Domestic help’s daughter all set to sail around world
27 February, New Delhi
Toiling day in and day out while racing against time to complete the household chores as domestic help in Naval Park area in Visakhapatnam, Rani had never imagined that one day her daughter would proudly become part of the ‘All women circumnavigation of the globe’, one of the most difficult missions that the Navy has ever conceived.
Lieutenant Swathi Patharlapaali, the youngest among three sisters, is all set for the mission under Navy’s flag, the same service whose households provided her mother the means of daily earning.
Undeterred by their nature of work as well as status, Rani and her husband, a head cook working as defence civilian, were determined to bring up their daughters in an environment free of social negatives and ensure them education which will usher them to come out of the vicious circle of poverty.
For Lieutenant Swathi, who is part of the six-member team preparing for the 11-month long mission, her road to success did not come easy. In fact, she learnt her first lesson in sailing when she was in her mother’s womb who was employed in Navy’s Yatch Club.
Swathi, along with her elder sisters Lavanya and Suvarna, did her schooling in Balwadi Centre which was a Government owned Hindustan Shipyard Limited.
Interestingly, the same school invited her to deliver a pep talk after she joined as a Naval officer at the age of 20.
She has spent six years now under Navy’s flag and is presently undergoing a grueling training along with her other teammates led by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi.
The sailing boat Tarini, which will take these brave hearts to the circumnavigation of earth, was recently inducted into the Navy.
Lieutenant Swathi and other members of the team have till date logged over 10,000 Nautical Miles on INSV Mhadei, including a voyage from India to Mauritius and back and Goa to Cape Town braving through rough monsoon seas and heavy wind.
The mission is likely to be flagged off on August 15, after which All Women Circumnavigation Mission will take a loop of the earth to come back to Goa again.