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.

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'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.

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.