Kannadiga unfurls state flag at Mt Kilimanjaro

Team Udayavani, Oct 14, 2018, 5:24 PM IST

Bengaluru: A senior executive of a Bengaluru-based company successfully scaled and unfurled the Kannada flag atop the Mount Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano that is Africa’s highest point and also the world’s largest free-standing mountain.

Jayanagar resident Ashutosh Bhaskar, 23, who works as a marketing execuitive at Mojhi – an adventure marketplace, was on an official visit to Tanzania to handle one of the company’s projects and was supposed to stay here for over a three weeks period. However, due to last minute rescheduling of a client meeting, Bhasker managed to get a week off and decided to use this opportunity to scale Mount Kilimanjaro, a dream he cherished since he came to know that he was visiting Tanzania.

During his stay in Tanzania, Bhasker observed how most of the people there conversed only in Swahilii; only a very minute population spoke English and this is when Bhasker realised that he was missing the land, language, and culture of Karnataka. A homesick Bhasker decided to celebrate the Kannadiga spirit and two days ahead of the trip got the state flag stitched from a local tailor. He spent more than six hours to select the right colours for the flag and spent half an hour to get it stitched.

The trek began on September 21 and it took six days to reach the top — at a height of 19341 ft. “I had tears in my eyes when I held up the flag at the peak of the mountain, it was an exhilarating combination of accomplishment and patriotism,” says an elated Bhasker.