tier cities, who respond to white models. They are after all running a business.” Qureshi on the other hand said that designers and photographers are willing to make a lot of concessions if the model’s has good facial features. Angad (name changed on request), an upcoming male model who started modelling in 2013, says that “web shoots are a great way to sustain your lifestyle, as models can otherwise earn only during the two fashion weeks in a year”. He also believes that, in a way, the demand for white models has reduced opportunities for Indians. Angad agreed that the demand for male models in India is low and the influx of white men would further affect the scenario.
“These fair-skinned models have in a way captured the e-commerce market. Some time ago, a leading website stopped using Indian models completely and hired only the white-skinned for their catalogue shoots,” says Anand Vohra, a freelance model who has now moved on to working on the ramp and advertisements. He agreed that clothing brands who are trying to sell clothes in a country should use models of that particular country. As for attitude problems, he said it is not right to say that Indians throw tantrums. In fact, many foreign models do that, he said.