Day was 22 May 2019 at 9:00 am, a man stepped on the summit of the world- Everest, laughing at all the distractions knocking his mind during his way. Maybe the courage came from all of the fantasy stories knitted by his heart which was already dipped in the love of nature. But still a teen from the heart he says “I am still learning from stalwarts” and that’s the reason behind the success.

In the history of MBM Engineering College, he was the first Engineer who stood on the Earth’s highest point, the mighty Everest or Sagarmatha in Nepali or Chomulungma in Tibetan. The protagonist of this edition of MBM stories is Er. Bharat Sharma of 2005 Civil batch.

Early Life and Schooling :

Er. Bharat Sharma was born on 19 September 1981 in a small village. His father and other family members shifted to the nearby town Sardarshahar located in Northern Rajasthan ( Churu district) for better education of children and other economic reasons. His father was an employee of BSNL and his mother was a homemaker but started to give stitching training in her own unique style to local women when Bharat and his brother grew up. Bharat was good at studies and completed his schooling from Dugar School, Sardarshahar with decent marks (87%) in 10th standard and (82% ) in 12th standard. He got admission to M.B.M Engineering College in the year 2001 in Civil Department.

In his school days, he attended science fairs and twice represented his school up to the national level. He was also passionate about playing gully cricket in his childhood days. ” Every summer my parents used to take us to Haridwar or Rishikesh or any other religious places. When I was 9-10 years old, we went to the sacred place Badrinath, enchanting beauty of the Himalayas, glaciers, and nature was so mesmerizing that memories of that trip remained with me for the rest of the life and my love for mountains started from that magnificent place,” informs Bharat.

College Education and life:

“Marks don’t matter, you have to follow a passion to enhance your life exponentially”, Er. Bharat Sharma is the perfect example of this dialogue from the Hindi blockbuster 3-Idiots.

“During my college days, I used to read books related to Indian History, Geography, Politics, War, Defence, Business except for study books and that may be the reason I could not get first Division in Engineering” Bharat informs ruefully. He loved to attend Civil survey camps at Nathdwara and Mount Abu and off course final year departmental trip to Kashmir and Himachal, during his college years.

The dream of conquering Everest :

“The very first spark to be a mountaineer ignited at the age of 33. The age factor always made me think that I was too old to start and pursue this passion. But this passion was like magic in my life, I was attracted towards mountains like magnets. During the course of pursuing this passion, I always felt myself in mountains, particularly in the Himalayas” informs Er. Sharma.

The first hurdle in front of Er. Sharma was his overweight and fitness level so to overcome this hurdle, he started running short distances, improving the mileage and charting short distance into long ones every month. Marathons were the early trigger. Some kind of future endeavors started to shape his thoughts. However soon he realized and encountered the second hurdle and that was his spectacles so he had to undergo Eye Surgery on October 4 th 2014 to remove his spectacles.

To become mentally tough, he started following the footsteps of Mr. Malli Mastan Babu ( an IIT, IIM Graduate- who is best known for his 2006 world record creating feat of climbing each continent’s highest peak -the Seven Summits in the shortest span of time at that point ) and underwent 10 days full silence meditation program of Vipassana ( Rajkot Centre).

“In December 2014, I applied for Basic Mountaineering Course (BMC) at NIM and got a confirmation letter from the institute for Course No. 244 starting which was to start from 13th September 2016. So in this waiting period of 20 months, I kept on learning about climbing, simultaneously read and heard several stories of numerous climbers, and got inspired by those stories” informs Mr. Sharma.

He enjoyed reading books of Captain MS Kohli (An ace Indian mountaineer), and other personal climbing accounts of Maurice Herzog (a French mountaineer) and many others. He became so passionate about mountaineering that he started dreaming to be on top of the World one day.

