The Bucket List

It's quite some time since Sandeep passed on the baton to create my own bucket list. And he is making sure I don't forget about it.. hmmm

The tag is basically based on the movie The Bucket List and tells you to make the list that you want to do before you kick the bucket. When I saw the tag, the first thing that crossed my mind was to write a will!! That was the time amma was dragging me to banks to add the nominee name or to change the joint account holder, some things that I was never bothered about till date. And at that time there was one question in my mind - 'what if something happens to me?'. I know it's a pessimistic outlook,but these are some reality that needs to be addressed as well..

Anyway that apart, my wishlist would look like this.. I am not looking at the practicalities here.. Just that when you dream, dream really BIG..:)

1) Travel the world

This will be one thing that tops my list.. I would like to travel around the whole world and enjoy the beauty of each and every place may be in all seasons.. hmm Why that smile? Is it too much to ask for? Do you really think so? Then may be I will stick to only the 1000 places listed in the best seller "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" What say? :P

In fact, I'm not very much interested in the much talked about tourist spots. In all my trips I look for peace, serenity and natural beauty and so mostly I aim for the off the beaten track kind of places and of course there are plenty of such places.. So now the question is where do I start? The easiest for me will be to start with India - places like Valley of Flowers, North east regions, Kashmir,..etc. But then I realised I haven't visited places like Rajasthan , Lakshadweep , Andaman , etc and don't want to miss out on that either.. And I don't mind revisiting places like North Sikkim in another season..

And coming to outside India, I have visited only a few places in Europe. There are lots and lots of places which were in my list - always missed the flower show in Keukenhof, the Black Forest, Prague , Greece , Switzerland , Scotland ,.. Then places like Australia , New Zealand , Egypt, Kenya , Malasia, Maldives , Thailand..

The list will go on and on.. Only thing now left is planning. May be I should decide to leave my city once a month and leave my country once a year.. hmm tough.. Still I would try.. So anyone interested to join me for this expedition?

2) Go on a road trip with no predetermined destination

Yeh this is also related to the previous point, but when I say no predetermined destination I mean it. I have always felt that the road traveled is much better than the destination reached. But many a times we forget to stop n enjoy the beauty coz we have a predetermined destination to reach. When we used to travel in Germany we used to do this "Hop and Go" stuff. There if we take a ticket to the destination you are free to travel in any of the trains and the train frequency is 20 mins - 1 hour depending on whether it's within the city or outside. So whenever we saw a beautiful place we just got down in the nearest station and roamed around that place clicking away to glory. Once we are done we just hopped on to the next train and continued our journey.. This used to be real fun and I have got some really beautiful snaps in the process. I would like to do the same again especially in rural areas.. I am sure the life there is going to be really interesting and even more just the idea of setting out on a trip to no where is so exciting.. :)

3) Build a house of my own..

It will be my den built according to my OWN design.. It will have everything that I like and will be my comfort zone.. And did I tell you I like gardening too? So it will be a small house with a BIG garden.. Yeh a beautiful landscaped garden full of flowering plants of all sorts, a good lawn with a hammock to enjoy the evening breeze won't hurt either.. And yes my backyard will have a kitchen garden too..This can cater to the day to day needs of the kitchen ( Not sure whether this is really my interest or mom's influence)

4) Own a pet

My house won't be complete without my pets.. And what all should be there? Of course dogs will be the first choice. There are lots of breeds that I like - Golden Retriever , Coker Spanial, Lasapso , Pug.. and of course how can I forget Sony - So German Shepherd , labrador ,.. The ultimate will be if I have one of each of these breeds :) And yeh I like goats as well.. Yes u heard it right.. that explains my virtual pet also.. As a kid I used to play with the small ones from my neighborhood n God they were real fun.. and I should have cats n kittens too..they are so adorable.. What about rabbits.. They are sweet too.. :) And birds? Nope.. I feel so sad to cage them.. Instead may be my garden will have a bird bath.. Yeh that will be just fine :)


5) Have a baby

I am obsessed with babies and so this will come naturally to the list. So I'll start with a sweet cute baby girl.. Why baby girl? coz then I can deck her up with all those pretty frocks n hairdos n what not.. But then she will be bored alone..In that case twin girls will be just right.. wow two cute identical twins..double fun it will be..:) On second thoughts why to limit the number? I will have as many as my home can accommodate.. Oops then I should keep this in mind while designing my house.. But then there is one glitch.. I like these babies to remain as babies for ever and never ever grow up and lose their innocence.. Any remedy for that?

