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[Music] hi friends for me as Rachel Thomas my life has always been a daring adventure and I'm going to take you through my journey today for a minute can you all close your eyes just for a second yes come on close your eyes you imagine you are at minus 45 you are on top of the world and you are standing on point zero let's go one step further you have skydive over the North Pole and you've landed there yes you and your parachute have just landed there and you've got the Indian flag in your hand what a proud moment it would have been for you that's what I did in April 2002 throughout my life I've always believed dream it wish it and achieve it everyone has dreams everyone has aspiration but it can only come true with hard work it's sacrifice and a lot of training people have the Everest of their dreams for me the North Pole was my dream but that journey started thirty-eight years ago yes 38 years ago it was way back in 1979 when I was just 24 years old and I was just I was a mother of two kids and I was at this army party when I got to know the first guy diving coast was being opened up for civilians I feel so excited I always wanted to be like a bird in that sky fly and here my opportunity was coming up for me so I decided to join the course next day morning really the night before I just could not even sleep I was so I was just waiting man would daybreak and I be there for training I got there and I was so amazed to see there were 45 people for the first course officers men and three women the ground training was done the theory classes were even tougher and after 15 days of training a small little orange aircraft called the beaver arrived if you can see that's the beaver there in the picture I will I was on the second jump of the day and I was already wearing my parachute and but at the same time these hands were sweating when I think of that moment I still can feel what I went through on my first jump I was mumbling of a prayers in my heart and in the plane too I just held on for dear life Mico jumpers hand as if he's going to save me here I wanted to skydive I reached this 5,000 feet but it was it took a lot of me to get to that dome and now I had to jump out of that plane you may be saying I'm crazy but I wasn't I always wanted to fly like a bird so it took all of me to take that firstly but I flew faster than the plane I really flew fast of the plane and tried to get hold of that strut kit that you could see at the side but because my hands were wet I slipped and fell I felt like a baby I quickly reached for my handle and pull my parachute open it was such a relief to see that parachute over my head I quickly reached for the toggles that they are the brake lines with which we fly a parachute pulled him down took a check where I was and I headed off to the drop zone did a perfect perra roll and I was so happy that was my first jump I couldn't get over it it didn't dawn on me that I had created history at that moment for me the jump was more exciting but really I had created history for the country I was the first Indian woman to skydive much more than that I broke barriers that day I was a mother of two kids I was a civilian and who said girls can skydive so it changed the whole scene in India that now girls can do adventure sports my second jump was quite similar but on my third jump I just wouldn't get I just was so focused how to get hold of that strut and I hung from it I hung from it for dear life and I was flying like superwoman from that plane yes he was and my instructor had to lean out and push me down when I got to the ground I didn't realize that I could have killed everyone in the plane including me because I was not leaving that plane my parachute would have opened I was told please do not come for any more chumps here my mouth went dry my heart stopped Preeti what do i do I just sat quiet in a corner and some of my course mates came and said go and ask for one more chance so with lot of strength and I was I just went to my instructor said can you give me one more chance please so they agreed to give me one more chance and I did my fortune he said they told me you're not going to go out looking at the propeller you're going to look at the tail and go because there's nothing for you to hold there yes so but at the same time I was told that when you do that jump you will go into a dive because of the wind that is the air that's coming from the propeller will push you down and you'll go into a dive but if you make a spread-eagle position which is a basic position you will stable out so I decided okay I am willing to take a chance I decided to go and jump that was my fortune I overcame fear after that there was no turning back for me I could jump from any plane from any height we need to break up here everyone in life goes through it whether it's the guys or the girls we all go through fear but it's how we overcome it I managed to do my ten finish my ten freefall jumps I got my a license I fulfilled my dream wanting to fly like a bird what next here this whole thing of my I want to keep jumping how do I continue with my jumps how is it going to happen in my life was the only thought that kept coming into me luckily the following year the skydiving Federation opened up for the that year I managed to put in another 15 jump so now my score was 25 jumps since I had 25 jumps they decided to allow me to be part of the demo team what interesting one such demo that I my doors opened the whole thing changed in my life I got an opportunity to jump for the fai and jumping at the affair which is the epics body of all aviation sport I was able to meet the delegates and one delegate from Australia realized that I was a civilian it was very difficult for me to continue in the country so he invited me to Australia when I reached there I realized we were still at infancy in our country they were so advanced and he said if you want to continue with your jumps you have to go to America and you have to buy your parachute there if you want to continue with the sport I came to wit's end where is the money coming I don't have that kind of money to go to America what do I do if we believe that we are the authors of our own life and we can carve our path we can go ahead and it was this thought that came to my mind that I wrote to Rajiv Gandhi I just took plain piece of paper and wrote to him and when I wrote to him it got to him and I go invited to meet him he looked at my logbook and he said what is this no pol forgot to pull for me he was not the Prime Minister of the country for me he was a person who loved aviation and I knew he would understand my passion so I spoke to him whatever you can think and that's the most beautiful