On top of the world, Nungshi and Tashi Malik have sage advice for girls

Visakhapatnam: Twins Nungshi and Tashi Malik, the first female twins to scale the seven highest peaks including Mt. Everest, were in the city to be part of the annual function celebration of Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan. Floored by the beauty of the city hills, the sisters wanted to visit the city again and explore it more in future. The twins while speaking to the girl students of the school urged them to come out of their comfort zone, not getting suppressed by the gender discrimination to feel the life and do big in life.

They also spoke about their passion for mountaineering and how they faced hurdles to live their dream and achieve the feat. After the twins graduated from high school in 2009, their father signed them up for a basic mountaineering course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in India. Nungshi and Tashi excelled at this male-dominated sport. They discovered they had the right temperament and their bodies were perfectly suited for extreme elevations. They also found that they could climb faster, longer and higher than some of their male counterparts.

After conquering Mt. Everest in May 2013, the Malik twins turned their attention to the highest peak on every continent and finished the “Seven Summits” in December 2014. Tashi and Nungshi, then skied to the South and North Pole, completing the Explorers Grand Slam on April 21, 2015. Though their mother was scared of all these desires of her daughters, she let her kids to live their dreams.

The twins however attributed all success to his parents, especially their father who rejected the concept of gender inferiority. He was proud to have two healthy daughters and against the wishes of his family and in-laws decided to not try for a boy and encouraged his daughters to break the social barriers. She said government should promote mountaineering as a sport and also encourage girls to take up it. They have dedicated their adventure mission to Indian girl child with the motto Gender Equality Now: Fight female Feticide.