The EVEREST EXPEDITION:

Er. Bharat Sharma started his journey from Jamnagar (a city in Gujarat) on April 30 th 2019 to reach Kathmandu via bus. From Kathmandu, he started trekking for Everest Base Camp with his 380 climbers. Everest base camp is at an altitude of 5364 meters. It took 8 days to reach EBC “The trek to Everest Base Camp is among the most dramatic and picturesque in the Himalayas. The scenery is varied and spectacular, there were people from all walks of life and from around the world,” informs Er. Sharma.

They quickly reached Camp-2 and then Camp-3, which were at the altitude of 6400 meters and 7300 meters respectively. The excitement to conquer Everest was palpable as everyone was getting closer to their ultimate goal. He started climbing over the steep terrain for the infamous South Col Camp-4 (death zone). The zone above 8,000 meters is known among mountaineers as the ” Death Zone”. ” The maximum deaths occur in this zone, Here the pressure of Oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life and visibility tends to zero. The body starts shutting off the digestive system and appetite is lost. Since I traveled at different rotations, my body got acclimatized to the deadliest weather of Everest.” Informs Er. Sharma.

Standing on the top of the world:

It was the time to face his fear in a very real and dangerous way. But he was mentally prepared, He was confident to reach the top. He continued on and climbed the Hillary Step, pushing himself to the summit. Finally, the long wait was over. He stepped on the summit on 22 May 2019, the feelings and emotions were out of control and time slowed down for a while. That moment was inexpressible in words. Then he took out the Indian flag with alma mater MBM and his employer Reliance logo and fluttered on the summit at the height of 8848 m. He handed over his camera to Sherpa to get a few but great pictures on the summit. With the sheer grit, determination, and passion Er. Sharma became the first mountaineer from MBM Engineering College to scale the World’s highest summit The Everest.”It took 55 days to complete this adventurous and memorable expedition but it was worth taking the risk and spending a lot of money as in the end, I could able to fulfill my childhood dream of conquering Everest” quips Er. Sharma.

Other Notable achievements :

Before conquering Mount Everest, Er. Sharma completed basic rock climbing training at Mount Abu in 2015. He also scaled the peak of Mount Manaslu, the 8 th Highest and among the 14 mountains above 8000 meters altitude in the world in Sep. 2018. In 2016, Er. Sharma hoisted the Indian tri-colors on Africa’s highest peak of Mount Uhuru, Kilimanjaro, situated at an altitude of 5895 meters. Er. Sharma is an avid marathoner and he had completed 76 km, Sardar Patel Ring Road, Ahmedabad ( 2016), 161 Kms Run the Runn, Dholavira in Kutchh ( 2018), 211 Kms The High 5’s Manali to Leh ( 2018) 200 Kms Sher-E-Punjab Amritsar to Chandigarh and 160 Kms The Border Jaisalmer to Longewala with a respectable time.

Professional Journey :

Er. Bharat Sharma, perfectly managed his passion and professional life in a very efficient manner. He worked with Enercon, Kohler and then from the year 2011 has been working with Reliance Industries at its Refinery Complex at Jamnagar. His current job role is techno-commercial evaluation of various projects in the civil discipline.

Message to Young Climers and nature lovers:

“Live the life with passion, fearlessness and purposely – Malli Mastan Babu”

“Mountaineering is an art and definitely a difficult sport too. An individual needs to stay away from home for long-duration, unlike marathons which usually get completed in a day or two. You must do courses on climbing and mountaineering (from basic to advance). It is also a costly hobby and one needs to have ample funds to pursue this hobby and it can be considered as a profession to have a source of income. One should respect nature so that he or she can receive its’ blessings to keep oneself safe there.” advises Er. Sharma to young climers.

Such is a thrilling life of Er. Bharat Sharma! We young generation salute to this amazing personality. He is our true inspiration. We wish him a happy, healthy and blissful life.

About Author :

Author Er. Devanshu Soni is currently pursuing BE degree (first year) in the Electrical and Electronics department, His Hobbies are playing cricket,  chess, web content writing and traveling.   He has also great interests in IEEE (Electronic coding).