PATHS OF GLORY..
JEFFREY ARCHER
hello people,
i just finished reading yet another Archer book. this is his latest, PATHS OF GLORY.
The story goes like this, the Mallory family is blessed with a very much gifted child.
they name him george. this child has got extremely strong limbs which enable him to climb anything/wall/rocks that come in his way very swiftly. the whole family(parents, 2 sisters) is very proud of him.
years pass by and this lad becomes adolescent and wants to go to college. now, its fact that all the gifted humans are whimsical or lazy.(i take full stand to call the gifted ones as IDIOTS). so after few years his school days(Winchester) are over. he has this interview at Cambridge. as he is lazy, he misses out his first train. then some how manages the next train to cambridge. as i said he had too strong legs, he sprints for few mins, hails a cab, then reaches the gates just to find that he is 2-3 mins. late for interview. he is not allowed.
He walks along the campus. he feels a bit disgusted. then he finds a tall wall, which he justs
climbs and enters the campus w/o the gate keepers notice. and rushes towards the office for interview. impressed by his devotion he is admitted to cambridge( deewar kudnese cambridge mein admission pakka).
he joins the trekking club. he is such a good damn climber that he has all the feathers in his cap.i mean in due course of time he leaves no peak in europe untouched.
he names the peaks he had climbed as foodie would tell names of restos and their resp. USPs. Then he climbes eiffel for which he spends time in jail. Then he falls for a girl named Ruth. Damn, lucky fellow, his FIL supports(financially) so that he can carry on his expeditions..
after few years he is selected for Everest, which was by that time no one had even thought of. But this guy is ready to go for 29000 ft. to conquer everest. finds a nice group. by ship they come to india, then go to tibet, bribe the general posted on border and enter tibet. they start their expedition. it starts of very well, they plan out evrything. here i mean they anticipate the conditions well.
up and up they climb. on the way, the sherpas give up. few of his team mates give up. only last 1000 feet are left when they are hit by avalanche . so they give up and return to england. now , actually one of his team mates leads and so mallory is not the guy who reached the highest point.
they return to england and he comes to know that the times have already made him a hero as the man who conquered everest(to reach the highest altitude). he starts living happily. earns good.
but, in the next year, the evrest committe re-unites and name mallory the leader for next climb.
at first he is reluctant, but then agrees.
so, they once again start they expedition. now well equipped than previous year. they take more precautions. again the same thing. as the height increases, the number of members in the party decreases. finally mallory and irving are left for the last assault of 600 feet.
with extreme efforts, lot of patience, hours of suffering, mallory conquers the insurmountable CHOMOLUNGMA(Mt. Everest). at 29000 ft . wow, he reaches the hieght no living being had ever reached.
at top the everest he leaves Ruth's picture. irving and mallory click each others photos and irving keeps the camera in his pocket. the pictures are the only proof .
during the descent they are hit by storm, winds. they find it extrememly difficult to return to base. they start struggling a lot. they move down inch by inch. it becomes extremely ardous. Mallory always said that descent if much difficult than ascent...............
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Almost 75 yrs later, a search party finds mallory's frozen , withered dead body. there was no sign of irving. he's body is yet unfound. the party search mallory's clothes. and they dont find what they were looking for---Ruth's picture..
till today, Ruth's missing picture is the only proof that Mallory is the first person conquer Everest.
But, life sucks.. Edmund hillary and sherpa tensing norgay are know around the globe as first ones to climb everest.......
after reading my mind is left with so many questions...???????
Damn it, we feel so angry when our classmate takes the credit of our efforts. People this Mt. Everest, imagine what Ruth and his 3 children and rest of his family might have gone through!!!!
do comment::
goodnight/day..:
ameya..
