BackLounge opinion | A worshipper of mountains
Why Malli Mastan Babu's life holds lessons for us
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The news confirming the death of ace Indian mountaineer Malli Mastan Babu—his body was found in his tent high up on an Andes peak in South America on 4 April—has brought with it an avalanche of obituaries and condolence messages.
The death of the 40-year-old mountaineer came as a curious pause for a country seemingly wired endlessly to cricket, viral celebrity videos and Candy Crush Saga. Here was a man who chose, and lived in, the great outdoors, “part of big nature", as a newspaper report quoted him as saying.
While we were living the couch-surfer’s life, Mastan Babu, as he was referred to, scaled the seven highest summits in the seven continents (creating a world record then as the fastest individual to do so in 172 days); became the first Indian on top of the Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica and Mount Carstensz Pyramid in Oceania; and accomplished an arduous trek through the world’s highest passes, from the Cho Oyu peak near Mount Everest to Mount Kanchenjunga. Most of his mountaineering adventures were accomplished solo in the classical Alpine style; an “express" climbing approach with minimum equipment.
The Indian flag, a flag of his Sainik School in Andhra Pradesh, a logo of his alma mater, the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (he was also an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur) and a copy of the Bhagavad Gita almost invariably accompanied him, a sign that Mastan Babu remained committed to his roots.
A website on Mastan Babu notes that he received little institutional support from either the government or the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, the apex body, though he got financial and logistical support from friends and well-wishers in India and abroad. The fact that he didn’t seek government patronage possibly had its roots in an unpleasant experience Mastan Babu had with a political leader a few years ago, his sister, Malli Dorasanamma, recounted to Deccan Chronicle.
His Facebook page, a veritable compendium of his many adventures, occasionally featured his amazement at sudden Indian media interest, or his anguish at children in his “friends" list who had used the faces of actors as their profile pictures. “If you have your own picture as profile picture then it’s more welcome," Mastan Babu told the children on 20 April 2014. “I appreciate that you like yourself or (are) proud to be what you are."
“He always told me to come out of the walls of safety and explore nature, for the real lessons are there to learn," his sister told The New Indian Express. Mastan Babu is known to have said that he didn’t conquer mountains but worshipped them.
Mastan Babu chose to spend days and nights alone on dangerous, windswept passes, high-altitude bivouacs, surviving snow storms or reading a book under the portable light in a tent pitched 20,000ft up a peak in South America or the Himalayas. Despite this strong streak of individualism, he never forgot to hold the tricolour high atop the world’s highest mountains.
He was a true global citizen. Instead of life in a corporate cubicle (he worked as a software engineer for three years), he chose the global stream—speaking many languages, following his passion, making friends across the world (many joined in the rescue mission at the Andes), travelling in the remote mountain regions of the world, and when he wanted to pause, practising yoga. He looked out to look within.
Would more recognition and institutional support have saved the life of the villager from Nellore district on the 21,748ft Cerro Tres Cruces Sur peak in South America? Probably not. But his death has at least stirred Indians into acknowledging the rightful place of individual athletes and lone explorers.
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