English Literature

Everest-My Journey to the Top
Autobiography of Bachendri Pal

Short answer questions

1.Who were Bachendri Pal's parents?

Bachendri Pal's father's name was Kishan Singh Pal and he was a small border trades-man. Her mother was Hansa Dei Neigi who was a Nakuri girl and half her husband's age. Though her father and mother were different in many ways, they got on well. The sturdy,short Kishan Singh was stem and quick-tempered while Hansa Dei was soft-skinned. delicate and tall and was tender hearted.

2.What were Chotte chacha's contribution to the first course conducted by Bachendri Pal

Chotte chacha brought 25 sets of camping and trekking equipment for Bachendri Pal's team to run two adventure courses for girls. With the army's help he also arranged that a tentage camp be put up at Tekhla.

3. Bachendri Pal was elected the Vice Chairperson of "Bhagirathi Seven-Sisters Adventure Club".

4.Where was her first television appearance?

Her first television appearance was in the capital Delhi. Chhote Chacha had organized a television interview for them in the popular Ghar-Bahar programme.

5.When and where was the first Himalayan mountain meet organised?

A t the end of August 1983 Bachendri Pal was invited to the first Himalayan Mountaineering and Tourism Meet in New Delhi.

6.Selection camp for Everest 84 was at Mana mountain, beyond Badrinath

7.Why was the camp at Mana crucial?

This camp was crucial for entry Into the Everest team so everyone strove to do their best. All the others were experienced mountaineers, I was the only novice.

8.What did Tenzing say in praise of Bachendri Pal?

·Tenzing told her that she look a strong mountain girl and she should reach the summit in her first attempt! These words were to linger with her.

A work of Art- Anton Chekhov

What i require from life-J.B.S.Haldane

9.Who led the team to Everest?How many children were there in the team?

Col. D.K.Khullar led the team to Everest.Besides Col. D.K.Khullar and Lieut. Col. Prem Chand, there were 11 men and 7 women.

10.Who employed her?

The Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) in Jamshedpur employed her for the promotion of adventure. She was made Sports Assistant and was on the company's pay-roll thereafter and also received a substantial daily allowance for her participation in the Everest expedition.

11.When did she begin her actual expedition?

The Everest actual expedition started when the team left Delhi for Kathmandu by plane on 7th March.

12.Whose blessing did the team take?

The team reached the famous Thyangboche monastery for the blessings ,where the incarnate Lama blessed them and prayed for their success and safe return.

13.What was the shocking news they heard when they reached Pheriche?

When they reached Pheriche on 26 March, they got the shocking news of a Sherpa porter having been killed in an avalanche. An enormous snow-slide had swept down from Lhola, a depression on the steep ridge to the left of the expedition's route to the Khumbu ice fall. Of a ferry party of 16 Sherpa porters, one died and four was injured.

A work of Art- Anton Chekhov

What i require from life-J.B.S.Haldane

14.What is towering trio ?

The towering trio are Everest. Lhotse and Nuptse.

15.Who reached camp I first?

Rita Gombu and Bachendri Pal reached camp I first.

15.Who visited them at base camp?

When Bachendri Pal was at the Base Camp in April. Tenzing visited them with his youngest daughter Deki and made a point of speaking to every expedition member and every Sherpa porter.

14.How many summit teams were formed?

Col. Khullar had decided three summit teams. grouped for the climb .The first team comprised of Prem Chand, Rita, and Sirdar Ang Dorjee , second summit team made up of Phu Dorjee, Chandra Prabha and eight Sherpas and the third summit team composed of ND Sherpa, Lopsang Tshering, Magan Bissa and Bachendri Pal.

15.When did Bachendri Pal reach camp III?

On the Buddha Purnima of 15-16 May, 1984, Bachendri Pal was at Camp III, a colourful nylon tentage camp perched on the ice-crusted steep slope of Lhotse

16.How long did they remain on the summit?

They spent 43 minutes on the summit.

17.How was Bachendri Pal's life after she returned from expedition?

The months following her return from Everest were bewildering. But the first week in Delhi was downright nerve racking. She had a packed 18-hour or longer daily schedule and was presented to V VIP's and there were press conferences, speeches, addresses and interviews.

18.Name the two people who have inspired her?

