The mountaineer Bachendri Pal was the First Indian Woman to climb Mount Everest. Bachendri Pal took birth in a small village in present Uttarakhand named Nakura. She broke the barrier of stereotyping and had the courage and potential to climb the highest mountain peak in the world which even the bravest of men were afraid to conquer. Her father had a grocery shop and had many financial dues. Bachendri had decided to take up mountaineering as a professional career even though she knew that it was not going to be a bed of roses. She faced strict opposition from her stereotypical family members but all those oppositions fell deaf on her ear as soon as she began to work hard to attain success in this field.
The expedition to Mount Everest was her 4th expedition where there were double the men participants than the women participants. This was because especially in small villages, women are restricted from following their passion, and are looked down upon not only by society but also by their own parents who wanted to give away their hand in marriage at an extremely young age. Even after half of the team members of the expedition left the summit when an avalanche buried their camp, Bachendri was determined. She was the only female out of the bunch who decided to continue this expedition. After a lot of struggle and hardship, she finally reached the peak of the mighty Mount Everest. For her incredible achievement, not only did she receive the Padma Shri award but also made her name in the Guinness Book. She even wrote a book covering her experience of scaling Mount Everest named “Everest - My Journey to the Top.”
- Anisha Agarwal