INDIA’S FIRST WOMAN MOUNTAINEER-SKYDIVER-B.A.S.E. JUMPER
MRS. ARCHANA SARDANA
Archana Sardana is a veteran of the skies. Three years ago, the 38 year old took a leap into the unknown when she became one of India’s select few women skydivers. Today this homemaker, wife of a Naval Officer, has become India's first and only woman B.A.S.E jumper (Jumping from Buildings, Antennas, Span and Earth (Cliffs), officially one of the world's riskiest extreme sports, with a single parachute (no reserve parachute) and very little time to react for emergencies. “The freefalls last for a couple of seconds, after that it is a question of how you fly your canopy. It’s definitely far more exciting than skydiving and infinitely riskier. Infact it is real daredevilry”, says Archana. She is now scouting tall structures in India to jump from including the TV Tower, Pitampura New Delhi.
Born in Jammu 1972, Archana completed her schooling from Presentation Convent Srinagar. She is a Bachelor of Science and has a Diploma in Interior Designing and Computers. Encouraged by her family, she did her Adventure, Basic and Advanced Mountaineering Courses from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling and Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi.
“It’s a myth that women cannot take up extreme adventure sports because of physical reasons”, says Archana.
Skydiving, as an adventure sport is in its nascent stage in India. Very elementary training facilities are available in certain places and that too for ‘static line’ jumps. However, organised skydiving training facilities are available in the country for Defence Forces skydiving teams only. But for civilian skydivers aiming for ‘solo jumps’ no training facilities whatsoever are available in the country.So, I had no option but to pursue my dreams elsewhere in the world, laments Archana.
In 2007, after a brief interaction with the Indian Navy Skydivers she undertook a course in Accelerated Freefall Training (AFF) at the Perris Valley Skydiving School, California, USA.
Archana’s adventure loving husband, a Submarine Officer of the Indian Navy, an avid Mountaineer, has been her biggest pillar of support. “I started Skydiving long after marriage and in all my endeavours my husband has always stood beside me,” she adds.
Today Archana has completed 238 jumps and has a 'C' license from the 'United States Parachute Association'. She is a 'Demonstration Skydiver' and is the first Indian woman to fly the Indian Tricolour in US skies.
Skydiving is unconventional only in India. In her last trip to USA, she witnessed a large number of American women 'Jump for a Cause' (for awareness of Breast Cancer) jumping to make a world record formation in the air. “My VISION for Indian women is to break the glass ceiling and achieve greater heights, to prove to the world that Indian women are second to none” says Archana.
After completing more than 200 jumps and qualifying for “Flag Jumps”, thrill seeking Archana decided to undertake an even more dangerous and risky sport, B.A.S.E. Jumping. Only last month(13 Jul 2010) Archana completed 25 BASE jumps from a 400 ft high bridge in Utah, USA thus becoming India’s first and only woman BASE jumper. In Oct 2010 Archana did 12 B.A.S.E. jumps from the towers Menara Alor Setar and Menara Kuala Lumpur at the Malaysia International B.A.S.E. Jump 2010. She was the only Indian among 120 participants from 22 countries and the sole person to do a flag jump with the Indian flag.
The Tiranga has been always a great source of inspiration for me and I have always looked up with pride and honour to the country’s National Flag, says Archana. Encouraged and inspired by Mr Naveen Jindal’s crusade to promote the use and display of Tiranga, Archana decided to fly the National Flag whenever she got an opportunity. During her first visit to US for training in Skydiving, she noticed American people flying their National Flag with pride and honour. This further motivated Archana and she made up her mind to fly the Tiranga in the sky. But that was not easy as the Skydiving rules permitted only licenced and qualified Skydivers (more than 200 jumps) to do so.
To achieve her mission of flying the Indian Tricolour in US skies (the proudest moment of her life), Archana had to struggle a lot as it required a minimum of 200 skydives to qualify for the Flag Jump. This involved not only hard work and rigorous training of 16-20 weeks done in 3 phases for proper assimilation but also a whopping expenditure of approximately 15 lakhs for her training visits to USA. Archana alone knows how difficult it was to raise these funds as she had to sell her wedding jewellery, car, digging into husbands saving and taking support from parents, friends and family, adds mother of two school going children Pranav and Ayush aged 10 and 8 years. Having exhausted all her financial resources, she now has a major hurdle to cross viz. to raise funds for her mission of “creating awareness of the social evil of female foeticide”.
Archana did her first skydive to raise awareness for a ‘Blind Free India’. Her efforts have led to hundreds of serving and retired service personnel to sign up for organ donation with the “Armed Forces Organ Retrieval and Transplant Authority’. Today, she has taken on another noble cause to “Save the Girl Child”. Towards achieving her mission of eradication of Social Evils against women and work for their betterment, she is even prepared to sky dive on the “highest drop zone in the world, near Mt. Everest with the Indian Tricolour”. She also plans to jump in every village of the country to achieve her goals of fighting against Social Evils. However, the constraint of funds is a major hurdle, which has presently slowed down the progress of her mission. To overcome the shortage of financial resources, she plans to reach out to Social Organizations, Centre & State Governments and Private & Public Corporations for their support in this very noble cause.
Contact Details:
Archana Sardana
C/o Major SN Sardana (Retd.)
3802 Jal Vayu Vihar, GH-4A, Panchkula, (Haryana), 134116
Email: archana@skydivergirl.org.in
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