I was in Delhi last weekend for a media related workshop. Post workshop, I was talking to some friends in the lobby of the Haryana Sadan in Chanakyapuri. That’s when I first noticed her.



She was a slim woman dressed in a conservative 3/4 sleeved white cotton blouse, a simple cotton Saree worn the Haryanvi way, with the pallu draped over her head. She was wearing traditional jewellery and a big bindi on her forehead, her long hair tied in a neat bun with a generous dab of sindoor in the parting.

At first glance, she looked like any ordinary, traditional Indian woman, someone you would pass in the streets a hundred times a day but wouldn’t notice much.

She was different though. There was something about the way she spoke that caught my attention. Her open smile, her gestures, her body language, all spoke of an easy confidence, and self-awareness. Even as I was talking to my friends, my eyes kept straying towards her.

When she saw us, she walked towards us with that same open, happy, confident smile and greeted us with folded hands. ‘Do you know who she is?’ introduced someone, ‘She is Santosh Yadav’.

‘Santosh Yadav? Padmashri Santosh Yadav? The ace mountaineer? The first woman in the world to climb Mt. Everest twice?’ I asked. She must have sensed the slight incredulity in my voice, because she smiled and said, ‘Yes, I am the same Santosh Yadav, may I join you?’

‘Yes, of course.’ I stuttered.Santosh sat down and for the next hour or so we talked like old friends. She was disarmingly open about her life and wore her extra-ordinariness lightly.

‘Are you in Delhi for some work?’ I asked.

‘No. I live here in Haryana Sadan. My children go to school in Delhi. I have a son who is 11 and a daughter who is 13.’ Santosh said, her eyes softening at the mention of her children.

‘Do you still do mountaineering’? I asked.



‘No. I took a break after the birth of my children. I wanted to enjoy every bit of Motherhood. Now I run holiday camps for school children in a village near Manali during school vacations’.

‘You teach mountaineering’? Santosh replied-

Moutaineering is just a medium. We teach the children many things, how to take care of their health, how to take care of the ecology, yoga, spirituality, how mountain climbing is a form of meditation. You see, in all the time I have spent climbing the Himalayas, I have learnt one thing. You cannot separate the Himalayas from Hindu Dharma and spirituality. The only way to preserve the Himalayas is to preserve our faith, our culture, our spiritual traditions, ‘kyonki Himalay hamari sanskriti ka ek bahut mahatvpoorn hissa hai’..



‘At what age did you decide to be a mountaineer’? I asked.

‘When I was studying in Jaipur after my high school days, I used to live in a hostel. That’s when I first fell in love with the Himalayas. So strong was my urge to see the Himalayas, I saved my hostel money and enrolled myself for a vacation course at the Nehru Mountaineering Institute in Uttarkashi.

When I landed up at the institute, I was thin, underweight and had low lung capacity. All the instructors thought I would never make it. They thought I would opt out of the course within a few days. Not only did I manage to finish the course, I managed to top my batch.

There were girls far stronger than me physically who did the course along with me, but I managed to top it because I had no expectations. I had come simply to be in the Himalayas. I did not want to prove anything to anyone. I keep telling this to my children. Don’t do anything under pressure. Enjoy what you are doing, and you will always do well.

‘But your lungs were small, right? And isn’t climbing all about lung capacity?’ I asked.