Conquering the Summit

What is your goal? When obstacles come in the way, what keeps you going? The third text in Unit 4 is a true story of courage, determination and hard work. Arunima Sinha's journey from a terrible accident to the top of the world is a beacon of hope and resilience (the ability to bounce back from hard times).

She comes from Ambedkar Nagar, a small district in Uttar Pradesh. Her father was an army engineer and her mother a health supervisor. Sport was a big part of her life, and she became a national-level volleyball player. After studying law, she planned to join the paramilitary forces, so she could keep playing sport and earn a steady income.

Then, on the night of 11 April 2011, aged 24, she was in a train accident. The hours that followed were harrowing (terrible). She never imagined she'd survive, but she did, with an extraordinary will to live.

One leg was amputated (cut off). She got a prosthetic (artificial) leg and did physiotherapy to learn to walk again.

And lying in that hospital bed, she made a vow many would call impossible: not only to walk again, but to climb Mount Everest! An article about Everest had inspired her.

Then came the work. She did a basic mountaineering course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi, then eighteen months of rigorous (very tough) training.

She asked Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Everest, to guide her. Bachendri Pal gave her confidence and said: "My child, you decided to climb Mount Everest in these situations with a prosthetic leg; you have conquered the Everest within you; the world will realise it later."

Think about that: the hardest climb was the decision itself, inside her!