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SAI International School,
Class IX - English
Module No.21- Reach for the Top - I

Introduction

The article is about Santosh Yadav,
the first woman in the world to climb
Mount Everest twice. Her story is
inspiring. Despite being born in a
skewed society which did not
welcome the birth of a girl child,
where girls were married off at
sixteen, she made her own path,
followed her desires and achieved
world fame.

It is an inspirational account of the
phenomenal success and
achievement of an Indian woman
mountaineer, who beats all odds
and prejudices to script a success
story, thanks to her sterling qualities
of perseverance, patience,
commitment, persistent and constancy of purpose.

Lesson and explanation
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.

When this article was written, Santosh Yadav was the only woman in the
world to have climbed the Mount Everest twice. She was born in such a
society which was biased towards having a male child over a female
child. Although they did not consider the birth of a girl child to be