Niruti Sud Bajaj
How trekking gave these women
their happy space
In 2019, Niruti Sud Bajaj, a techie by profession but yogini by heart (internationally certified Yoga coach), started Streefit, a fitness and wellness community for women. Since then, this sisterhood has been making memories bonding in the great outdoors. Just as Niruti was speaking to In Vogue Life, she and her trekking colleagues were preparing for the Kheerganga trek, near Kasol in Himachal Pradesh. Here’s her story, in her own words
I started Streefit around five years ago, when I began taking group and personal sessions. The motive behind the group was not monetary; my only goal was to make women realise that their mental and physical well-being is equally important, and that family and kids should not always be their only priority. We should also prioritise ourselves. Self-care and self-love is the key.
However, just as Streefit started to grow, Covid hit us. So, for almost two years, we went completely online. After that, we came to know of some good trails in and around Gurgaon and Faridabad, places where we came to spend hours hiking and ‘forest walking’. Everybody really enjoyed these treks; it was like our me-time.
Then somebody suggested to me, ‘Why don’t we do outstation treks?’ All these thoughts and ideas came from the group only. So, we started going for outstation trips. Currently, we hike around Gurgaon and Faridabad twice a month, on a Saturday or Sunday, and target five or six outstation treks a year, usually around long weekends. Generally, I just throw the idea around that I’m planning to go to a particular place, and once people show interest, I then plan accordingly.
The best part about us is that we have members as young as 24-25 years and as old as 60-65 years, and we learn so much from each other’s experiences. The treks are of different levels of difficulty, and no one trek will cover the same distance, or be of similar duration. Based on the kind of trek, weather conditions, etc., we always assess the health of an individual before we actually enrol them.
Going for a trek is more a mental than physical block. Since I am a coach, I prepare the women through sessions, both online and offline. We focus on exercises, breathing, changes in food habits, and the watch we need to keep on our nutrition and water intake. These are things we have to take care of, to ensure that everybody is ready—in body and in mind—before we set off.
A welcome change
A trek, first and foremost, helps break the
monotony of the home-office-home routine. It’s always something to which we
look forward, for it gives us a new lease of life. And I tell everybody to take
motivation from others, to not feel that, ‘She’s able to do this but I’m
not’—ultimately, you have to improve on what you have done on day one just by
putting in a little more effort. Secondly, it’s really empowering. Whenever you
do a trek, it makes you strong both physically and mentally, and allows you to
believe that, ‘If I can do this, I can handle any situation in my life.’ So, we
gain a lot of confidence, and a lot of happiness, from these dates with nature.
Of course, reaching that summit and camping at the top, under the starlit sky
and around a bonfire with your girlfriends, gives you a high that just can’t be
described in words.
And of course, Streefit is a girls’ group, so we experience a different kind of enjoyment altogether. We completely lose ourselves because we know that no one is going to judge us here. It’s a very open community in which we all share our fears, joys and sorrows. It makes for a beautiful life-changing experience.
Still, people tell me that Streefit is more than just a community; it’s an emotion for us. For, the group brings all of us together, and gives each of us a platform. Nowadays, there are multiple trekking companies but women always feel comfortable once they understand, ‘Yes, I know this girl. She’s taking the group, she’s done 10 treks before, and I know that if anything goes wrong, she has my back.’ That is the kind of trust that has developed among us, and we all seek inspiration and motivation from each other.
And those people who don’t join our treks, they know that we have gone and done it, and they know that we are in the same society and in the same community, which pushes them into taking the plunge. For, spending time out of your comfort zone gives a feeling of, ‘If they can do it, so can I.’ There will always be a chance for them to embrace the experience, even though we have a cap on the number of people we can take—sometimes it’s 12, at others it’s 25 (this time we are 18). It really depends on how difficult the trek is, and what time of the year we are going.
I’m also a runner and marathoner, and I have paced multiple marathons. I have two kids, aged 11 and 7, and I see a feeling of pride in their eyes when I’m on the stage receiving an award or when I’m pacing a run with that flag; they see many runners running with me, taking inspiration, finishing their run with a smile, getting their personal best, and achieving what they had targeted. So, my kids get really motivated by my fitness journey, and they have incorporated sports and yoga as an integral part of their life. I feel that a fit lady is the base of a fit and happy family—if you’re happy and strong, it gives a perfect foundation for your family to be happy and healthy in the long run.
Streefit has women from all over the NCR, from Gurgaon, Delhi, Noida and Faridabad, with women from other states and cities—including Hyderabad, Mumbai and Gujarat—also joining. The group has more than 2,000 members, and has taken part in the Nag Tibba, Triund, Chopta Chandrashila, Jalori Pass to Serolsar Lake, Deoban, and Benog Tibba treks