6) Swim in the sea and drive a car in b'lore roads

ha ha basically I'm looking for some courage here ;) I can swim in a nice calm pool how much ever deep it is, but in a rough sea where waves are coming over you is something different. For that you should have more faith in yourself.. :P
Same with driving in b'lore roads. I used to take my car in my hometown, but once I came to b'lore I literally froze. Now even if I go back home I hardly take it out. Again just a matter of practice, but I should take the first step.

I think it is better to stop dreaming now :) Too long a list will only be a burden ;) Let me first work on these and make it attainable :P

Now whom to pass this on? Most of the people whom I visit have done the 8 things tag which has a subset called "8 things to do before I die". So it doesn't make sense to tag them although I would like to see their exclusive list. Anyway how about tagging some of the new friends.. Probably it's a long list, but still..

So the tag goes to

Ms Cris
Sharanya
Bindhu
Alex Mcone
Nikhil
Shreejith
Roshan
Arun Paul

In addition I also tag

Prashant - He has already done something that most of us would like to do. Went for a Solo bike ride across India- 35 cities, 18,000 kms and lots n lots of experiences.. Would surely like to what crazy things he would like to do next ;)

Hairy tales

The girl looked at herself in the mirror. Today is Wednesday. The blue ribbon day. Yeh that's part of her uniform. Royal Blue skirt, White shirt and hair plaited on both sides tied by the specific colored ribbon on top and a rubber band at the bottom. In primary classes, when her hair was not long enough for a plait, it was just hair parted as ponytails on either sides. Still the ribbon was mandatory. It's Blue from Monday to Wednesday and white on the other two days. There was a time in her primary classes where she longed to have long hair just like her cousin. She looked and re-looked everyday to see whether it has grown. Unfortunately cousin had almost knee length hair or so it looked in front of the cropped hair of the girl!!

Then there was ammamma who would religiously oil her hair every weekend. The girl hated this ritual for the simple reason that oiling meant pouring half the bottle of oil on her head and then brushing that sticky oily hair for another half an hour. The reasoning behind pouring of oil used to be "tala tanukkanam"(Head should cool down) and the brushing was for lice(No Medikar or such products allowed). After that is the washing part - using only chembarathi tali(hibiscus leaves) or some such similar herbal stuff. Shampoo or soaps were a strict No No. But the problem was that these herbal shampoos managed to wash off only 1/4th the bottle of oil and the remaining 1/4th still remained on the hair for the rest of the week!! But ammamma was clever enough and managed to continue this ritual talking to her about the beautiful long hair she would posses if she looked after the hair properly and the poor girl duly obliged. By the time she reached high school, the girl did have long hair, but by then the fascination had ended. Perfect example of you won't like what you have :)

Times slowly changed.. Ammamma grew old and didn't have the energy to look after her hair. So no more oiling or brushing the hair.. Sometimes the girl wasn't even patient enough to remove the tangles and used a scissors instead!!! Even the mandatory plaiting on both sides became an issue as her hair never got dried properly after the evening wash even the next morning. The girl soon outgrew the two side plaiting of school and adopted the more common single plaits during college. Her job and the subsequent relocation forced her to discard all the herbal shampoos as well. The lack of pampering started showing slowly on the hair.. Her long haired cousin relocated to USA and adopted a shorter hair style and the gal kept wondering how roles are interchanging!!! Now a days she is even contemplating about adopting her cousin's path.. Let's see..

P.S : If you are wondering why this post? - I just plaited my hair on both sides to reduce the tangles and when I looked myself in the mirror, was taken straight back to the school days. This hairstyle was so much part of me (n mostly of all girls) in school. How I wish things as simple as plaiting hair on both sides can act like a time machine and take us to those wonderful times :)

P.P.S : If you are still wondering why such a silly post? - that's what can happen to you if you are confined to home, rather bed, for almost 2 weeks with no one to talk to :P