Alappuzha: Climbing Mount Everest is easier for S Suresh Kumar than controlling traffic in the parched streets of Alappuzha. The home guard is not bluffing. He has conquered the summit twice before he retired to his home town in 2008 to work as a home guard.
Suresh Kumar is the first Keralite to set foot on the tallest mountain on earth, apart from the ubiquitous Malayali tea seller who is believed to have treated Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary on the summit. The mountains have left such an impression on him that he named his grandson ‘Aarohan’ (Ascent).
Suresh Kumar became a mountaineer by chance. He was working in a photo studio in the coastal town in Kerala when he successfully applied as a photographer for the Indo Tibetan Border Police. He tagged along the team led by Hukum Singh on an expedition to Kanchenjunga in 1991.
The next year, he pushed his limits to climb Mount Everest. He went on another mission to Everest in 1996, this time through the Chinese side. It was not easy. He has seen many of his companions falling by the wayside or getting maimed in accidents during the hard trek.
Suresh Kumar left ITBP after a 10-year stint and joined the Special Protection Group as a bomb detection expert. He was member of the elite squad responsible for the security of former prime ministers V P Singh, Chandrasekhar, H D Deve Gowda, P V Narasimha Rao, I K Gujral, A B Vajpayee and Manhoman Singh apart from Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
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