- Travel - This is one thing that really excites me. An ambitious target would be set foot on each of the continents. In this shrinking world, I believe this shouldn't be that big a task.
- Spiritual - Learn to meditate and see the "jyothi" which sages are supposed to have seen.
- Health - Play a sport - any damn sport - regularly. Stay fit and healthy.
- Giving-back - When all the need and desire for accumulation fades away, I would like to setup a school that provides basic education to 50 students, for free. This should sustain itself even long after I am gone. That's a challenge !
- Adventure - Trek the himalayas, camp in the amazon rain forest, scuba dive in an atoll. This very thought sends the adrenalin rushing through my veins.
- Creativity - In this age of analysis and logical thinking, I am often left wondering where is the time, energy and more importantly, the drive to let our creative skills to ooze out. For sometime now, writing( short-stories and journals) has caught my imagination. Will slowly convince myself to start writing.
- Relationships - It is a challenge to keep the enthusiasm in a relationship up as time passes by and I will really put in the effort to keep mime alive and kicking. This holds true for the new relationships that spring into my life as well.
- Balance - It is easy for anybody to pursue too many materialistic things in this world and tie oneself to all that one has earned. I would want to lie in my death bed cherishing the "wow" moments in my life rather than be proud of the ratings and hikes I earned in my professional career.
- When I kick the bucket - There should be atleast 4 people, who would have remained total strangers had I not reached out to them in a generous and life-changing way, to shed tears at my funeral.
- Recursive - Keep chasing these targets as if they were my soul's tenets and keep coming back to this page for regular updates.
Monday, January 14, 2008
My bucket list
Inspired by the movie "The bucket list", I sit down to write my own version of the bucket list - things to do before I kick the bucket. I will try to revisit this page and modify the list as the years pass by.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Move On !
Scene 1a: An insane fella storms into a class room, goes on a firing spree, killing more than 30 innocent students .
Reactions: The whole nation mourns for the whole week . Thousands of media people bring touching stories of both tragedy and lucky escapes to people all around the world.
Scene 1b: Same day, somewhere in a god forsaken country. A car bomb explodes killing 127 people, most of them innocent civilians. Well, the insane fella in this case is you-know-who !
Reactions: A daily ritual in the media, where the number of lives lost in the streets of the wretched nation is constantly updated like the hit count of a website.
When the whole nation cares so much for 30 civilians, some of whom are non-us citizens, I am left wondering what should be the outpour of emotions when thousands of innocent souls, who work in wells that supply the oil that run the very cars that takes them to office every morning?
Reactions: The whole nation mourns for the whole week . Thousands of media people bring touching stories of both tragedy and lucky escapes to people all around the world.
Scene 1b: Same day, somewhere in a god forsaken country. A car bomb explodes killing 127 people, most of them innocent civilians. Well, the insane fella in this case is you-know-who !
Reactions: A daily ritual in the media, where the number of lives lost in the streets of the wretched nation is constantly updated like the hit count of a website.
When the whole nation cares so much for 30 civilians, some of whom are non-us citizens, I am left wondering what should be the outpour of emotions when thousands of innocent souls, who work in wells that supply the oil that run the very cars that takes them to office every morning?
Monday, March 5, 2007
WIIFM ?
This is a long standing question in my mind ? Is there a deed in this world that is "selfless" ? If so, what qualifies it ? I will play the devil's advocate here.
When India donates $1 billion to a world aid fund when its own 500 million children are suffering from malnutrition, I was wondering if this makes any sense at all ! Hold on, after all its selfless . Isn't it ? Fine, let me get down to the gory details now. China contributes $7.5 billion to the same fund. So what ? Its planning to increase it to $15 billion in a short while. That is awesome ! Na ... The reason these countries are playing the number game is that, there is a lot as stake here. The majority of the oil and energy deals from Africa, a major beneficiary of the funds,went China's way. The aid from China played a huge role say analysts. So is this "selfless" at all ? I don't think so .