The two people who had inspired her most,were Indira Gandhi and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay

A work of Art- Anton Chekhov

What i require from life-J.B.S.Haldane

Paragraph questions

1.Write a note on Bachendri Pal's parents

Bachendri Pal's father's name was Kishan Singh Pal who was short and stocky. Her father was a small border tradesman and her mother was Hansa Dei Neigi who was a Nakuri girl and half her husband's age.Though her father and mother were different in many ways, they got on well. The sturdy,short Kishan Singh was stem and quick-tempered while Hans. Dei was soft-skinned. delicate and tall and was tender hearted. As there were no roads in the region they lived, her father used mules, horses and even goats to carry his goods He took atta. rice, barley, mishri(candy-sugar) from India to Tibet. In Tibet he would either sell or exchange Indian goods for wool, mineral salts, specially rock-salt, goats and sheep. Her father, however, was not very successful in business and at the age of 35 ,he left Bampa and made his new home in Nakuri. Her parents raised a happy family.Her father stopped his business in raw wool and rearing animals and the family started producing finished goods, weaving carpets and waist-bands worn by the Garhwali women and knitting sweaters. Father also bought a small plot of land some distance away on which he grew food crops for the family.

2.What was the secret that Bachendri Pal promised her brother that she would never reveal?Did it remain as a secret.Why?

When Bachendri Pal was young, her brother Bachan had to go into the hills to cut leaves for the cattle. He left her behind but she followed him quietly.As he was busy lopping branches he did not see her as she approached and made a wide swipe with his sickle when he suddenly noticed her. He tried to hold back but it was too late and the point of the sickle nicked her skull. She started bleeding profusely and he crushed some medicinal plants and pressed them on the wound. The bleeding stopped and he washed her face and the other blood-stains in a stream. Before reaching home he made her promise that she would not tell anyone about her injury. He also asked her to avoid having a bath for some time.She kept her word but after a few days her mother noticed how she was avoiding bathing and, catching hold of her, dragged her to the stream.While washing her head she saw the matted hair and when she washed it out, the wound started bleeding again. Her horrified mother tried her utmost to find out how ,she had hurt herself. But she was determined not to let her brother down. So she kept a stony silence. Finally, her brother confessed. He told mother how he had hurt her accidentally. Everyone was amazed by her self-control.

3.Why didn't she use any cosmetics?

Bachendri Pal remembers clearly a young teacher who had a very fair. smooth complexion in her school. All the girls. including herself, envied her and were curious to know the secret of her beauty. So, one day, she slipped out of her class with two trusted mends and prying open the window, entered her room. They were peering into the many bottles and jars on the dressing-table when they heard footsteps outside. They hid hurriedly under the bed. The teacher came in with a long, thin stick and immediately thrust under the bed. They shrank back to the farthest corner. But then, one of her companions giggled. Punishment followed swiftly. Being the ring-leader, Bachendri got the maximum number of strokes. The last one got away with half the amount because the stick broke. There ended her search for beauty. Whenever she thinks of the incident and the subsequent punishment, she shudder at the thought of beauty-aids. So she still don't use any make-up.

4.Write briefly about the trekking camp at Tekhla.

The first group from Jamshedpur had 13 girls. The second party from Meghalaya had 15 lively Khasi girls from Shillong. The groups were made up to 20 for each course by taking local girls on scholarship. Bachendri Pal was made director of the course and Vijaya Pant deputy-director. Jobs like quarter-master and medical assistant were allotted in turn to the other "Seven-Sisters". They were paid an honorarium for their work on the courses. The programme was varied. There were three days of rock climbing followed by a day for river crossing. be sides camping. learning the use of mountaineering ropes. cooking. and safety in the wilderness. A forest ranger accompanied them and told them about the flora and wildlife of the region. Including two short and one long trek, they covered nearly 150 kms. and climbed up and down a height difference of nearly 2,500 to 3,000 m. Their highest camp during the long trek was at picturesque Dodital at nearly 3,000 m. There lush green deodars bordered a beautiful lake full of cold-water fish, including the lovely rainbow trout. They halted there for three nights. They also went to the top of the ridge to Baktiya-Khal at nearly 4,000 m. That was the first contact with snow for many of the girls and they were like playful kittens, rolling and sliding on the snow-field and tossing snowballs at one another. Before returning to Dodital they were given some elementary lessons in snow craft. including glissading.

5.Write a note on how Bachendri Pal trained for her expedition

A pre-Everest self-training programme started as soon as the selection was announced. Briefly, the training entailed climbing nearly 600 m. every day with a load of 12 to 15 kilograms on their backs and jogging eight to ten kilometres. To match the very hard physical work, they had to eat special protein-rich foods-plenty of milk, greens and, of course, sugar. Their daily intake had to consist of 3,500 to 4,000 calories.People in Nakuri were amused to see her climb up from the bottom of the hill to the top of the ridge with a rucksack full of stones every morning.They reported to the IMF in New Delhi at the beginning of December 1983. For nearly five weeks. the seven female mountaineers were put through a gruelling training programme. They spent hours in the gymnasium in toughening up their abdominal, dorsal and other climbing muscles. There was also plenty of bending and stretching with rhythmic breathing exercises. Prolonged swimming and jogging helped build up their stamina and improved lung functioning for the maximum use of oxygen under physiological stress. Then at the height of winter in January 1984, Lieut. Col. Prem Chand, m uncompromising trainer. took them women to Gulmarg and for a month he made them climb up and down steep slopes covered with deep snow.

