Reach For The Top Class 9th

Part 1

Santosh Yadav is the first women in the world who has climbed Mt. Everest twice. She was born in a society where a son was considered as a blessing and a daughter was not welcomed. Once, a holy man visited the family to bless Santosh's mother with a son  but Santosh's grandmother told him that they wanted a daughter. Santosh was the only sister to her five elder brothers. She was born in a small village in Joniawas of Rewari District in Haryana.

Santosh's name means contentment or satisfaction but she was never satisfied with traditional life of her society. She started to live her life according to her own terms from a very early age. When other girls of society wore traditional dress, Santosh wore shorts.

While her brothers were educated properly in good schools, she was sent to local village school because of the family custom. Santosh decided to fight the system. When Santosh's parents wanted to get her married at the age of sixteen as per the old tradition, Santosh refused to marry and threatened parents that she would not get married untill she gets a proper education. She left home and got admission in a School in Delhi. Oneday, she checked herself to know where the climbers were disappearing. She found that those people were mountaineers. They motivated Santosh to take interest in climbing.

Santosh was a determined girl and she took admission in Nehru  Institute of Mountaineering without informing her parents. In Uttarkashi, Santosh went on expeditions every year. She developed climbing skills and an amazing immunity to cold and high attitude. Her hard work and determination led her to climb Mt. Everest, the highest peak in the world in 1992.She was only twenty years old when she first climbed Mt Everest. Apart from her mountaineering skills, Santosh also impressed people with her humanity. Her concern for others and her desire to work together as a team made her special person.

Santosh joined an Indo-Nepalese Women's Expedition and again climbed Mt. Everest. She became the first women to climb Mt. Everest twice. She was awarded the Padma Shri by Indian Government. She is also an environmentalist. She collected five hundred kgs of garbage from the Himalayas.

Reach for the Top Part 2 :Maria Sharapova summary

In part 2 of Reach for the top, we learn about the famous Russian tennis player, Maria Sharapova. This story illustrates her journey of becoming the world champion in women's tennis. She achieved the number one position through hard labour, extensive rigorous training and several sacrifices on the pwrsinal front. In his biography, Maria tells us how she started her tennis training at an early age to reach the summit of women's tennis when she was barely eighteen years old.

Maria was born in siberia in Russia and left her home town at the tender age of nine to pursue her dream becoming a tennis star. She had to stay separatly from her mother and moved to Florida along with her father to proceed with her training. Her father worked laboriously to fund her tennis training. Although she suffered bullying on account of being a foreigner. She never lost hope or gave into pretty remarks. Her will and determination led her to achieve success and reap satisfying results from her practices sessions. Apart from practicing tennis, her hobbies are fashion, singing and dancing. Although she mentions that money is a motivating factor for playing tennis, her sole aim remains to become and continue being number one in the world of tennis.