The bucket list

Stowed away on the Goa-Karnataka border is Dudhsagar, one of India’s tallest waterfalls. En route to the waterfall, a few days ago, I overheard someone saying, that with that trek walk, one more item had been checked off his bucket list. With that one line, he unknowingly helped me in stoking the long buried creative fires.

What is a bucket list?

It’s the list of experiences or achievements you hope to have or accomplish before you kick the proverbial bucket, i.e. death. The origin of “kicking the bucket” is not exactly known, but commonly accepted theories refer to hanging, either as a method of execution or committing suicide.

Why create a bucket list?

Personally, I treat it as another goal-setting tool. Considering that I would be spending almost half of my lifetime in chasing targets for businesses (which I do for the love for business), it’s only fair that I chase a few targets of my own. Of course, like any other idea, there would be naysayers, and they would say one of the following:

A bucket list gives you tunnel vision; it constricts your life to a specific set of goals:

I’m not sure how that is bad, but having a list doesn’t necessarily mean that you would miss out on exploring other things. You just have to be open-minded.

Causes regret; keeping sky-high goals might result in failure:

On any given day, I’d choose failure over not trying at all. Besides, partial success still gives you a sense of accomplishment as compared to zilch attempts.

Turns a traveler into a mediocre tourist: 

A bucket list is limited by one’s knowledge, imagination and creativity. If my travel list contains just the popular places defined by the internet and social media, so be it. But, I am willing to sacrifice something off my list if I feel like escaping the crowd and instead roll with the locals. Besides, the list is not set in concrete. I can always add another point at the end. For instance, roll with the locals in Spain.

Contributes to the one-upping epidemic:

Do you think I’d do the most epic thing at the most epic place and then share my wonderful experience on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn along-with the green check mark just to rub it in your face by telling you how much I enjoyed it?

You are goddamn right, I will.

Now that we have sorted out any point of contention the critics might have, I’d say the real objective of creating a bucket list is to use it as a reminder of all the things I want to achieve during my limited existence on earth, so that instead of sleep-walking through my life by spending time in pointless activities, I’d direct myself towards doing what really matters. Besides, I am an ardent believer of the law of attraction.

Quoting Professor William Minto, who lived in a more leisured era, “You see, then, what an obligation we owe to the reader of order and arrangement – and why, apart from felicities and curiosities of diction, the old rhetorician laid such stress upon order and arrangement as duties we owe to those who honor us with their attention”. Keeping that thought in mind, here is my list categorized into 8 buckets.

Treks

As a dopamine addict, my brain constantly seeks for more of the reward chemical than it can naturally produce. Instead of lying, stealing or involving booze or heroine, I crave for the next fix via sports and treks. It goes without saying that the activity has to be an absolute endurance test – either physically, and/or mentally. At times, I set my expectations so high that I miss the dose of dopamine and end up being unsatisfied when they are unmet. I am yet to come to the acceptance stage that these high self-expectations could be inter-linked with the deficiency needs of raising self-esteem and winning peer approval. For instance, climbing a 2000m high peak would no longer fulfill my cravings – Is it because I have been exposed to the higher Himalayan peaks and I seek equally or even more challenging climbs? Or, is it that anyone could conquer a 2000m peak and hence it doesn’t give me the required boost to my already bloated existing levels of self-esteem? Having said that, as much as I try to avoid going for the fashionable walks, I would still be happy if they were to offer some spectacular views. 

1. Everest base camp

2. Chadar frozen river

3. Roopkund trek, Uttarakhand

4. Kashmir Great Lakes 

5. Goechala trek, Sikkim

6. Inca trail in Peru

7. GR20 Corsica trail– Toughest, long distance best hike in Europe

8. Alang Madan Kulang

9. Harishchandraghad via Nalichi vaat 

10. A volcano trek

Adventure sports

Purely for the adrenaline rush!