6.What is a snow plume?How did the sight of it affect Bachendri Pal

A snow-plume.is a kind of banner which seemed to fly out of its summit. It was told that this phenomenon was due to the wind blowing at 150 km. or more per hour near the peak's upper reaches and driving the powder snow off the mountain. The snow-plume could be 10 km or more long. Anyone attempting the peak had to face these storms on the south-east ridge. particularly in bad weather. That was to haunt her; yet, she was strangely fascinated by Everest and drawn to its tough challenge.As hill people they have always worshipped the mountains. Her overpowering emotion at that awe-inspiring spectacle was. therefore, devotional and she folded her hands and bowed her head to Sagarmatha.

7.How did Bachendri Pal trained for acclimatisation

After a few days in Kathmandu. they moved to Ziri, four to five hours' drive away. Then they had a leisurely eight-day trek to Namche Bazar. Going against the grain of the mountain, they climbed up and down nearly a thousand metres every day. which toughened them up and helped in acclimatization to high altitudes.

Then they visited Thyangboche which was not only beautiful but its height, over 4,000 m., was suitable for acclimatization training. They halted here for two days before moving to their main acclimatization training camp at Pheriche.

They halted a night at Gorakhshep. from where she went for a small acclimatization climb to "Kala Pathar".

8.Describe the process of opening routes

Opening the route and stocking high camps was a slow. exacting operation. Working in small groups and sometimes in pairs. They fixed the route with ropes. and made foot-holds and hand-holds. Camps II and III were established In good time. Ang Dorjee, Lopsang and Magan Bissa finally reached the South Col and set up Camp IV at 7.900 m. on 29 April which was a satisfactory progress.

9.What hurdle did they face when they reach camp III?How did they escape death?

Bachendri Pal was sleeping soundly when around 12.30 a.m. she was shaken awake by a hard object hitting her on the back of her head and simultaneously by a loud explosion. Then she felt a cold, extremely heavy mass creeping over her body and crushing her. She could hardly breathe and not understood what had happened. A tall serac (ice tower) on the Lhotse glacier directly above their camp had cracked, crashed down and developed into a massive avalanche. That enormous mass of ice blocks. crushed ice and frozen snow thundering down the near vertical slope at the speed of an express train. devastated their camp which was directly in its path. Practically everyone was hurt. It was a miracle no one was killed Lopsang was able to tear his way out of their tent with his Swiss knife and immediately began frantically to try and rescue her. Delay would have meant sure death. Heaving and pushing away the large ice slabs, he dug out the hardened snow around her and succeeded in pulling her out of the ice grave. No tent had been left standing except the kitchen shelter.

10.What did Bachendri Pal do after she reached the peak?

At 1.07 p.m. on 23 May, 1984, Bachendri Pal stood on top of Everest, the first Indian woman to have done so. There was hardly enough place for two to stand side by side on top of the Everest cone. Thousands of metres of near vertical drop on all sides made safety their foremost consideration and they first anchored themselves securely by digging their ice-axes into the snow. That done, she sank on her knees, and putting her forehead on the snow, kissed Sagarmatha's crown. Without getting up, she took out the image of Durga Ma and her Hanuman Chalisa from her rucksack. She wrapped those in a red cloth which she had brought and, after saying a short prayer, buried them in the snow. At that moment of joy her thoughts went to her father and mother. As she rose, she folded her hands and bowed in respect to Ang Dorjee, her rope-leader, who had encouraged and led her to her goal. She also congratulated him for his second ascent of Everest without oxygen.

11.How did Col. Khuller react to her success?

Col. Khullar was delighted with her success. After congratulating her he said that he would also like to congratulate her parents for her unique achievement." He added that the country was proud of her and that she would return to a world which would be quite different from the one she had left behind.

12.What did she do when she went to TISCO's office?How was she rewarded by TESCO?

She presented TISCO's Chairman, Mr. Mody, the TISCO flag which she had hoisted on the summit of Everest. Mr Mody announced her promotion to Manager. Adventure Programmes and said she was to head the Tata Youth Adventure Centre and be solely in charge of all adventure activities in Jamshedpur. In fact, Mr. Mody's encouragement and help for adventure and sports has made it possible for many like herself to pursue their field of interest and excel in it.