A voyage of grit: From riding bikes to becoming circumnavigators

Panaji: As a child, Dilna K was afraid of heights. Today, she climbs the INSV Tarini’s 25-metre-high mast in the middle of the ocean. In Puducherry, another family watches with similar awe as Roopa Alagirisamy, once a girl with dreams of space, returns after conquering the world’s oceans.

The two naval officers – Lt Commanders Dilna K and Roopa Alagirisamy – will sail into Mormugao Port on Thursday evening, marking the end of a historic, eight-month-long voyage. Their journey covered 25,400 nautical miles, crossing four oceans and rounding the three Great Capes – a feat attempted by few, and achieved by fewer. Though they grew up on opposite sides of the Anaimalai Hills, what binds them is a relentless grit – a refusal to accept ceilings, whether on land or at sea.From the age of 10, Dilna was never one to be found indoors. While other children studied for tests, she was outdoors – wielding a cricket bat with the boys from her colony or chasing football down dusty lanes. “She found her passion for rifle shooting in NCC and became a national shooter. Shooting is expensive, she always had to compromise on training and good equipment. I remember her travelling from Kozhikode to Idukki almost every two weeks to practice at a good range,” Dilna’s sister Deepthi said.

Before her father, an Army man, passed away in 2015, Dilna made a promise that she would represent India at the international level. On Thursday, as Tarini sails into Mormugao Port, she brings that promise home. Dilna had always been a daddy’s girl and still rides her father’s Royal Enfield as an ode to him.

“She used to pull out 100 buckets of water per day from our well as a young girl to build up her muscles and we used to make fun of her.

She would climb coconut trees to develop agility, even though she was scared of heights,” said Deepthi.Like Dilna, Roopa’s journey was shaped by setbacks, and a stubborn refusal to give up. Roopa grew up dreaming of space. With a BE in aeronautical engineering, she even worked a stint with the National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru. But her true launchpad came from the Navy. “Roopa faced so many SSB interviews.

It felt like she was going in circles,” said her younger sister Durga Monica. “She decided to make one final attempt.

And cleared it.”After being commissioned in June 2017, Roopa’s job at the Naval Armament Inspection division in Mumbai required her to inspect weapons, guns, rocket launchers and torpedoes that went into warships and submarines. It is here that she picked up sailing, first as a dinghy sailor and then in competitive sailing.

“She never wanted an ordinary life, with a 9-5 job. She wanted something that others would not do,” said Monica.

“If you give Roopa an opportunity, she will grab it and there is nothing that will stop her.”Whether it was bungee jumping or her decision to take up surfing, the Alagirisamys had no inkling of Roopa’s adventurous streak. “Nobody knows truth about when she volunteered for sailing in the circumnavigation. She never told any of this to us,” said Monica, laughing.Behind the Tarini’s voyage are two stories of persistence, parallel, yet bound by the same wind. Roopa and Dilna’s journey echoes the trail first charted by INSV Tarini’s all-women crew in 2018. In 2024, Roopa and Dilna made it their own.