The Better India · 4 days ago

How Does a Man Go From Nearly Ending It All to Becoming the 1st Indian to Run at the North...

Ram Gopal Kothari lost two businesses, survived a cyclone, and once stood at a Kolkata metro station ready to end his life - until his phone rang and his wife's voice pulled him back from the edge. What followed was not a dramatic transformation but a slow, unglamorous return: working from cyber cafes, walking hours to meet clients because he couldn't afford transport, building again from nothing. This year, he became the first Indian to complete a marathon at the Geographic North Pole, finishing 42.2 kilometres across shifting, softening ice in temperatures that numbed his feet and flooded his shoes. "I do not believe in giving up on anything I do," he says. "The moment you give up, everything ends there. But if you take one more step, something always changes." His wife, Shipra, perhaps names it most honestly: "This is not just one achievement; it is everything he has been through and everything we have seen together."