Book Review : 'From Everest, With Love' by Neelima Pudota

I began this book, on the way to a few hills. I guess it made sense, since I was going to Dharamshala, and this book was about the Everest, ‘From Everest, With Love’ by Neelima Pudota. 

I boarded the Delhi flight, when I started the book. I was ¼th  done when; I stopped to get onto the Dharamshala flight. I was done with the book, as soon as the flight reached Dharamshala, and I kept telling the author, Neel my progress with the book. She was surprised to hear that I was done. And I loved telling her all about how much I enjoyed it. The review is on, right now!!

Earlier, I met this girl in February, 2018. I spotted her in the garden, sitting! I later heard that she was a Mountaineer, and guess what? She was the first woman, from Andhra Pradesh, to have climbed Mt Everest and that too in May 2016! 

Obviously, she had my interest and to think that almost a few months later, I would be holding her book. This book was one I had actually bought at her book launch, the first I had bought in almost six years, ever since I started reviewing!! So, I started it off…

On April 25, 2015 Everest, the mountain shook, it was a miracle that she and her team came back, alive. Prior to this, there was a time when she was diagnosed with TB. It was just her inner strength and her willingness to come through that saw it all disappear.

Now, begin the letters… these Letters were from her Everest journal and usually they began with the words, ‘Dear Amma’ and ended with ‘Love, Neil’.

It spoke of her beginning of the journey on March 22^nd 2016 and her landing in Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu. It spoke of everybody she met during her journey, from every Sherpa and every friend, even the small animals she had met, to all the people from all the countries, they were from.

She also wrote about all the times, she felt cold, the times she looked and really saw mountains for what they were, chilly, cold, how it transformed her from a vegetarian to a vegan, to a non-vegetarian, to somebody who had started to eat anything now! All the times, when she managed to catch some sleep, the walks and even the hikes she took up, and the times, she would manage to get a good breakfast, even. The visit to the monastery and how peaceful it felt. The lunches and dinners and all, whatever little or lot, she ate. The times she vomited and even the shivery sleep, she caught.

Neelima Pudota

Her journey from the Everest Base Camp to the Advanced Base Camp is all recorded in her journal. Most of her team members, had self-funded, or had received partial financial support. The best thing was she was the only female, Indian mountaineer and part of an international team, which had six others from China!

Because this book might just give you the kind of strength, it holds. Neil also took it up on herself to save her Sherpa’s life; it is a story of significance, through friends, family, of love and of understanding and of lessons, to us, even. This book also contains pictures of her journey, and also a few poems. It was all worth the journey to Sagarmatha, as she calls it.

 You can Buy the Book, right here...