nagpur an examplesetting mother a daughter living the life mantra given by her parents rakhi nagrani who hails from gondia was all these and much more when she climbed atop mount kilimanjaro africas highest mountain at 5895m the 43yearold now settled in charlotte in the us finished the daunting challenge in february this year going by nagranis feat it is hard to believe that she grew up in a conservative sindhi family having six children nagranis father santoshkumar hassani a school teacher never allowed societal limitations to stifle her he told his daughter to explore newer horizons her mother mayadevi taught her to have faith and a smile while facing every adversity nagrani managed to make it to the summit uhuru peak of mount kilimanjaro with her allwomen allindian origin expedition team after toiling over eight days and seven nights under tough and sometimes lifethreatening conditions the toughest challenges of mount kilimanjaro expedition are its rough terrains freezing cold rain winds and hailstorm a day before the final day of the expedition we were hit by severe hailstorm and strong winds we felt everything would be blown away something heavy fell on one of the tents forcing all of us to start praying said nagrani adding that they thought about calling off the expedition at one point she derived the strength to carry on from her mother nagrani said my mother always had a smile while facing difficulties in life she taught me the art of controlling the mind with positive thoughts said rakhi whose brother vinod hassani is a renowned chartered accountant in nagpur the expedition team started the final leg at night as the rising sun started to light up the surroundings the thrill was overwhelming having worked for six months i was overwhelmed with a whirl of emotions after reaching the summit nagrani said i remembered my father after reaching the peak he taught us to follow our dreams and not get bogged down with societal norms i also wanted to set an example for my daughters aarya and aarna said nagrani whose husband naresh works with a it company in charlotte nagranis husband supports her adventure pursuit and looks after the daughters when she is away chasing her dreams her passion apart an amateur marathonerturnedhiker nagrani wanted her two daughters to get inspired and learn from her feats i want them to learn how to control or cheat your mind during expeditions and also while facing tough challenges in life it is important to trick your mind into believing that everything is okay and all right mind plays over your body nagrani said mount kilimanjaro is the highest freestanding mountain in the world above sea level nagrani and her team started the final leg at 10pm and toiled hard for 12 hours to reach the highest uhuru peak we had started in the night so that the scary tough terrain and death traps along the way dont scare and distract us in the light of the