Little did she know she would be living her dream and emerge as the India’s first woman professional surfer.
Malaviya, who co-founded The Shaka Surf Club with school friend Tushar Pathiyan in a small fishing village of Kodi Bengare, some 20 minutes from Manipal, has also initiated change in the lives of the local community through a symbiotic alliance with them.
The club currently offers customized packages to people seeking a getaway or training and provides camps to stay right at the beach while outsourcing the food to local families who get free surfing lessons in return.
Malaviya is part of the industry, little heard of in India and belongs to a growing number of surfing enthusiasts.
The student told the two about ‘surf gurus’ and a ‘surf ashram’, where one could learn surfing besides indulging in a complete ‘ashram experience’.
With almost 7,000 km of relatively unexplored coastline in south of India, Malaviya urged people especially women to take the plunge.
The surfer said her personal experience of growing up in India, where many girls are forced to limit their interaction with boys after reaching puberty, made her want to break the barriers all the more.
“Surfing for me is meditation. As long as I have that sense of peace and satisfaction, that is my purpose in life,” she told a gathering at The Taj Mahal Hotel that included people from all walks of life, including businessmen, naturalists and architects.
As a just-turned father, Chandramowli, said he looks forward to experimenting with outdoor-friendly parenting that can change the way people in India think about travelling with their children.
Dang achieved repute as headmaster and rector of some of India renowned schools, including St Paul’s in Darjeeling, The Army and Air Force Schools and as a teacher of the Doon School.
The ‘Adventure Stories’, that are an initiative of the Taj Safaris, India’s first luxury wildlife travel circuit, in association with The Outdoor Journal and Ibex Expeditions, are a quarterly exchange of stories from the wild and have given many lesser-known explorers a platform to narrate their experiences.
(Credits to PTI of the Economic Times)
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