| Bajaj’s high-altitude swim feat |
18th May 2013
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Ranjit Bajaj with his new record| Photo: Vinay Kumar
ogging headlines is nothing new for Ranjit Bajaj, though for the wrong reasons most times. The son of high-profile Punjab cadre bureaucrat couple, B.R. Bajaj and Rupan Deol Bajaj, he has been embroiled in a number of controversies that always kept him in the thick of media glare. But adventure sports have always fascinated Bajaj. His tryst with adventure sports began with MTV Roadies, besides being a soccer and cricket player since childhood. Bajaj was the first participant from Chandigarh to have figured in the first season of the popular reality show.
About his passion for adventure sports, Ranjit tells Guardian20, "I have always liked to take on new challenges throughout my life. I am passionate about adventure sports and probably have dabbled at almost all of them under the sky. I am a PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) certified Scuba Diver, and have tried bungee jumping, sky-diving, besides other stuff at various occasions."
Moving ahead of all his previous accomplishments Ranjit attempted a record breaking high altitude swim in the freezing glacier lake at the foot of Mount Everest & Mount Pumori in the Khumbu region of the Himalayas. The altitude of the lake has been recorded as 5300 metres. The water in the lake remains frozen all day long except for a couple of hours when the sun is at its peak. No Indian has ever attempted to swim in the semi frozen lake before Bajaj.
About the record making swim, Bajaj says, "After venturing in all kinds of sporting activity that come under the adventure category, I got inclined towards mountaineering. Scaling the Mount Everest turned out to be the biggest challenge for me and not many civilians have taken the plunge to attempt it so far. I aim at accomplishing it traverse, which has never been attempted by an Indian."
About his expedition and making it to the Limca Book of Records and India Book of Records, Bajaj says, "Trust me, it was an accidental record, I never attempted it to make or break any previous record. While training for Everest, I went for a mountaineering expedition to Mount Pumori. During this time at the Pumori Base Camp, I came to know that one British national had attempted to swim in this lake. I thought if he could do it, why can't I?"
At freezing temperatures where even six layers of clothes do not suffice, swimming in ice cold waters abre bodied sounds next to a nightmare, leave alone life threatening. Bajaj says, "The risks are greater as the air is really thin. Only half of the oxygen is available to breathe, compared to that on ground level. You run the risk of contracting hypothermia, pulmonary or cerebral oedema, frostbite etc. What more, at -18 degree Celsius where only a few seconds in the water are enough to freeze one's bloodstream was the major peril, but I managed to stay there and come out alive after 11 seconds."
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