She ventures where eagles dare

HIGH FLYE

 Archana Sardana soars high on passion, quite literally, finds out Trisha Bhattacharya

 A multifaceted and adventurous sportsperson, Archana Sardana is not only a scuba diving instructor, a trained mountaineer, and a base jumper, but also a certified and trained skydiver! A woman of courage, strength, and daredevilry, she is an inspiration to a lot of women who have fears to overcome and daring missions to fulfill.

She wasn’t always this fearless, but time and love for the sport changed her. “Till the time I was married, I did not even walk from my house to the market. Being the youngest in a business family of Jammu, I was a pampered kid. I tried all adventure sports only after marriage. It was a gradual progression of overcoming danger and getting over my fears,” she says.

Today, as a skydiver, Archana has 335 skydives to her credit, jumping off aircrafts, choppers, and a hot air balloon in various countries. As the first Indian woman to unfurl the Indian flag while skydiving at Perris Valley, USA, she also holds a ‘C’ license from the United States Parachute Association (USPA).

 “It has taken me five trips to the USA to train so far. Two weeks, and a few lakhs is all it takes to become a certified solo skydiver. For your first 50 skydives, fear overpowers the thrill factor. It is all about training and being in the air. Now you can throw me off an aircraft in my sleep!” she chips in, astonishingly.

For the last four years, Archana has been skydiving, but in terms of earning from the sport, she thinks skydiving isn’t as lucrative. She however, gives the credit for fulfilling her passions, to her family. “My family has completely supported me in my love for the sport. Professionally, skydiving doesn’t pay me anything.

I had to sell my wedding jewellery, mortgage my house, and had to take loans from family and friends to fund my learning and trips, but it was worth it. Passion for the sport is immense, but there is neither finance nor facility in India for civilians, particularly women.”

Speaking more on the intricacies of skydiving, she shares her adventures as a solo jumper and a group jumper, and tells us what she feels is the future of group skydiving in India. “Since my 10th jump (when I qualified as a solo jumper), I have mostly been diving alone. In fact, it is more difficult to jump with other jumpers when one makes a formation, while falling at high speeds.

Making formations is fun, provided one is an expert. I had started a group of ‘Women Skydivers of India’, but eventually it wound up, because it takes a lot of commitment and money to make an Indian team, which unfortunately India does not have, and won’t have for another decade or so, because neither the government nor the corporate houses seem to have any support for this.”

Even so, Archana does meet politicians, bureaucrats, or business houses for sponsorship, but they all have the same question for her: “Madam, do you have a death wish?” Notwithstanding, Archana bravely carries on, and stresses on the motivations and precautions associated with jumping off aircrafts for such dives, “13,000 feet is the maximum altitude from which I have skydived.

Safety precautions with regard to equipment and emergency drills are carried out before one boards the aircraft. Skydiving is an absolutely safe sport. It is safer than crossing the streets of New Delhi. Anyone who goes up in an aircraft comes down in a parachute!”
Archana encourages others to take up this profession. “Anyone can skydive! Of course, if only one has the means. But age is certainly no bar.

If you can walk to the aircraft, you can jump off it too!” she says, earnestly.
Adding to her list of achievements and accolades, Archana is also India’s only woman BASE Jumper. BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span and Earth, and is an extremely dangerous sport, because in this, one has to jump off very low heights with one parachute.

Skydiving seems to have fuelled her passion for base jumping as well. Generally people try this sport after at least a 1000 skydives, but Archana being the daredevil that she is, has plunged into it after a mere 300 skydives! Her bravery, yet still, knows no limits! As in air, she also manoeuvres herself underwater! Until about a year ago, Archana did not swim, but today, she is India’s first woman Master Scuba Diver Trainer, having completed more than 150 dives in India and Thailand.

Her children, Pranav and Ayush Sardana, find their names in the Limca Book of Records for being the youngest scuba diving siblings. She loves scuba diving as much as skydiving. “Although being a scuba diving instructor is my full-time profession, skydiving, for me, is akin to staying alive.

In Scuba, I am an instructor, but in skydiving I am a Demonstration Skydiver, and still have a long way to go. Skydiving gives you the adrenaline rush like no other sport!” she quips.

Archana Sardana, almost a one-woman army, has also been awarded the title of ‘Adventurer of the Year’, by the Adventure Tour Operators of India, and was nominated the ‘Flag Ambassador’ by the Flag Foundation of India.|

Her extreme adventures do not stop here - she plans to do the Everest Skydive next! She had earlier reached Nepal for fulfilling this dream of hers, but lack of funds stopped her. She also plans to BASE jump the Pitampura TV tower in Delhi.

This enigmatic and valorous lady has four national records in the Limca Book of Records to her name, and her accomplishments continue to astound and inspire all. “Where eagles dare” seems to be just the right phrase to express her fervent passion.