Nikki Bajaj, Trans Woman From Raipur, Completes Her Summit To Everest Base Camp

A summit is when a person reaches the highest point of a hill or mountain. Summits can also be personal, for Nikki Bajaj, it was a summit to the Everest base camp. She has become one of the few transwomen from India to have achieved this milestone. She was part of the 360 Explorer Team which included eight other people.

The group included Rajni Joshi, who is a para-athlete, Chanchal Soni, who is a para-athlete, Chitrasen Sahu, a mountaineer and para-athlete, Anwar Ali, a blade runner, Gunjan Sinha, Raghvendra Chandrakar and Ashutosh Pandey.

The news about their summit was released through social media by Anand Bansode, who is the founder and CEO of 360 SpaceA, EurekaTrip, and 360 Explorer LLP. He tagged the list with the headline "Objective Achieved, Proud moment for all of us."

Suggested Reading: Five Mountaineers Who Made Expeditions Count In 2021

Nikki Bajaj Everest Base Camp

According to the portal Gaysi Family, Bajaj is a transwoman from Raipur in Chhattisgarh. By reaching Everest base camp she has become one of the few transwoman from India to do so.

Her journey as a mountaineer began in Manali, where she completed her first summit the Friendship Mountain Peak. She was informed about this trip by her friend in 2020 and was given the option of tagging long.

Saying yes to the journey, Bajaj paved her way into mountaineering. Even though people expect sports to be highly discriminative in nature considering the hyper-masculine stereotype attached to it, Bajaj had a different experience.

For her mountaineering was accepting of who she is, while she told the portal that she has faced far worst discrimination when it comes to beauty and makeup.

Remembering the past and comparing it to her present, Bajaj said, "This one time a salon-owner fired me because I asked for one day leave to go to the Raipur Pride. Clients have refused to take services from me just because I am a transwoman. The Everest base camp summit has been a blessing for me in this regard because it helps me build an identity for myself outside of all this. People now know me as a mountaineer. It feels nice."

In future, she wants to continue mountaineering with hair styling and she aims to become a source of hope for people from her community. "When I started out I did not have anyone who shared (this) identity with me in my field, to guide me through things. I want to fill that gap eventually for other people."