*First Indian woman to conquer Mount Everest*
Born and brought up in a small village of Uttarakhand Bachendri Pal had a dream of pursuing higher education . Despite the conservative mentality of the family she was determined to achieve her dream. After completing her 8th standard in school she was made to sit back at house, but she didn’t stopped there. She arranged books and appeared as private candidate for her boards, simultaneously she did all the household chores in a such away that no one can say that while she was busy studying she overlooked the doing the chores. Her elder brother noticed her while she was juggling in between all these, since then there was no looking back she did her Masters in Arts and then Bachelors of Education. After the completion of her Bachelors of Education she was waiting for a job then during this time she happened to encounter a renowned mountaineer who visited her village and he was Principal of Nehru Institute of Mountaineering at that time. He motivated her to opt for mountaineering. This was the incident which changed her entire life. She applied at NIM and initially couldn’t make it but she tried the next year and got selected. The village where she was put up had loads adversities which made her a person of strong will and physically also she became strong, this proved to be blessing in disguise for her. She recalled and said that when she was young along with her friends used to go for picnic where they used to cook and carry raw materials with them, these childhood days laid a foundation for the expeditions later on. These incidents shaped her up and made her unstoppable.
She took it as a sport at the starting then gradually there came an opportunity of climbing Mt Everest. There came a letter for Pre Everest, then her instructor motivated her to appear for it. While the practice was going on she didn’t ignored the daily chores which infact this practice of her gave her more strength. During her struggling phase she got a job offer from TataSteel, that was a great breakthrough in her life. After joining TataSteel he went for the Everest and that gave her all the limelight. Later on she formed a full fledged department in TataSteel which had a mission of empowering women through adventure. Mountaineering is synonymous to leadership training which became the goal of Pal’s department. She went to different countries to learn about the sport in depth and how all the other countries responds to this sports and enriched her department and team. Initially she used to train the graduate engineers (now management trainees) about the mountaineering which used to be of 14 days. The whole training includes rock climbing, surviving with minimum resourses and overcoming obstacles, team work, improvised raft making. Inspiring women for taking up this sport and leadership development skill.
She added that the expedition starts with the planning. The raw materials were calculated according to the number of days the expedition is supposed to last. Along with these the equipments were also carried. Accordingly helpers and porters were assigned for each expeditions. She further added that the learning which comes from each expedition makes one physically and mentally strong. Similarly the learning makes a person more practical. This also gives the sense of belongingness and the journey is the most important part of the expedition which carves a great leader. One such incident she remembers when during her Everest expedition she took off her goggles which she thought was one of the biggest mistakes. She further added the at the high altitude the air is thin and uv rays are very strong so eyes should be always protected. As a result of this incident she developed cataract in both the eyes in very young age later she got it operated.
The1984 expedition was totally government sponsored event as PM Indira Gandhi believed that women are also strong and they can also climb the mountains. Later Pal leaded an all women expedition in 1993 in which 18 women climbed mountain during this expedition. At 65 she was retiring in those days PM Modi launched fit India movement, she thought why not participate in this movement. She started looking for women who were above 50 years and wanted to go for a trans Himalayan expedition. It started with pre-expedition in 2022 and then the expedition started from Arunachal Pradesh and concluded at Kargil.
In 2024 she did trekking expedition to Rupin pass. According to her the three main corner stones of a true mountaineer are healthy diet and fitness and keep panning something in nature (mountain).
Pal being a spiritual person turned vegetarian and believes in giving back to society and creating difference in people’s lives. She believes that God is omnipresent and almighty’s presence can be experienced in good deeds. She belives in action. She further added that she strongly believes in empowering women from each and every strata of society.
Payal Das
Kolkata Correspondent
WOM
