The Hindu Business Line : Scaling new dreams

Turnout was a trifle muted but two things stood out — veteran French climber Jacques Perrier led the jury; and for the first time top officials of CIDCO, Belapur's main development agency, visited the hillside climbing sites.

HIGH JINKS: The bouldering event at the rock climbing competition held recently in Belapur, Navi Mumbai - SHARAD CHANDRA

Bong dreams big. He now wants to host the Asia Cup. Lesser known as Abhijit Burman, this adventurer has to his credit several climbing expeditions and cycling trips. Besides the handful of summits, his track record includes being part of the 1998 Tata Everest Expedition, solo attempt of Bhagirathi II, climbs in the Barani Glacier region of Zanskar Himalaya, cycling from India to South-East Asia and an ongoing Trans-Himalayan cycling trip with the first leg, Srinagar-Leh-Manali, completed in 2006.

For some time now, Bong has been synonymous with Girivihar, Mumbai's oldest mountaineering club. His pet project since 2004 is an open rock climbing competition in Belapur, the Navi Mumbai suburb where he lives.

Optimism and homespun infrastructure grew this initiative into a major competition in the Indian climbing circuit. Its roots go back over a decade when Bong and fellow club members began developing the climbing crags off Artist Village. The Parsik Hills converge in an arc here and strewn across the forested area are small, medium and large rocks, suited for bouldering or the art of ascending difficult, not-so-high rocks. In due course, sport climbing on longer routes, with pre-fixed anchors for safety, followed.

Given Mumbai's respect for traditional climbing, these new trends could have gone ignored. Luckily, Bong's work coincided with the rise of a new breed of young climbers, strong and thoroughly focused. Prominent among them was Vaibhav Mehta.

Together, they brought more climbing routes to the table and graded them. It was a synergic mix — a senior climber determined to do something worthwhile and youngsters eager to attempt Bong's latest problems. Before long, another benefit surfaced.

Girivihar found Belapur's crags ideal for its annual rock climbing camp, a training tradition it has kept alive for nearly four decades. In 2003, the club shifted its annual five-day camp to Belapur; trainees stayed at the local YMCA and climbed in the nearby hills.

One of the training batches — the 32nd to be precise — proved enterprising. Egged on by them and with funding from whoever helped, Bong anchored Girivihar's first open bouldering and sport climbing competition at Belapur in May 2004.

Response was encouraging; in Belapur, it also triggered a mini contagion. Bong, a technician with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, installed an 8ft x 4ft plywood sheet with artificial holds at his tiny flat. It was Belapur's first artificial climbing wall. Club members hung around, climbing when he was home and when he wasn't. In peak season, 3-4 sets of door keys circulated among the addicts; an invasion of privacy, younger brother Indrajit couldn't forgive Bong for. But there was more coming.

Belapur's crags weren't pretty; a slum partly clogged access. But enthusiasm for the sport was high. Foreign climbers started dropping by. They would stay in the small flat, go climbing and leave behind new, challenging routes. These routes enriched the annual competition that had by now graduated through its second and third editions, fetching participation from all over India plus a few from abroad.

The third edition almost made it to the youth programme of UIAA, the apex body for mountaineering worldwide. Close to 70 climbers turned up, including two from France. City-based adventure equipment dealer, AVI Industries, continued to sponsor; French brand Petzl extended support for the first time. Still, the effort remained home brewed. Bong had just bought a new house, a small one-room-kitchen in Artist Village. Within days of housewarming, it took in teams from Darjeeling, Pune and the North East, there being no space for all at the local YMCA.

Event over, the new house followed in the footsteps of the old. Indrajit, an architect, got busy designing digs for his brother. With little outside help, the two fitted a loft inside the house. Up went the computer, TV and much else relevant to Indrajit's life. The underside of the loft, the side-walls of the living room — all became a modest-size climbing gym replete with overhanging faces, a roof and imported climbing holds.

When the competition returned in January 2007, Girivihar added an indoor bouldering contest to the itinerary. The required artificial climbing walls were fabricated at Bong's house. Turnout was a trifle muted, but two things stood out — veteran French climber, Jacques Perrier, led the jury; and for the first time, top officials of CIDCO, Belapur's main development agency, visited the hillside climbing sites.

At competition's close, the artificial walls set up at the local community centre were dismantled and taken home. Quite like Bong's Italian cycle — it travels knocked-down to the start of a journey, is assembled and maintained by the cyclist during the trip; then returns home dismantled.

That streak of self-help breathes possibility into the Asia Cup. Everything, so far, has run on hope and hard work. At the Belapur crags, assessing Bong's chances — middle-class colonies in the distance, slum creeping up the hill slope — you suspect that a sliver of logic may see his mad claim through.

"I am not seeking an Asian Championship run by large sports bodies. I am talking of an indoor bouldering cup, an open competition like what Girivihar already has, but Asian in scale," he said.

Something about Bong says he will make it. If not, call it a sad day for optimism.

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