Guts and glory Arunima Sinha
May 2015
By Rajeev Chaudhry
Here is a true life story that revolves around losing everything and regaining it, while reiterating the twin virtues of total surrender to God, and yet fighting your battles with grit and unflinching determination.
Arunima Sinha was a national level volleyball player who lost her left leg when she was thrown off the running train by goons in a fierce scuffle for her gold chain and other valuables. However, Pheonix-like, she rose from the ashes of her trauma only to go and conquer Mt Everest within a mere two years of her tragic accident. The book has been written in a simple, straight-from-the-heart narrative style which compels your attention. Her open and unaffected sharing inspires the reader to reflect on his own life experiences that confirm the presence of the Supreme Power in the great game of life.
After her fateful fall, God came to her rescue in the form of Pintu Kashyap who took her to hospital, when she was counting her last breath, after lying for seven hours on the railway track through the night. God manifested in different forms as B C Yadav, the hospital pharmacist who donated his blood to save her through the amputation surgery, and Bachendri Pal, the first woman conqueror of Mt Everest, who provided wings to her strong dream to become the first Indian amputee and first woman amputee in the world to scale Mt Everest.
She got a surprise energy gel from a sherpa and a spare cylinder of oxygen on top of the Everest when she was struggling between life and death after reaching the summit. Almost all the events that unfold in these two years are amazingly miraculous and highlight the hand of God in achieving impossible goals if we approach them with strong will and dogged determination. This powerful narrative is a vivid testimony of Paulo Coelho’s famous observation, “When you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”. A must-read for all seekers…