The Water Baby

Indian open water swimmer Bhakti Sharma shares with Society her experience of Swimming across the five Oceans and the seven seas of the World.

- Trisha Mahajan

Twenty six-year-old open water swimmer Bhakti Sharma is a dreamer who is living her dreams and is working more rigorously to find her place in this world. She calls herself a lambi race ka ghoda (a horse that can withstand long races—said for someone who is enduring) who might not be very fast, but has the stamina and the capability to swim long distances. This attribute of hers makes her the youngest in the world and the first Asian girl to set a world record by swimming 1.4 miles in 52 minutes in one degree temperature in the Antarctic Ocean, thereby registering a victory of conquering all the five oceans of the world and the seven seas. She was bestowed with the prestigious Rashtrapati Award that goes by the name of Tenzing Norgay  National Adventure Award for Water Sport in 2010 and has also been recognised by PM Narendra Modi for her Antarctic Ocean win.

Born, and currently based in Mumbai but raised in Udaipur, Bhakti was not really inclined towards swimming, but this passion simply runs in her veins as her mother, Leena Sharma, is a state and national level swimmer and has been coaching her ever since she was just two and a half years old. Though it all started for Bhakti as an extracurricular and life skill activity, in the due course of time, she challenged herself, kept setting newer targets and with each passing day, grew as a swimmer.