The half-bucket list


When I was five, all I wanted to do when I grew up was to earn enough to eat lots of chocolates. Specifically: Cadbury Double Decker chocolates. After the economy opened up in the early 1990s, the Double Decker chocolate did a swift vanishing act. Understandably, I was shattered, and quickly gave up on the idea of growing up. From then on till my twenties, I've managed to flounder through life without thinking much.

Over time,  I met some interesting people, who made me think about all the things I could have done with life, all the things that can be done, and some things that must be accomplished. One such person is an unusually gifted musician, born blind. The other, a geeky boy and a wonderful friend who started a number of companies by his mid-twenties; an artist who jobs by daylight, and creates magic on canvas at other times. A brother who struggled throughout his wonder years, and met success by sheer willpower; a pair of vivacious, gorgeous girls who ditched their day jobs to teach and backpack across Europe; grandparents who toiled every day of their lives to raise their children. A few mad ones, in varying shapes, shades, and sizes, who never played by the rules – and never do (you know who you are); reclusive academics; stoners; rehabilitated addicts. A mighty talented sister with Type I diabetes who went away far too early, yet lived each day beautifully. An old man in his 70s who ferries a mighty city, selling handkerchiefs everyday. These are some people who serve as lessons – to live a little more, everyday.

Assuming I'll probably live to be around 80; this is my half-bucket list of things to do before turning 40. That's 12 years to go.

Remixed in Picasa; all sourced images and their rights belong to their respective owners.

Drop sunshine
Visit Paris
Walk the Bosphorus Bridge from Asia to Europe
See the Northern Lights
Grow a vegetable garden
Cook dinner for a dozen, or more people
Learn to ride a motorbike
Write an academic paper
Steal a road sign
Visit the British Isles
Backpack across Europe
Travel to Japan
Mentor someone
Have all the books from Kerouac's Dulouz series
Pass out on Tequila shots
Go skinny dipping
Go on a week-long water-fast
Quit smoking
Design a tattoo and get inked
Attend a gay wedding/civil union ceremony, preferably as best man
Buy a house
Get second piercing
Ride a bicycle over 50+kms
Run a marathon, at least a half-marathon
Trace my family tree up to ten+ generations
Watch the sun rise in New York
Eat snake meat
Eat jellied eels from a street in London
Get married, stay married
Learn to play the guitar with some degree of skill
Get a well-fitted business suit tailored locally
Overcome fear of failure
Own a Fender guitar
Own and maintain an automatic watch
Visit a German concentration camp
Learn to make at least a dozen cocktails with ease
Touch all four corners of the country
Learn to dance
Backpack on a shoestring to Ladakh
Smoke with bauls
Eat Beluga Caviar
Eat raw oysters
Own, maintain, and appreciate single malt
Wear loud clothes completely out of one's comfort zone in public
Buy and use an SLR
Start painting
Walk down Abbey Road
Join a bone marrow register
Knock back lit sambuca
Sleep in a hammock on a beach
Casually jump into a pool with clothes on
Skydive
Have a White Christmas
Grow a full beard for a year

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you asked me, marriage would put an end to half the things on that list :)

Namita said...

very nice your topic. Like it.

asmita said...

I envy your list!