When 30-year-old software engineer Aritra Roy from Tripura decided to represent his underrepresented state on the world stage. He didn’t just climb Mount Everest, he created an entire “triathlon to the top” that nobody had ever attempted before. In March 2024, while still working his full-time job at Tata Consultancy Services, Roy cycled 1,200 kilometers from Agartala to Nepal over 21 days, then scaled Mount Everest to become the first person from Tripura to reach the summit, and finished by running the world’s highest-altitude marathon at 17,500 feet. His motivation wasn’t personal glory but regional pride, wanting to put Tripura on the map and inspire young people from Northeast India to dream beyond traditional boundaries.
The entire journey was self-funded through personal savings and loans, with his wife Ashirbani managing logistics and finances from their home in Bengaluru while he balanced client calls with altitude training. Roy deliberately chose a low-carbon approach, avoiding flights and helicopters, proving that adventure doesn’t need to leave a large environmental footprint. After summiting Everest on May 21st at 4 AM in pitch darkness, Roy broke down while holding the Indian flag, overwhelmed by the responsibility of representing an entire region that rarely appears in conversations about mountaineering. His story isn’t about quitting your job to chase dreams, it’s about turning your ordinary life into a stepping stone for extraordinary achievements while inspiring an entire generation to believe that geography and circumstances don’t have to limit their aspirations.