There’s a lot of obsession with the word ‘why’, wherein people try to dissect and analyse every tiny bit of the world, themselves, their peers and their loved ones. It’s often said that you need to find that ‘why’ in your life, something that eggs you on, because without that you are just a soul wandering around the face of this earth, without much guile, without much purpose.
Few people find this ‘why’ pretty early in life, something that is personal to them, something that they can spend their whole life doing. For others, there is this eternal search for that ‘why’, a search that makes them do various things in order to finally reach that place of serendipity.
For Bhakti Sharma, the ‘why’ of her life was swimming. Ever since she took her first swim, she knew that this was why she wanted to live, this is what she wanted to do, and this was what her purpose in life was.
Dealing with gender issues, infrastructural problems and finances; Bhakti Sharma did not give up on her ‘why’, riding on the support from her parents and achieving what she had always set out to do.
In this wonderful initiative by Hero Pleasure we discover the journey of Bhakti, the tough times she faced, the passion that she had for her sport and the way it all came along.
Bhakti Sharma holds the world record for swimming the longest distance(2.28 km) in 41 minutes in the freezing waters of Antarctica. Also, she is the youngest swimmer and the first swimmer from Asia to swim in all 5 oceans and 7 seas.
Bhakti’s parents have worked tirelessly for her to achieve what she always wanted to. In times when girls were not allowed to swim(or wear a swimming costume) without being frowned upon, Bhakti’s parents made it a point to protect her from societal pressure, and to never let that come between her and her dreams. And they succeeded, big time.
With Bhakti having achieved almost everything that she set out to, here’s hoping that her story can inspire tons of other budding athletes(and their parents) to dream and then have the courage(and the support) to achieve their dreams.
