Some trivia about someone - 2

:: Members of the 1921 Mount Everest Expedition
© Royal Geographical Society

This was all a big plot. It could not have been anything else. And Mount Everest wrote this plot:

Somewhere, maybe even before it was discovered by man, Mount Everest had decided that she wanted a son. And somewhere she had chosen the name of her son too - she wanted to call him George Mallory. And when she had decided on this, the sequence of events began. She started searching. And she noticed a Mallory family in a lovely village called Mobberly in a district called Cheshire in Britain. She had found the seed for her son. She started following the events in that family. There was no "George" in that family. She was jubilant when she noticed a George Leigh wander into Mobberly and fall in love with Julia. She conspired to get his name changed to George Leigh Mallory. But sadly she realised after that, that he was not the fearless son she yearned for. She had to conspire again. She made George Leigh Mallory and Julia name their son George Mallory. Alas, even this person did not have the grit to reach her. She was anxious.

Meanwhile events continued to transpire at Mobberly and decades passed. Mount Everest then noticed a young boy of 8 climbing the spire of a church. She peered at him closely. He was the son she wanted....she was so sure. And he was George Herbert Leigh. She again began to conspire - she should have the right to name her own son! And she asked Herbert Leigh to apply for coat of arms and she asked the parish to recommend that he add "Mallory". And she accomplished what she wanted. She had found her son and she had named him to her choice. A man called George Mallory who had the wherewithal to reach his mother now existed on this planet.

Now Mount Everest turned her attention to the other problem. She realised that man did not allow man to come near her due to stupid things men called "countries" and "boundaries". She started wondering what to do about this. And then, one day, she looked down on earth and noticed a guy called Francis Younghusband. She found him intrepid and brave and open to ideas. So she contrived a meeting between Younghusband and a person called General Charles Bruce in 1897. She smiled with satisfaction when Younghusband said to Bruce in an incidental conversation "I want man to reach the top of Mount Everest". These words were actually HERS and she had put them into Younghusband's head.

Years passed. Her son was growing. She made him meet Geoffrey Winthrop Young who taught him how to climb. She watched as her son trained to reach her. She watched as she taught her son how to respect her. She made her son a philosopher.

And then, finally, the time came. George Mallory was ripe to meet his mother. She turned her gaze again to Francis Younghusband. It was 1919. And one fine day, responding to God knows what call, Younghusband remembered the conversation he had had with Charles Bruce 22 years back. God only knows how Francis suddenly remembered. And he started hunting for General Charles Bruce. He found Bruce in some remote corner of Britain, recovering after World War I. And he made him remember the conversation they had had in 1897.

Mount Everest had worked very very hard and now, finally, things had begun to piece together. Younghusband founded the Mount Everest Committee and became the President. Charles Bruce was old, but he was made the leader of the first expedition in 1921. And then, out of nothing, Younghusband asked Geoffrey Winthrop Young who could climb the mountain. And Young recommended his favourite pupil. Young wrote to Younghusband : "I would recommend a young man I know. Unfortunately he has no record of climbing in the Himalaya, which is to his disadvantage. However, he more than makes it up by his fiercely intensity. He is of course an excellent climber and can get along well with fellow climbers. I must mention he is a little rash in his climbing, but ask me and I would say he is an automatic choice - at least worth a look. His name is George Leigh Mallory. He is currently travelling in Ireland, but I will get in touch with him and ask him to get in touch with you. regards." (I have quoted this verbatim – this is, in essence Mallory's resume...smile).

And the rest is history. Mount Everest had managed to call her son.

And he climbed to her.

-- Sandeep Chopra, 6 August, 2003