Directions: Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

Tsering Dolkar is a casual laborer with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). During one of our visits to Ladakh, we went and met her in her home.

Road maintenance at high altitudes, manually clearing snow in sub-zero winters, is hard. For a single mother with little children at home, it was doubly so. But by the mid-1980s, she was a familiar face on the road between Leh and Khardung village and on Khardung La at 18,380-ft altitude. Ever smiling, sincere and hardworking, she was always there to clear snow and boulders.

December 31, 1988, must have dawned like any other winter day for Tsering, yet it was to be a day like no other. She was working with the snow clearance team on the road just north of Khardung La when an avalanche struck their bulldozer. The bulldozer was buried in snow, but the operator and the overseer have carried away about 1,000 feet down the steep, snow-covered slope. The bulldozer operator managed to come out, but overseer Ram Naresh was buried in snow.

Realizing that if he was not rescued quickly, he would die of hypothermia, and without a thought for her own safety, Tsering rushed down the slope, removed the snow covering the unconscious man with her shovel, lifted him onto her back, and carried him to safety. She was awarded the 'Uttam Jeevan Raksha Pathak' by the President.

As I held Tsering's calloused hands. I felt humbled. Her eyes spoke of dignity, gentle strength, and self-respect coupled with a humility that I have noticed in many Ladakhis. This unlettered woman had liberated and empowered herself.