Adventurous housewife notches up five world records

Vijayawada: The diminutive Indukuri Vijayalakshmi, an ordinary housewife from Narayanapuram under Ungutur mandal of West Godavari district, is a personification of grit and resolve. Her prime life was ruined in a marriage with an alcoholic husband. She did not stop there but rose from scratch to scale `heights’ in her life like a phoenix. From being an ordinary homemaker to making it to the Limca Book of World Records, the journey has been a roller-coaster ride for her. Rebuilding her life from ruins, she ventured into adventure sports, a field completely alien to the fair sex.

Her streak of success in mountaineering, rock climbing, rappelling stands as a model for every woman to emulate. The 51-year old Vijayalakshmi has five world records to her credit in the areas of rappelling, tandem and blindfold rappelling. Born into a well-to-do family in a small town called Narayanapuram, Vijayalakshmi never knew what hardship meant till she got married. Though she got a job right after her undergraduate studies, her father got her married against her wish when she was 20.

Life took a different turn for her after marriage. Her husband was a raging alcoholic and she conceived a daughter after just one year of marriage. With no monetary or emotional support from her husband, she had to shoulder the responsibility of bringing up her child. Her husband suffered a paralytic attack and became bed-ridden, when her daughter was in Class XI. She took care of him for around 3 years after which, he passed away.

Vijayalakshmi did not know her passion lied in adventure sports, until she attended a programme organised by Adventure Club of Andhra Pradesh (ACAP) on Women's day in 2006. She tried her hand at rafting for the first time, and since then, she never looked back. She became the first woman to rappel down the 600 ft high Bhuvanagiri fort in Nalgonda district. Vijayalakshmi, who joined the Adventure club as a volunteer, is now its Secretary. Be it trekking, rock climbing, bungee jumping or rafting, Lakshmi has explored them all.

In a 14 member team who went to rappel down Katika waterfalls in Vizag, Vijayalakshmi was the only woman. She finished this daunting task in December, which got her name etched in the Limca Book of World records. She said, 'The temperature was minus 2 degrees when we were rappelling down and it was quite difficult to hold on to the rope. But after I finished it, I got the confidence that there is nothing I cannot do.'

She recently led a three-member team to an undesignated peak in Himalayas from its foothill and hoisted the flag of Amaravati on its peak. Now, the peak is named after Amaravati. The team took 10 days to climb the 6100 mt high peak, which is close to Mountain Deo-Tibba. She stated her resolve to organise another Himalayan expedition with all-women climbers from the state in August.

“Mountaineering, rappelling and rock-climbing are still unexplored by a majority of women. I want to break the stereotypes that adventure activities are only a man's forte.” She added that her ambition is to encourage more women to explore adventure sports.

By Mounika Gali