Several readers were pleasantly surprised to learn from the last issue of this magazine that Godrej were closely associated with mountaineering, to the extent of actually sponsoring the famed Panch Chuli expedition. Our former Chairman, Sohrab Godrej, was a keen mountaineer in his youth, and encouragement of the spirit of adventure occupies pride of place among Godrej values.

Indian mountaineering has come a long way from the days when a party of enthusiasts attempted to climb the formidable Panch Chuli peaks with the simplest of equipment, which included canvas shoes and an umbrella!

The facilities for mountain climbing have grown enormously since the establishment of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and other similar institutions, and the manufacture of excellent yet reasonably priced equipment.

In the best traditions of this sport throughout its history, the importance of endeavour rather than success has been emphasized from the very beginning. The very first Indian attempt on Everest was turned back less than 800 feet from the Summit. No mean achievement, this. And the leader could write with justified pride that “when you have done your best, you cannot do any better?

It has been claimed time and again that the Himalaya have been conquered. The fact is that the Himalaya can never be conquered, though they may be climbed. The world keeps turning, but the Himalaya abide in their vastness and grandeur and mystery. Believed to be the abode of the gods, which they could well be, they have been a rich source of cultural inspiration through the ages. The poet Kalidas lovingly described them as the Supreme Lord of the Mountains, possessed of a divine soul and as “the measuring rod of the earth?extending from the eastern to the western oceans.

B.K. Karanjia