Farmer’s daughter climbs mount Everest | Fusion - WeRIndia

Pooji Mehra was born in the remote village of Teihaat, as the only daughter to her parents.

She grew up working in the fields and doing household chores every day, which made her into a strong and enduring young woman.

She was always enthusiastic about sports and physical activity, playing kabaddi at the national level while in school.

Pooja also became a cadet of the National Cadet Corps (NCC), and she was a class 12 student of a government college when she first heard about Mount Everest.

She found its daunting height and difficult hike to be an enticing challenge, which she immediately promised herself to accomplish one day.

Pooja soon began training for a climb up Mount Everest, getting herself physically and mentally ready for dangerous and strenuous mountaineering expeditions.

Adding to her large share of chores, she would go for a 10-kilometer run every day, followed by an hour of rigorous physical exercise.

Pooja would also work on other people’s farms to earn some more money for her family.

To prepare for a climb up the world’s highest mountain, she began with two smaller peaks: The Trishul Peak, which is 23,360 feet above sea level, and the Nag Tibba peak, which is 19,688 feet above sea level.

When the NCC informed Pooja that she had been selected to join an expedition up Mount Everest, she was delighted, and she told her family straight away.

However, due to the patriarchal beliefs of her society, her parents were reluctant to let her go, and her family’s neighbors warned against it, saying that such expeditions are not meant for girls.

Yet, Pooja endured this undeserved criticism and held her ground, and her teachers eventually convinced her parents to let her go.

She was first sent to a base camp in Nepal, where she was acclimatized at the high elevation for several days.

Then, on May 21st, 2016, Pooja finally achieved her dream of climbing the world’s highest mountain, and scaled her way to the summit at about 11:00 in the morning.

Image Reference: Thebetterindia