Class 9 English Chapter 7 Question Answers - Reach for the Top

Q.1. What is the special distinction of Santosh Yadav?
Ans. Santosh Yadav is the only woman in the world who has scaled Mount Everest twice.

Q.2. What does `Santosh’ mean?
Ans. Santosh means contentment.

Santosh Yadav: A Life That Scaled Heights Over and Over
Q.3. What did Santosh tell her parents about marriage?
Ans. Santosh informed her parents that she would never marry unless she received a proper education. This decision reflected her determination to prioritise her learning over societal expectations.

Q.4. Why did Santosh leave home?
Ans. Santosh left home to get herself enrolled in a school in Delhi.

Q.5. Where did Santosh take admission after passing high school?
Ans. After passing high school, Santosh took admission in Maharani College, Jaipur.

Q.6. Where did Santosh enrol herself for mountaineering training?
Ans. She enrolled at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi.

Q.7. When did Santosh Yadav scale Mount Everest for the first time?
Ans. Santosh Yadav first scaled Mount Everest in 1992, achieving this remarkable feat at the age of just twenty. Her determination and skills made her the youngest woman in the world to reach the summit.

Q.8. Why is Santosh Yadav mentioned as a passionate environmentalist?
Ans. Santosh Yadav is recognised as a passionate environmentalist because she collected and removed 500 kilograms of waste from the Himalayas.

Q.9. What type of social system was there in the village when Santosh was born?
Ans. At the time of Santosh's birth, the social system in her village viewed the birth of a son as a blessing, while the arrival of a daughter was often met with less enthusiasm. This cultural perspective reflected the prevailing attitudes towards gender in society.

Reach for the TopQ.10. How did Santosh show the contradiction in her name?
Ans. The girl was given the name Santosh, which means contentment. However, she often felt discontent with her traditional life. From an early age, Santosh chose to live by her own rules. She believed that if she followed a rational path, it was those around her who needed to change, not her.

Q.11. Why was the 'holy man', who gave Santosh’s mother his blessings, surprised?
Ans. The holy man expected that, like all other families in the villages, the family would be wishing for the birth of a son. However, when he was told by Santosh’s grandmother that they wanted to have a daughter, he was surprised.

Q.12. What kind of society was Santosh born in?
Ans. Santosh was born in Joniyawas, a small village in the Rewari District in Haryana. The society in this region was rigidly patriarchal and gender-biased. The birth of a girl was generally unwelcome, and people strictly adhered to conservative traditions.

Q.13. Why did the grandmother (in spite of being a member of a family with conservative views) wish her daughter-in-law to give birth to a daughter?
Ans. Despite being a member of a conservative family, the grandmother wished to be blessed with a granddaughter because there were already five boys in the family. Hence, the family now wished for a daughter.

Q.14. Why was Santosh sent to the local school?
Ans. Santosh's parents were wealthy and could have sent her to a prestigious school in Delhi. However, they chose to send her to the local village school because they strictly adhered to tradition, which dictated that girls should only attend the local school.

Santosh Yadav receiving Padma ShriQ.15. When did Santosh leave home for Delhi, and why?
Or
When Santosh turned sixteen, why did she consider it to be the ‘right moment’ to fight the system?
Ans. Santosh left home for Delhi when she turned sixteen because her parents had begun to pressurise her to get married in keeping with tradition. She decided that it was the right moment to rebel, and she quietly got herself enrolled in a school in Delhi to continue her studies.

Q.16. Why did Santosh’s parents agree to pay for her schooling in Delhi? What mental qualities of Santosh are brought to light by this incident?
Ans. Santosh’s parents agreed to pay for her schooling in Delhi because she told them that she planned to work part-time in order to pay her fees. They realised that their daughter was independent, had strong willpower and firm self-belief. She could make her decisions and stand by them.

Q.17. How did Santosh begin to climb mountains?
Ans. Santosh Yadav began to climb mountains when she met some mountaineers in the Aravalli Hills, who not only let her join them but also motivated her to mountain climbing. She had gone to the Aravallis after she had seen villagers from her room (at the Kasturba Hostel in Maharani College, Jaipur) cross the hills and disappear beyond.

Q.18. What did Santosh do after being motivated by the Mountaineers to take up climbing?
Ans. Santosh saved money and enrolled herself in a course at Uttarkashi’s Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, and after completion of her semester in college, headed straight for the institute to be able to start her training in time.

Q.19. Why did Santosh write a letter of apology to her father?
Ans. Santosh had got herself enrolled in the Uttarkashi Nehru Institute of Mountaineering without seeking her father’s permission. She had thought of talking to her family about this during her holidays. However, there was hardly any time between the end of the semester and her reporting date at the institute. Due to her inability to go home, she wrote a letter of apology to her father.

Q.20. As a climber, what qualities was Santosh Yadav gifted with?
Ans. As a climber, Santosh was gifted with an iron will, great physical endurance and amazing mental toughness. All these qualities, coupled with her resistance to cold and altitude, helped her prove her mettle in climbing mountains again and again.

Q.21. How did Santosh’s seniors and fellow climbers appreciate her?
Ans. Santosh’s seniors appreciated her for her climbing skills, physical fitness, and mental strength. On the other hand, her fellow climbers admired her for her team spirit and her genuine concern for her fellow climbers.

Q.22. What incidents during the Everest expedition show Santosh’s concern for her teammates?
Ans. During the 1992 Everest expedition, one of her teammates was in a very critical condition during the expedition. Col. Santosh made every effort to look after him. Unfortunately, the climber could not be saved. However, she did succeed in saving the life of another fellow climber, Mohan Singh. Santosh shared her oxygen with him and saved his life. These incidents show her concern for her teammates.

Q.23. When did Santosh scale Mt. Everest for the second time?
Ans. Santosh was invited by an Indo-Nepalese Women’s expedition to scale Mt. Everest within a year of her first expedition in 1992. Santosh joined them to climb Everest for the second time. Thus, she scaled Everest twice, setting a record as the only woman to have scaled Everest two times.

Q.24. Why is Santosh Yadav’s name recorded twice for climbing Mount Everest?
Ans. Santosh Yadav earned the credit for being the youngest woman in the world to climb Mount Everest. She was all of twenty years when she scaled the peak for the first time in 1992. She earned another credit when she climbed Mount Everest for the second time soon after. Now her name was recorded again for being the only woman in the world to have climbed the mighty Everest twice.

Q.25. How did the government of India honour Santosh Yadav?
Ans. The government of India recognised Santosh’s achievements as a celebrated mountaineer. Acknowledging her feat as the only woman to climb Mount Everest twice, the government bestowed upon her one of the nation’s top honours, the Padma Shri.

Q.26. What shows Santosh’s concern for the environment?
Ans. Santosh’s fervent concern for the environment is indicated by the fact that she couldn’t stand the sight of the Himalayas littered with garbage. Hence, she collected and brought down as much as 500kg of refuse from the pristine mountains.

Q.27. How did Santosh feel when she found herself on the ‘top of the world’ at the summit of Everest?
Or
How does Santosh describe her feelings at the summit of Everest?
Or
What was the most spiritual and proud moment for Santosh Yadav?
Ans. Santosh Yadav, while standing on the ‘top of the world’, was overwhelmed with emotions of patriotism and ecstasy. She felt proud as an Indian when she unfurled the tricolour on Mount Everest. She was so happy that she experienced a kind of spiritual bliss. She found it hard to articulate her feelings.