Mother Courage atop all peaks

Looking out her window at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, one September morning in 2002, the newly-recruited IPS officer Aparna was fascinated by the majestic Himalyan range.

Originally from Bangalore, Aparna till then had seen mountains only in pictures. Turning the fascination for mountains into a life mission to conqueror the highest peaks of every continent, the 42-year old mother of two is just back in Lucknow after climbing Mount Vinson Massif, the highest peak in Antarctica.

"I have already captured the highest peaks in Africa, Austral/Asia and Oceania, South America, Europe and now Antarctica. Now only Mount Denali in Alaska in North America and Mount Everest in Nepal remains," said Aparna Kumar, a UP cadre IPS officer who has rejoined duty as DIG Telecom after a month-long leave for the Antarctica mission.

As a student she was good at sports and had tried her hand at basketball and volleyball. It was in 2013 as a Commandant of the 9th battalion Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) posted in Moradabad that her love for the mountains got a chance to bloom. That battalion was earlier called the Special Police Force. Along with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) it was responsible for the security of higher areas of Uttarakhand.

"The place had many photographs of expeditions, mountaineering gear and the entire paraphernalia of mountaineering which really excited me," recalls Aparna. This rekindling of the fascination motivated her to join the basic mountaineering course at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports in Manali in October 2013.

"I was the oldest person in the course. The others were very young, mostly NCC cadets. It was physically very demanding. I had to really struggle. At times I asked myself what I was doing there."

Aparna was back the next year to do an even more demanding advance course. She first climbed the 20,000-ft Stok Kangri peak in Ladakh. "That's when I resolved to climb the highest peak in every continent," she said. Starting in August 2014 with Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in Africa, Aparna scaled Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia in November 2014 covering the Austral-Asia and Oceania continent. 

How does she manage her frequent mountain expeditions along with a demanding job as a police officer, and responsibilities of marriage and two children, daughter Spandana (9) and son Neel (5)? Aparna describes her husband and batch mate IAS Sanjay Kumar as her strongest supporter along with her mother who takes care of her school-going children in her absence. She also acknowledges the support of the Uttar Pradesh Police Department and her colleagues in the service who have encouraged her. 

"Initially they were a bit surprised at my determination to scale mountains. They have now come to accept it," says Aparna.