Namokar mantra & book help NRG doctor conquer 7 summits

If tending to his patients and maintaining a strict vegetarian diet in the US was not Himalayan task enough, it took just a book to push this NRI doctor, Manoj Vora, to scale the highest mountain peak — the Mt Everest too. And with this feat, the internal medicine specialist at Lewis County General Hospital, Lowville, New York has become one among the few adventurists who have scaled the seven highest peaks in all the seven continents of the world.

Vora, a Gujarati Jain, was inspired to accomplish the extraordinaire after he read Seven Summits in 2003.

The book told of the experience of mountaineer Richard Bass, who scaled the seven highest peaks in the seven continents of the world in 1985.

Earlier in an interview to Watertown Daily Times, Dr Vora had said that he had began his quest to conquer the highest mountains of the world in 2003 and had envisioned to be on top of all the
seven peaks within seven years.

However, it took him nine years to finish the task, the last of which was the Mt Everest, which he scaled on May 22, 2013. Incidentally, this was Dr Vora’s second attempt to scale the Mt Everest.

He had attempted it in 2010 but hypothermia had forced him to leave it mid-way. Dr Vora’s sixth summit was Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica which he scaled in December 2010.

Dr Vora who met the chief minister on Saturday said that he wanted to inspire the youth to take up climbing. He also dispelled the myth that vegetarianism was an impediment in scaling the peaks.

He talked of how he had been in US for 24 years but stuck to his vegetarian diet and would continue to do so. He also said that it was the Namokar Mantra that kept him inspired and motivated to scale the peaks. He asked the youth to dream big and work hard to realise their dreams.