Mumbai cop’s journey to Everest as tribute to mother

Navi Mumbai policeman becomes third from the force in Maharashtra to scale world’s highest mountain

Assistant police inspector Sambhaji Gurav from the quick response team of the Navi Mumbai Police has become the third policeman from Maharashtra to climb Mount Everest. He has dedicated his achievement to his mother who had passed away in early 2018, and after reaching the peak on May 23, he unfurled a poster that said ‘Respect women’. In December 2017, Mr. Gurav had finished his first trek to the base camp of the Everest but had to return after his mother got a brain stroke and was hospitalised. “She was in the hospital for two months before breathing her last. I stayed with her, read a lot on her condition, and realised that she had been showing symptoms for the last six months, but no one noticed them,” Mr. Gaurav, who hails from Sangli, told The Hindu. He said, “We often take our mothers for granted and ignore the struggle they go through. After she died, I did not conduct her final rites, but instead promised myself to go through physical hardship in order to pay homage to her. The guilt in me helped prepare myself in the last two years and finally, I could achieve this.”