Climbing Mount Everest easier than entering Mandir, says India’s top female mountaineer

LUCKNOW: Indian first woman amputee who climbed the Mount Everest, Arunima Sinha, also a prestigious Padma Shri award winner, was barred from entering a temple in Ujjain for “wearing clothes inappropriate for entering the temple” prompting her to share the ordeal on Twitter.

Arunima, 29, a resident of Lucknow, said she was wearing a long jacket, T-shirt and loose track pants on December 24 when she went to Mahakal temple. She was visiting the state as a guest of Indore’s minister for women and child development Archana Chitnis.

After Arunima was stopped from entering the temple, she tweeted her ordeal. Her tweet gained wide traction, following which the minister issued an apology and said the temple had extended an open invitation to visit, but only if she wears a sari.

“It pains me to inform you that it was not as difficult for me to scale the Everest as it was to enter Ujjain’s Mahakal Temple. I was mocked for my disability (sic),”

she wrote in her tweet, while tagging the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Madhya Pradesh chief minister.

“I was not allowed entry because I was in track pants. But at the same time men entered wearing jeans! I was not aware of any dress code and requested the temple staff to let me into the sanctum sanctorum being a divyang,” said Sinha. She also said that she was “shoved” by temple the staff.