By IANS,
Kolkata : It is an uphill task by all counts. Tusi Das, a 25-year-old resident of this city, wants to climb Mount Everest – and so she sells eggs.
She has been selling eggs for the last six years to collect enough money to fund her journey to the highest mountain in the world.
“Mountaineering has always been a passion and Everest my dream destination. But poverty is the biggest obstacle in my path. I can neither afford a bank loan nor do I want to beg for money for my Everest expedition. So I decided to earn money on my own by selling eggs,” Tusi told IANS.
Tusi, a resident of Dum Dum Park area in north Kolkata, is from an impoverished background. Her brother Sanjay runs a vegetable stall at the local market while her two married sisters, Swapna and Suparna, add to the family income with their needlework.
“My family has always encouraged me. They know that my dream is far beyond their reach, but they have never interfered. Even at times of financial crisis they never ask for a rupee from my earning.”
To save the cost of setting up a separate stall, Tusi sells eggs from her brother’s vegetable stall.
“I have saved up over Rs.400,000 in the last six years. By 2010, I expect my total profits from egg sales to be over Rs.700,000 and as soon as that happens I will head for Everest.
“The path I chose is long and steep just like Everest, but once you make it to the top, the world will acknowledge your efforts. After all there are no short cuts to success.”
Mad about mountaineering since childhood, Tusi knew that her dream was too big for her. But instead of giving up, she went about earning money by selling eggs from the age of 19.
“After my business started doing well, a friend introduced me to officials of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), a premier mountaineering institute, in Uttarkashi.
“I did a rock climbing course at Uttarakhand, and a search-and-rescue course at Uttarkashi under NIM. The course fee of Rs.4,000 for each of the courses came from selling eggs.”
In the last three years, Tusi has been able to fund a trek from Gangotri to Badrinath and climb the Draupadi Ka Danda range in the Garhwal hills, the 21,000-foot Menthosa peak and 20,000-foot Kalindi peak – all thanks to the eggs!