“Sometimes the universe gives signs, it foreshadows. It warns. Sometimes coming events cast their shadows before.Momentously happy ones too. But sometimes those signs are just our hearts wanting something so desperately that we project them. All things said, this whole reading-the-signs business can be tricky as hell.” UniverseHopeAdventureTrue StorySurvival StoryForeshadowingNidhiesharmaTawangJungles Book:Invictus Source: Invictus
“Trees talk if you care to listen. I know that now but back then, I had only heard the old oak tree outside my window back home. I’d heard it breathe. Yes, breathe. On the cold nights when I sat up prepping for my exams, when the rest of the world fell into a deep slumber, I heard the Old Oak: a bit eerie, like an old man, its breathing, laboured and arrhythmic. I wasn’t hallucinating; Picking up my stopwatch, I checked if there was a pattern and there was one. A clear and loud inhalation and exhalation, almost human-like. I wondered if the Old Oak was trying to communicate with me. Tell me its story?” SurvivalNonfictionTreesNature QuotesAdventuresArmy LifeNidhiesharmaTawangJunglesInvictus Book:Invictus Source: Invictus
“I suppose the precise moment when death swoops in to snatch your soul isn't actually terrifying. The nanoseconds preceding it are like Final Destination 6 playing out at 120 frames per second. The Jeep hurtling down, me inside it, being tossed around violently, screaming, watching the freefall knowing that the gas tank has 60 gallons of petrol in it and seeing a protruding rock fifty metres ahead. Now that is cruel!” InspirationalDeathHumourSurvivalMountainsNidhiesharmaTawangJunglesTrueaccountManvswild Strongwomen Survivor Book:Invictus Source: Invictus
“I had always hoped to die in my sleep with a peaceful look and a rose-tinted lip balm on, so the idea of having my mangled charred parts picked from a hundred mile radius was mortifying. That was no way to go if the Gods loved you, I reasoned. At thirteen, most of us beleived that we were loved. I did go home and write up that will, just in case they didn't” InspirationalDeathHumourAdventureMountainsNidhiesharmaJunglesTrueaccountManvswild Strongwomen Survivor Book:Invictus Source: Invictus
“So Tawang it was for three summers. Three spectacular summers, new friendships and an accidental adventure that is still fresh in my mind. Tawang was and is special in so many ways. Ten thousand feet above sea level, home to the oldest monastery in Asia, with clouds that floated right into the military barracks.” HopeAdventureSurvivalNonfictionMountainsNidhiesharmaTawangJunglesTrueaccount Book:Invictus Source: Invictus
“I’ve held on to those memories for the longest; never letting them go because it takes time – sometimes years – to truly understand how a childhood adventure can impact you. When I look back, I marvel at how surreal that day had been. It was the kind of misadventure one had only seen in the movies and in all those stories the protagonists were adults, some of whom did not make it. But we were just children, and this was happening to us. And this was as real as it could get. For years after, numerous existential questions raced through my head: Was God testing us? Were we handpicked for it? Was it preordained? Th en the fog started to lift and I saw it for what it was: a day in the jungle. Also, a day when everything went wrong. I’d read somewhere that adversity does not build character, it reveals it. We were tested, we were pushed to the limits of our physical and emotional endurance. We made it out alive, and it is important that this experience be shared.” HopeAdventureNonfictionSurvival StoryNidhiesharmaTawangJunglesTrueaccountManvswild Strongwomen Survivor Book:Invictus Source: Invictus
“The Jungle was alive. A throbbing entity with its own rules of engagement. And the rules were fairly simple. That you did not try to engage with it. That you had to let it own you. The Jungle had ears and eyes. It found your fears faster than you found your strength. And word travelled fast, really fast. Especially if raging waters criss-crossed through its hear. If you did not square off with your fears, the Jungle would square off with you.” InspirationalHopeNonfictionGritTawangJunglesResilenceTrueaccountManvswild Strongwomen Survivor Book:Invictus Source: Invictus