Reach for the Top divides into two parts where each part tells us about Santosh Yadav and Maria Sharapova respectively. The first part begins with Santosh. This story was written when Santosh was the only woman in the whole world to have scaled the Mt. Everest twice. It begins by telling that she was born in a society that considered girls to be a curse. We learn that Haryana is her birthplace and she defies the societal norms to own herself.
She suffered gender discrimination from an early age and then decided she would carve her own way. She went to get admission in Delhi and funded her education all by herself by working part-time jobs. After that, she went to stay in a hostel in Jaipur where life changed for her. She joined mountaineers in an expedition and there was no looking back then. She worked hard for it and took a professional course where she excelled.
Then, in 1992, she climbed Mount Everest just at the age of 20. She became the youngest woman to do so and even saved a fellow climber by sharing her oxygen. She made India proud by creating history and was awarded the Padmashri award by the government of India. After that, we have part II, which focuses on the famous tennis player, Maria Sharapova. We learn about her journey to become the number one women’s tennis. She became a top tennis player through hard labor, rigorous training and a lot of sacrifices.
The inside story of her life shows us that she started at an early age to become the top tennis player. She belongs to Siberia, Russia, and left her home only at the age of 9, to begin training for her dream. She had to separate from her mother at just 9 years old and move to Florida with her father. Her father worked hard to fund her training and even suffered bullying for being a foreigner. We learn about her hobbies of dancing, singing, and fashion. Finally, we learn that she believes while money does play a big part, she always aimed to become number one.
Answer these questions in one or two sentences each.
Question 1: Why was the ‘holy man’ who gave Santosh’s mother his blessings surprised?
Answer: The part of India where Santosh was born has a negative bias against girl child. So the holy man was surprised because Santosh’s grandmother wished for a girl child.
Question 2: Give an example to show that even as a young girl Santosh was not ready to accept anything unreasonable.
Answer: Santosh liked to wear shorts instead of traditional dress prevalent in her village. This shows her rebellious attitude and shows that since early age she had a mind of her own.
Question 3: Why was Santosh sent to the local school?
Answer: It is customary to send a girl child to local school because the aim is to make them literate enough to enable them to read and write. The purpose is not education but literacy.
Question 4: When did she leave home for Delhi, and why?
Answer: When she turned 16 she wanted to pursue higher education so she left for Delhi.
Question 5: Why did Santosh’s parents agree to pay for her schooling in Delhi? What mental qualities of Santosh are brought into light by this incident?
Answer: Santosh threatened to work part time to manage her school fees. On hearing this her parents agreed to pay for her schooling in Delhi. This incidence shows her level of determination towards her goal.
Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words)
Question 1: How did Santosh begin to climb mountains?
Answer: While she was staying at her hostel in Jaipur, she used to see people climbing the Arawali hills. When her curiosity compelled her to go for looking for those people she found them to be mountaineers. On her request they agreed to let her join them in mountain climbing. This is how her journey to become a great mountaineer began.
Question 2: What incidents during the Everest expedition show Santosh’s concern for her team-mates?
Answer: During her Everest expedition she tried to save her fellow climber’s lives. She shared her oxygen cylinder with her team mates. Although one of her team mates could not be saved but another one could be saved because of Santosh’s help.
Question 3: What shows her concern for the environment?
Answer: While returning from the Everest she brought back 500 kgs of rubbish from there. Many mountaineers go for conquering the Everest every year. They leave lots of garbage in their trail. This is threatening the ecology of the Everest. Sontosh’s act of bringing back some garbage shows her concern for the environment.
Question 4: How does she describe her feelings at the summit of the Everest?
Answer: She describes that she was overawed by the experience of reaching at the top of the world. The feeling took its own time to sink in. Then she unfurled the tricolour on the roof of the world. This was a spiritual experience for her.
Question 5: Santosh Yadav got into the record books both times she scaled Mt Everest. What were the reasons for this?
Answer: When she scaled the Everest for the first time she became the youngest woman to reach there. When she went there next time she became the only woman to achieve the feat twice.
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