My Romance with the Himalayas

In My Romance with the Himalayas, Madhuri Mandava recounts how, in 1988, as an 18-year-old engineering student at India’s elite Birla Institute of Technology in northeastern India, she learned of the Highlander’s Adventure Club, a mountaineering program where she would acquire the skills that enabled her to pursue life-long treks in the Himalayas. As she puts it, “While the initial years were to learn mountaineering, they later culminated in spiritual quests to attain enlightenment. I have faced numerous avalanches, hail storms, landslides, gotten lost on glaciers (almost died), leapt across gorges, walked on tree trunks in lieu of bridges, been bitten by giant mosquitoes, felt leeches suck my blood, struggled with little food -- sometimes just a piece of jaggery (brown sugar) that I sucked on for hours -- faced cold and bitter winds, was close to frostbite, and so much more -- but my love for the rivers and mountains was so deep. I was a fearless wanderer.”