So let me quickly move on to the "qualifier" thingy. In my humble opinion, when someone does something benevolent and he feels good about it, then even that has to be selfish. May be its a strong word, but that is the bottomline. So what exactly can we say is the yardstick for measuring this. After a fair bit of thought, all I can come up with is this : If some one does a benevolent deed and doesn't expect anything in return, that is selfless. Maybe it sounds dumb. After all, that is what the dictionary says. But the subtlety has to be observed here. When one derives happiness without running behind it, then that is selfless. I definitely am not undermining the effort, but all I am doing is questioning the intent .
When India donates $1 billion to a world aid fund when its own 500 million children are suffering from malnutrition, I was wondering if this makes any sense at all ! Hold on, after all its selfless . Isn't it ? Fine, let me get down to the gory details now. China contributes $7.5 billion to the same fund. So what ? Its planning to increase it to $15 billion in a short while. That is awesome ! Na ... The reason these countries are playing the number game is that, there is a lot as stake here. The majority of the oil and energy deals from Africa, a major beneficiary of the funds,went China's way. The aid from China played a huge role say analysts. So is this "selfless" at all ? I don't think so .
So let me quickly move on to the "qualifier" thingy. In my humble opinion, when someone does something benevolent and he feels good about it, then even that has to be selfish. May be its a strong word, but that is the bottomline. So what exactly can we say is the yardstick for measuring this. After a fair bit of thought, all I can come up with is this : If some one does a benevolent deed and doesn't expect anything in return, that is selfless. Maybe it sounds dumb. After all, that is what the dictionary says. But the subtlety has to be observed here. When one derives happiness without running behind it, then that is selfless. I definitely am not undermining the effort, but all I am doing is questioning the intent .
The nishabd effect
Well, I have to admit that this was not the best of Ram Gopal's creations. The cinematography is soothing to the eye though. So, the 190 bucks i paid to watch this movie wasn't a waste though. The backdrop is a picturesque darjeeling tea estate. The clouds above add extra beauty to the setting!
Hats off to Big B for making me sit in my seat for three hours. If not for him, am sure half the audience would have left the theatre as quickly as Shewag getting back to the pavilion. But for the climax, the film was engaging to be fair on the director. The background score was a plus and kept the audience alive. The fact that there are no songs in this movie saves us from the pain of watching an item number with your girlfriend. Jiah Khan has a good screen presence. For a debutant, she has done an excellent job. One has to accept the fact that the Indian audience is not yet ready to accept the movie. I will be surprised if this goes on to become a hit. For a single reason that, to my knowledge, there hasn't been a single hit wherein the hero falls out of "moral" ways and remains so till the end.I would give a 2.5/5 rating for this.
Hats off to Big B for making me sit in my seat for three hours. If not for him, am sure half the audience would have left the theatre as quickly as Shewag getting back to the pavilion. But for the climax, the film was engaging to be fair on the director. The background score was a plus and kept the audience alive. The fact that there are no songs in this movie saves us from the pain of watching an item number with your girlfriend. Jiah Khan has a good screen presence. For a debutant, she has done an excellent job. One has to accept the fact that the Indian audience is not yet ready to accept the movie. I will be surprised if this goes on to become a hit. For a single reason that, to my knowledge, there hasn't been a single hit wherein the hero falls out of "moral" ways and remains so till the end.I would give a 2.5/5 rating for this.
Where am I ?
My head is spinning deprived of oxygen, my lungs are aching, my eyesight is fading, my palms are sweating, every breath I take I feel as if I want to die ! So where am I ?
There is just one place on earth where you feel this way ! You dont have to watch "Planet Earth" every thursdays on Discovery to guess it right. All you have to do is travel via Richmond road everyday morning at 10AM. Yes, this is exactly what I feel at the Richmond-Hosur road traffic signal. Its a monumental and painstaking wait of 180 seconds.
It sure is one among the 101 things one has to do before his death. If not for anything, the 3 minutes one waits at the signal atleast aids him in getting a little closer to death, faster than light!
There is just one place on earth where you feel this way ! You dont have to watch "Planet Earth" every thursdays on Discovery to guess it right. All you have to do is travel via Richmond road everyday morning at 10AM. Yes, this is exactly what I feel at the Richmond-Hosur road traffic signal. Its a monumental and painstaking wait of 180 seconds.
It sure is one among the 101 things one has to do before his death. If not for anything, the 3 minutes one waits at the signal atleast aids him in getting a little closer to death, faster than light!
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