picture I have with him smiling it was just a letter written by hand but it worked so he gave me the money I got the PM scholarship my next step like I said I headed to America when I reached there my instructor who had seen my first jump wrote the most motivational thing on my logbook by the way we have a log book every jump we do we write and it's recorded and countersigned by our instructor he wrote that my body position was great my stability was nice but I got competitive spirit I knew I can be a very good competitor that figured something inside me I focused I will represent India so I trained I did 150 jumps in America and that was my next goal I am going to represent India in a competition I had the nerve but in the meanwhile I want to tell you doing these competitions are wonderful but you need regular practice you need regular training and if you don't get the regular training it's very difficult for you to continue in the sport so I tried to break barriers again in the country I got special permission to jump with the Indian Air Force I'm a civilian and still women were not in inducted into the forces so I got that permission I got permission to do 50 jumps with them I jumped from the am 32 from 10,000 feet with the instructors what do I do so I reached out to a friend in Turkey and us can I come and train with the Turkish team so they said ok come along so that I went I started training with the Turkish team in in you know where that main training basis but unfortunately on my 35th jump I saw death yes I did both my parachute had opened out my main parachute had caught was fully inflated but my reserve got entangled a bit and I had to parachute that were washing flying me in this manner I couldn't solve my problem there was no way that I could solve that problem I said my prayers I closed my eyes thank God for all he gave me and where he's brought me in life I put both my kids into his hands and I was ready to accept what was what was there for me as when you do extreme sports you know what you're going to face you know what's going to happen you are ready for it so that was a moment in my life I still get goose berries because I saw it in a dream the night previous if I had landed where you're sitting it's hard ground I do not know what would have happened to me I could have gone in a body bath in a body bag back home or I could have been in a wheelchair my whole life I don't know but God was really kind with me I landed where I'm standing some farmer soaked his field that night it was soggy I landed on my back and a beetroot went up my vertebra my second water bra got compressed but when I opened my eyes I checked my legs if they were walking my hands were working I said thank you God everything is ok yes but I needed to rest and after one year I started getting restless my inner spirit said come on come on we should get up get up move so I I look for an opportunity to go and jump again because in my country I can't jump I don't find the place to jump so I went to Russia to jump after two years I did my first jump in Russia when doctor one doctor told me don't even wear heels or drive a kinetic but another doctor said just do this exercise show me forget that you ever had an accident just go and do it and I did it my fighting spirit always kept me going it's there when I realized that this dream of winning a medal for India would never be fulfilled because I didn't have a proper coach I didn't have proper training so I decided let's move my path all the first at life come to that point when we have to be honest with ourselves what are we fooling ourselves we need to know what we need to do whether we need to move on on what we you have to take a decision and I realized I needed to move on so I decided to be a judge for India I trained in Austria in life we all go through different phases in our lives it could be our jobs it could be our marriages it could be our financial problems but if we let the situation rule us or overtake us then the battle is lost for me during that time my marriage broke I had two kids one was ten and one was nine it was my my mother and my sister who were my rock they stood with me and yes skydiving gave me a lot of comfort it's if I wanted to forget all my worries it's when I went and sky dived I got to know the people jump on the north pole I said I'm going to try that so that I decided it should be my pinnacle of my sport and then for Moscow I went to Siberia and reached the 89th latitude if you look at some pictures it was here itself it was minus 33 if you look at the next slide you'll see how cold it got it went to minus 55 it was impossible for us to even see that distance we had to help an aircraft land it was so difficult to even go to to the restroom which we take for granted over here so it was very challenging because we had only one meal and we had to be warm with that one meal and keep ourself going but I treasured it because I lived 60s on the North Pole I have I know how much the iceberg move jump leader told us that this can crack and you can go through the Arctic Ocean but I was happy there my jump of course was great I would like to simply say how do we put a take up our challenges and push our limits and what is for for the younger generation what is there for them is always remember you live this life only once so grab every opportunity that you get push your limits if you have to raise your bar don't be comfortable where you're sitting or where you are and what position of what what job you have think what next like me I always thought what next so everything for me happened the other way around like I told you I was married when I was 17 I had to write my board exam I seen a Cambridge exam that was the last year when I was 7 months pregnant but that didn't stop me I did it I completed my BA beard later I had two kids my second kid was born to me when I was 20 I did skydiving when I did it one generation before time but I did it so the same thing applies to you you have a dream and you should believe in your dream you should always remember there are three simple rules in life and that is if if you if you do not move from where you are you'll be in the same place if you do not ask the answer will always be no so you have to remember that you have to take that plunge like I took that plunge in skydiving there are times when we take wrong decision in the sport but you have to find an answer very fast so that's part of life we all wrong decision but if you had know where you are heading for and what's your dream and be focused and say I am an achiever I will carve a niche for myself you will do it everyone has a North Pole everyone has Everest I had my North Pole and I had my Everest but I did it [Applause] [Music]