The Girl Who Climbed Mountains : Bachendri Pal
by Lavanya Karthik
“The Girl Who Climbed Mountains : Bachendri Pal” by Lavanya Karthik. Published by Duckbill. A delightful short biography of little Bachni who was a small girl with big dreams before she created history as the first Indian woman to climb Mt.Everest.
Bachni was a girl who lived in a village high up in Harsil valley of Garhwal region in Uttarakhand in the shadow of the mighty Himalayas. She belonged to a family of sheep herders. The mountains around them were their Gods whose calls could not be ignored. One idyllic Sunday morning, Bachni and her friends decided to have a picnic. Everyone was excited. But where was the important question?
Where else could they think but the great mountain that loomed over their valley. Now this was going to be their first time. Each one had a different opinion about the mountain and climbing it. While some had reservations about girls being able to even attempt it, others had heard from their elders that mountains are Gods or they could even have demons lurking up in them. Even her brother Bachan thought that climbing mountains was not for girls. Well Bachni was unaffected by all these thoughts. She decided to pursue the climb. After all, that was the only way to find out what lay there. Read the book to find out how their climb went and how Bachni went on to become the Bachendri Pal that the world came to know about.
My eight year old and I enjoyed reading this charming book. It was lovely to know about Bachendri Pal’s childhood. We had already read books related to climbing Mount Everest such as the “First to the Top” about the Edmund Hillary and Tenzing’s climb and “Tine and the Faraway Mountain” about Tine Mena who was the first Indian woman from the north-east to scale the mountain. A book on Bachendri Pal is what we had been looking for and we were delighted to know that it was one of the new books in our favourite “Dreamers” series from Duckbill. As always, Lavanya Karthik has done a fabulous job with both the write up and the illustrations. The illustrations in this book are inspired by the Thangka art. The other books from the series that we have read so far are on Satyajit Ray, Teejan Bai, R.K.Narayan & R.K.Laxman, Janaki Ammal and Salim Ali. Looking forward for the next set of books from this series now :)
Recommended Age
The book is apt for children aged 6+.
Reasons to Read
The story of one of India’s most famous mountaineers will make the children want to know more about the mountains and might get them started on climbing them too :)
Where to buy from?
An independent bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.