A life with a great job, a loving husband, and a good house in South Delhi should be enough to make one happy. Or is it? Despite having it all, Nanki Mehta feels like something is missing. When she sees an Instagram ad for bungee jumping, she is hit with a need to explore her life and hits off a friendship with River, the bungee jumping instructor. In Niharika Nigam’s Joy Of Missing Out, Nanki embarks on an adventure where she finds a new sense of belonging and a new purpose in life. 

Read an excerpt of Joy Of Missing Out here.

Then there was the edge. It brought me the chance to enjoy it all-almost to consume it if I could only dare to take the jump. But it also showed me the depth I’d have to overcome to do it.

And because that mirrored the battle that I had silently been fighting within myself, I could neither bear to stay nor to look away.

“3…”

River yelled out his countdown, infusing me with the vigour of his command. “Spread your hands out wide, like the wings of an eagle…” River was right behind me, holding the back of my harness.

I close my eyes to brace myself. This was it. This was my moment.

“2…”

I open my eyes. Actually, I decided I wasn’t going to miss it for the world. As I looked straight ahead, determined to surrender even through the jitters, I let myself feel.

It comes as a regular day, the extraordinary one.

Nothing about it is different, really-not the weather, not the people, not the life.

It isn’t a storm, it isn’t a whirlwind, it isn’t a beginning, it isn’t an end.

Just another day somewhere in the middle, but suddenly, the sun shines brighter, the wind feels like an adoring caress, and the day feels like a lover asking you to dance.

And you do.

I looked down the height, forcing myself to breathe.

It’s just another day, but you’re just wholly awake and utterly alive to it.

That’s what an extraordinary day looks like.

“1…”

I unclench my fists and let the fig tree leaf be carried by the wind to my muse.

My final letter of love. To an eternal love: the mountains of Rishikesh.

It had scribbled in ink:

‘You’ve seeped into me,

Like the salt swirling the depths of the Sea

So I don’t even know,

How to let you go,

Because without you, you see,

I’ll be empty of me.

~ Never a goodbye.’

The selected portion has been excerpted with permission from the Joy of Missing Out by Niharika Nigam, Nu Voice, ₹299. You can get your copy of the book here.

About the Joy of Missing Out

Happiness has had quite the rebrand, amidst a perfectly average life, Nanki Mehta finds herself at a crossroads, torn between a sense of belonging and the quest for authenticity. As she struggles with age-old questions echoing Arjuna’s uncertainties on the battlefield, a chance encounter on Instagram introduces her to River, a fearless Bungy Jump Master from Rishikesh. While Nanki grapples with fears; River sells courage for a living. Together, they navigate through profound questions relevant even today— Who am I? Why am I? How can I be happy? Can Nanki truly rewrite her story?

Embark on this journey of self-discovery and join her as she discovers how to fall in love with life and the joy of missing out.

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Related: When the Mountains Moved: A Profound Journey Of Self-Discovery And Healing