A group of young mountaineers from Maharashtra got together in 1997 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Indian independence by climbing Mt Everest.

The expedition was arduous, but arranging resources to pull it off was a gargantuan task. Unable to fetch the required resources, they abandoned their attempt much before the 'climbing window' opened up to scale the highest peak in the world.

Having the required experience of success in high-altitude Himalayan ascents, the team kept at it and reached Tatas with a reference letter from the then Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and veteran socialist leader Madhu Dandavate.

What followed next was surreal. Within four days, they got a letter appreciating the effort undertaken by the youth and more importantly, a commitment to financial support.

"We were overjoyed. As we had the backing of Tata, other corporate groups also made commitments and ensured that we could set out," Hrishikesh Yadav, the leader of the expedition, told PTI over the phone on Thursday.

Tata's backing was like "seed funding" to the expedition, which had the Tata Group name as the title sponsor, and it was this help which ensured that an Indian civilian expedition got success, Yadav said.

There were Indian summits on Everest dating back to 1965, but all of them were backed by the Indian Army or services, he said, explaining that the high costs of expeditions could not be undertaken by civilian or amateur mountaineers till then.

Yadav said that to save money, their expedition took the more challenging North Route to the summit, starting from the Tibet side.

Through the years that he has been in touch with Tata or his staff, another very interesting attribute of the person stood out, Yadav said, pointing out that Ratan Tata had deep convictions on keeping every deed private.

The expedition members sought to meet Tata before the expedition, after the successful summit and also when they were celebrating 25 years of the ascent recently.

Unlike their exploits in the mountains, never did they achieve any success in meeting Tata at any event. The industrialist always avoided the spotlight.

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