“In order to achieve success, you must believe that you are not inferior to anyone,” said Poorna Malavath to the students of Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan, Kapuluppada. Poorna is the youngest girl in the world to scale Mount Everest. She was in Visakhapatnam for the launch of ‘Poorna’, a biography written by Aparna Thota.
The book captures Poorna’s journey from her home town Pakala, a village in Nizamabad district of Telangana, to the Everest. The nineteen-year old is currently a first-year Bachelor of Arts student at Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS).
Road to top
Devidas Malavath, her father encouraged her to join TSWREIS, Tadwai when she was 10-years-old. He wanted Poorna to get better education and experience a life beyond her village. “Stepping out of my village gave me opportunities I didn’t even dream of. In my new school, I felt like a newborn butterfly emerging from her her cocoon,” she said. Poorna was selected for a mountain climbing workshop. There, she was trained by Shekhar Babu, a professional mountaineer.
In 2014, she scaled the Mount Everest. She had just turned 13. “The snow-clad Himalayan ranges were breathtaking. I could see all the camps as well!,” she exclaims. But the young girl also saw things that were unsettling and still give her the shivers. They were dead bodies. “Initially, I thought it was someone from our team, but soon realised it was a dead body,” she said.
- In 2017, Bollywood-actor Rahul Bose directed Poorna . The dramatised version focuses on how eduction can change lives of girls in rural India. Aditi Inamdar played the role of Poorna in the movie. (Available on Amazon Prime)
- Aparna Thota took 18 months to complete Poorna . She visited Poorna’s home and visited her parents. Aparna has also interviewed RS Praveen Kumar, secretary of TSWREIS and Shekhar Babu, Poorna’s first mountaineering coach to capture their role in grooming Poorna. “I realised getting all the details won’t happen in few hours. So I invited Poorna to sleep overs. And we stayed up all night chatting about her adventures,” recalls Aparna.
- Along with reading articles and watching films about mountaineering, Aparna also used Google Earth to understand what Poorna must have experienced from the peak of Everest.
- Poorna is published by Prism Books and is priced at ₹150. Available on Amazon.
RS Praveen Kumar, secretary of TSWREIS, also played a crucial role in grooming Poorna. Praveen,a former Indian Police Services officer, took a sabbatical in 2011 to complete a Masters in public administration from Harvard University. He returned a year later and requested a transfer to TSWREIS so that he could work at the grass roots level. His presence and involvement in the school motivated Poorna greatly and she says, “I want to grow up and become an IPS Officer like Praveen sir.”
Since she climbed Everest, the number of applications for admission at TSWREIS increased to 60,000 from 8,700 students in a year. Poorna continues to visit schools across India to encourage students to follow their dream.
“I want to share my story with as many people as possible because if I can do it, they can as well,” she says. Poorna has also climbed Kilimanjaro, Elbrus and most recently Aconcagua in February. She looks forward to summiting Mount Denali, Vinson Massif and Kosciuszko, and is secure in the knowledge that she has plenty of time to do it. “I start training a month before an expedition. I run at least 20 kilometres each day and follow a protien rich diet,” she says.
Here to inspire
At the book launch students wanted to understand how to get started on a task that might seem in-surmountable. It is simple, says Poorna. “Taking the first step is the best way to overcome your fear and march towards your goal.”