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Reach For the Top - Santosh Yadav

Reach For the Top

1.0Part-I Santosh Yadav

2.0Central Idea

Reach for the Top is a biographical story that tells us about the lives of two great women, Santosh Yadav and Maria Sharapova. It celebrates the achievements of these two strong ladies who achieved success despite hardships.

In the Part - 1 you will learn about Santosh Yadav's hard work and mental toughness which finally led her to achieve her goal. 'Reach for the Top' is based on the theme that success comes to those who dare and do. This theme runs throughout the account of Santosh Yadav's education, training and success as a woman mountaineer in a country where discrimination against women is rampant.

3.0Shaping one's own Destiny

Santosh Yadav has twice climbed Mount Everest. She is the only woman in the world to do so. She was born in a society where the birth of a son was regarded as a blessing. Daughter was not welcome. A 'holy man' blessed Santosh's mother thinking that she wanted a son. But Santosh's grandmother wanted a daughter as the sixth child. Santosh was born as a sister to five brothers. She was named 'Santosh' meaning contentment.

Santosh began living life on her own terms. Other girls wore traditional Indian dresses. But she wore shorts. She said that she was determined to choose a correct path. Others were to change themselves, not she.

Santosh's Great Desire for Education

Santosh's parents were rich landowners. They could send her for education to nearby Delhi, the Capital. But they sent her to the village school. Santosh decided to fight the system. When she turned sixteen, she refused to marry. Most of the girls in her village used to get married at that age. She warned her parents that she would never marry if she did not get a proper education.

So she got admission in a school in Delhi. Her parents refused to pay her fees. But she told them that she would work part time to earn money. They agreed to pay for her education. Santosh passed the high school. She went to Jaipur to join Maharani College. She got a room in Kasturba Hostel. It faced the Aravalli Hills. She used to see the villagers going up the hill and disappearing. One day she decided to check herself why the climbers disappeared. She went there. She found nobody except a few climbers. They encouraged her to take to climbing. Then there was no looking back. Santosh saved money. She enrolled herself in a course at Uttarkashi's Nehru Institute of Mountaineering. She went there directly from Jaipur. She wrote a letter to her father from there. In that she apologised for taking admission in Uttarkashi.

4.0Hard Work and Determination Brings Laurels

Santosh went on an expedition every year. She developed a remarkable resistance to cold and the altitude. She had an iron will, physical endurance and mental toughness. Her efforts started bearing fruits. In 1988 she had asked the Aravalli Mountaineers if she could join them. 1992 became the year of her grand success. She conquered Mt. Everest when she was barely twenty years old.

She thus became the youngest woman in the world to achieve it. She proved equally helpful to the fellow-climbers. During the 1992 Everest mission, Santosh Yadav provided special care to a climber. He lay dying at the South Col. She could not save him. But she managed to save another climber, Mohan Singh. He would have died if Santosh had not shared her oxygen with him. Within twelve months, Santosh was invited by Indo-Nepalese Women's Expedition. She became its member. She then conquered the Everest a second time. She set a record as the only woman to have climbed the Everest twice. The Indian Government recognised her achievement. She was honoured with the Padmashri. It is one of the nation's top honours. Santosh described her feelings when she was on the top of the world. She said that it took her some time for that moment to be understood. She unfurled the Indian tricolour. She can't describe that moment. She saw the Indian flag flying on the top of the world. It was a spiritual moment for her. She felt proud to be an Indian. Santosh acted as an environmentalist also. She brought down 500 kilograms of rubbish from the Himalayas.

5.0Recall

  • She was born in a traditional family of Rewari district of Haryana.
  • She was a bit of rebel right from the beginning and defied conventions.
  • She neither liked to wear traditional dresses nor followed the traditional course of life.
  • She refused to marry at the age of sixteen.
  • She is an alumni of Maharani college, Jaipur.
  • Living in Kasturba hostel she joined Uttarkashi's Nehru Institute of mountaineering.
  • At barely twenty years of age she climbed Mount Everest.
  • Within twelve months, Santosh Yadav found herself or member of an Indo-Nepalese women's expedition and climbed the Everest second time.
  • She became the first woman to climb Mount Everest twice.
  • She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian Government.
  • Santosh Yadav is not only a Mountaineer but she is also an environmentalist.
  • She collected five hundred kgs of garbage from the Himalayas.