Chhanda is felicitated at an event in Burdwan in September. Picture by Apurba Ghosh

Chhanda Gayen has conquered Mount Everest and several other Himalayan peaks, but the 31-year-old woman believes getting a job in Bengal today is a more difficult task.

On May 18, 2013, Chhanda had stood on the top of Everest (8,848m), where the sky was a cloudless blue, feeling a bit unreal. She had climbed the world’s highest peak and in 46 hours, she was to set out for Mount Lhotse, close to Mount Everest and even more difficult to scale.

It was tremendous willpower and training that catapulted Chhanda into the top of the world. The girl from a middle-class family at Bagpara in Howrah district became a member of the NCC when she enrolled as a student of Howrah Girls’ College and began trekking. Soon, she got a chance to join the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, changing the course of her life, literally.

In 2007, she was part of a team that took out an expedition to Garhwal. It was followed by trips to Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkashi and Gangotri, which gave her confidence to dream of standing at the summit of the Everest.

“I scaled two peaks during the Gangotri expedition as I had to keep in mind the cost of the mountaineering. If I could manage two peaks in a single expedition, I would need much less money,” she says.

Her face glows as she recalls the Mount Everest conquest. “It feels like a dream. On May 18, at 7am, I planted the Indian flag at the summit of Everest. I cannot express how I felt then. When I was a child, my grandparents would tell me stories about the gods and goddesses who lived in the mountains. I recalled those stories standing there. The blue sky stretched all around me, with no trace of a cloud. Several mountains could be seen below. For a while, I forgot about my own existence,” says Chhanda.

For five hours, she was lost in this vision. Then, the cold wind began to bite into the bones.

Chhanda at the Everest summit. Her face is covered because of wind but the Tricolour flies high

The path to the summit is through death. Chhanda saw many bodies lying on the way to the peak. “There is no way to stop at all for 10 to 12 hours. Many succumb on the way because of lack of oxygen or illness or a natural calamity. I used to see the dead and think how soon and how cautiously, I could reach the top.”

The way down is even more perilous. “The energy level is lower. The Sherpa who was accompanying me and I came back to the South Summit camp the same day. We rested that night and started for Mount Lhotse (8,516m), the word’s fourth highest peak, the next afternoon. We reached the peak at 5am on May 20. We stayed there for just 10 minutes but had the great fortune of seeing the sunrise,” said Chhanda.

The climber had needed Rs 22 lakh for the twin expeditions to Everest and Lhotse. The state youth welfare department, Allahabad Bank and Gitesh Mahapatra, a land revenue officer in Howrah’s Uluberia block, had together chipped in Rs 8.5 lakh. The rest of the money came from loans against the deposit of Chhanda’s mother’s gold ornaments and the climber’s LIC policies.

But what Chhanda badly needs is a job. Her search for a fixed income has proved elusive, though citations, plaques and trophies have filled up her house. Chhanda and her mother make both ends meet by running a shop that sells Amul dairy products on the ground floor of their house.

Recently, Chhanda was felicitated in Burdwan by the All India Punjab National Bank Officers’ Association. The zonal secretary of the association, Ashok De, said they would try to help Chhanda in her future expeditions.

Chhanda is now eyeing Mount Kanchenjungha.