SUMMARY OF THE LESSON
I. Santosh Yadav
This is a motivating message for us written by Santosh Yadav. She is the only woman in the world who has scaled Mt. Everest twice. She was born in a small village Joniyawas of Rewari District in Haryana. She was born in a society where the birth of a son was regarded as a blessing and the daughter was not generally welcome. But this girl was welcomed at her birth as she was the only daughter after five sons. She was named ‘Santosh’ which means contentment. Being born in a traditional society she was bound to follow a lot of traditions. But Santosh never accepted such customs and traditions. When her parents forced her to marry at a young age she left her home for further studies. She got herself enrolled in a school in Delhi. After passing the high school she went to Jaipur. There she joined Maharani College and got a room in Kasturba Hostel that faced the Aravalli Hills. One day she met a mountaineers’ group there and got training in mountaineering. To become more skillful she went to Uttarkashi’s Nehru Institute of Mountaineering.
Now she started to join different expeditions and got her skills refined rapidly. She developed a remarkable resistance to cold, altitude, etc. She had iron will, physical endurance, and an amazing mental toughness. Her hard work brought her great achievement in 1992 when at the age of 20 she scaled Mt. Everest. She became the youngest woman in the world to achieve this feat. She also saved a man during this expedition by sharing her oxygen with him.
Later on, she joined the Indo-Japanese Women’s Expedition to scale Mt. Everest. As a fervent environmentalist, this time Santosh collected and brought down 500 kilograms of garbage from the Himalayas.
II. Maria Sharapova
There is something at odds with the smiling and glamorous image of Maria Sharapova. And that something in her lifted her on Monday, 22 August 2005 to the world number one position in women’s tennis. Maria had a rapid ascent in a fiercely competitive world at the age of nine years. On her tenth birthday, she was sent to the United States. That trip to Florida with her father Yuri led her towards the path of great success and stardom. She came back to Siberia because of visa restrictions. Though Maria Sharapova speaks in an American accent, she proudly parades her Russian nationality.
Maria became more determined and mentally tough by getting the experiences from her senior players. This toughness runs through Maria even today. It was the key to her bagging the Women’s Singles crown at Wimbledon in 2004 and to a meteoric rise to the world number one spot the following year. Maria says, “I am very, very competitive. I work hard at what I do. It’s my job.” This is her mantra for success.
Like any number of teenage sensations, Maria lists fashion, singing, reading novels by Arthur Conan Doyle, dancing, wearing sophisticated evening gowns, eating chocolate pancakes, and drinking orange drinks as her hobbies. Her talent, unwavering desire to succeed, and readiness to sacrifice have lifted her to the top of the world. Few would grudge her the riches she is now reaping.
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