Santosh Yadav got into the record books both times she scaled Mt Everest. What were the reasons for this?
<answer> She set a record as the only woman to have conquered the Everest twice. Also she is the only Indian woman in the world to have set such a record. <context> 1. The only woman in the world who
has scaled Mt Everest twice was
born in a society where the birth of
a son was regarded as a blessing,
and a daughter, though not
considered a curse, was not
generally welcome. When her
mother was expecting Santosh, a
travelling ‘holy man’, giving her his
blessing, assumed that she wanted
a son. But, to everyone’s surprise,
the unborn child’s grandmother, who
was standing close by, told him that
they did not want a son. The ‘holy
man’ was also surprised!
Nevertheless, he gave the requested
blessing . .. and as destiny would
have it, the blessing seemed to work.
Santosh was born the sixth child in
a family with five sons, a sister to
five brothers. She was born in the small village of
Joniyawas of Rewari District in Haryana.
2. The girl was given the name ‘Santosh’, which means
contentment. But Santosh was not always content
with her place in a traditional way of life. She began
living life on her own terms from the start. Where
other girls wore traditional Indian dresses, Santosh
preferred shorts. Looking back, she says now, “From
the very beginning I was quite determined that if I
chose a correct and a rational path, the others
around me had to change, not me.”
3. Santosh’s parents were affluent landowners who
could afford to send their children to the best
schools, even to the country’s capital, New Delhi,
which was quite close by. But, in line with the
prevailing custom in the family, Santosh had to
make do with the local village school. So, she decided
to fight the system in her own quiet way when
the right moment arrived. And the right moment
came when she turned sixteen. At sixteen, most of
the girls in her village used to get married.
Santosh was also under pressure from her parents
to do the same.
4. A marriage as early as that was the last thing on
her mind. She threatened her parents that she
would never marry if she did not get a proper
education. She left home and got herself enrolled
in a school in Delhi. When her parents refused to
pay for her education, she politely informed them
of her plans to earn money by working part time to
pay her school fees. Her parents then agreed to pay
for her education.
5. Wishing always to study “a bit more” and with her
father slowly getting used to her urge for more
education, Santosh passed the high school
examinations and went to Jaipur. She joined
Maharani College and got a room in Kasturba Hostel.
Santosh remembers, “Kasturba Hostel faced the
Aravalli Hills. I used to watch villagers from my
room, going up the hill and suddenly vanishing after
a while. One day I decided to check it out myself. I
found nobody except a few mountaineers. I asked if
I could join them. To my pleasant surprise, they
answered in the affirmative and motivated me to
take to climbing.”
6. Then there was no looking back for this determined
young girl. She saved money and enrolled in a
course at Uttarkashi’s Nehru Institute of
Mountaineering. “My college semester in Jaipur was
to end in April but it ended on the nineteenth of
May. And I was supposed to be in Uttarkashi on
the twenty-first. So, I did not go back home; instead,
I headed straight for the training. I had to write a
letter of apology to my father without whose
permission I had got myself enrolled at Uttarkashi.”
7. Thereafter, Santosh went on an
expedition every year. Her climbing
skills matured rapidly. Also, she
developed a remarkable resistance to
cold and the altitude. Equipped with
an iron will, physical endurance and
an amazing mental toughness, she
proved herself repeatedly. The
culmination of her hard work and
sincerity came in 1992, just four years
after she had shyly asked the Aravalli
mountaineers if she could join them.
At barely twenty years of age, Santosh
Yadav scaled Mt Everest, becoming the
youngest woman in the world to
achieve the feat. If her climbing skills,
physical fitness, and mental strength
impressed her seniors, her concern for
others and desire to work together with
them found her a special place in the
hearts of fellow climbers.
8. During the 1992 Everest mission, Santosh Yadav
provided special care to a climber who lay dying at
the South Col. She was unfortunately unsuccessful
in saving him. However, she managed to save
another climber, Mohan Singh, who would have
met with the same fate had she not shared her
oxygen with him.
9. Within twelve months, Santosh found herself a
member of an Indo-Nepalese Women’s Expedition
that invited her to join them. She then scaled the
Everest a second time, thus setting a record as the
only woman to have scaled the Everest twice, and
securing for herself and India a unique place in the
annals of mountaineering. In recognition
of her achievements, the Indian government
bestowed upon her one of the nation’s top honours,
the Padmashri.
10. Describing her feelings when she was literally ‘on
top of the world’, Santosh has said, “It took some
time for the enormity of the moment to sink
in... Then I unfurled the Indian tricolour and held
it aloft on the roof of the world. The feeling is
indescribable. The Indian flag was flying on top of
the world. It was truly a spiritual moment. I felt
proud as an Indian.”
Also a fervent environmentalist, Santosh
collected and brought down 500 kilograms of
garbage from the Himalayas.