11.  Sky diving

12. Bungee jumping

13. White water rafting

14. Skiing

15. Scuba diving

16. Rock climbing

17. Rappelling

18. Giant valley swing

19. Cliff diving

20. Learn to surf

Travel

This is going to be slightly challenging as I have never stepped foot outside my comfort zone (read India) until now although the heart desires to explore. Hopefully, putting it down on paper would spur me into action.

21. Backpacking across 10 locations

22. See the northern lights

23. Live in another country for 3-6 months

24. Helicopter ride

25. Go on a cruise

26. A road trip

27. Vegas!

28. Visit Leh, Ladakh

29. Wildlife safari in South Africa

30. Visit 3 wonders of the world

31. Visit 50 countries

Reading

32. Own a library with at least 1000 books

33. Read as much as an English major – Start with 50 classics

34. Achieve reading speed of 600 words per minute – Currently at an average reading speed of 300-350 wpm

35. Own complete collection of Wodehouse, Watterson, Christopher Moore, Sidney Sheldon, Richard Feynman and Ayn Rand

36. A Shakespeare work

37. Complete a certified course in psychology

38. Complete a course in statistics (Work related)

39. Read The Divine Comedy

Writing

The emotional turmoil that I go through every time I sit down to write is something difficult to explain, and probably deserves a separate post of its own. It’s like a sculptor, having discovered a truth worth revealing, picks up a rock and starts pecking away at the edges off it using a chisel, and then, soon, consumed by the idea of portraying the truth, he slowly starts penetrating deeper and deeper into the white stone with the repeated pounding live thrust of the chisel, his whole body behind the heavy hammer fueled by an intoxicating combination of love, agony and ecstasy, wanting to create the perfect form of art. One wrong strike of the hammer, or one wrong incision leads to an inexplicable rage destructing the entire work done and he starts the process all over again; chipping away the edges off a new rock and pounding the hammer repeatedly with a new burning desire, until at last, the sculptor and the sculpture coalesce into one, an explosive climax revealing the truth in a tangible form of art.

Writing, is my way of discovering and portraying a truth. 

40. Write a 2,000 word post

41. Write a 5,000 word post

42. Write a 10,000 word post

43. Achieve 100 blog posts

44 Write an academic paper

Personal

45. Play a high stakes poker game in a casino

46. Learn to play a piano (with both hands)

47. Learn a new language

48. Become a Chess Master – Achieve ratings of 2000+ (Currently at 1700-1800)

49. Hacking a computer

50. Shoot a gun

51. Pick a lock (Inspired by Feynman)

52. Mudbath – Thanks to “Suits”

53. Adopt a dog

54. Get a body massage

55. Hit the gym for 6 consecutive months – Yes, I see the smirks

56. Take an ice cold dip

57. Run a marathon

58. Take part in a triathlon

59. Astral projection

60. Visit an oxygen bar

61. Experience a snowfall

62. Public speaking to an audience of over 1000 people

Material

63. Audi – R8 / Sportback

64. A home theater

65. A couch (Remember F.R.I.E.N.D.S)

66. Home bar

67. Bose QuietComfort wireless headphones

68. Get a temperature controlled shower – Honestly, I’m fed up of doing a ballet dance every morning around the shower while testing, with my finger tips or toes, how hot the water is. By the time I enter the shower, the water is already cold! Instant geysers are such a pain.

69. Buy a diamond set to mom and sister - No thanks to the neighbor’s son who has forced me to put this on my list

Aspirational

70. Enter space

71. Meet Elon Musk

72. Write a book

73. Visit all 7 continents

74. Create (Write) something that would have a positive impact on a million lives

75. Design a mathematical formula for one of the human emotions

76. Achieve a reading speed of 1000 words per minute – Reports suggest only 1% of readers achieve this speed with near 85% comprehension

77. Participate in a World Series of Poker tournament

78. Play on a table with Daniel Negreanu

79. Attend The International, an annual Dota 2 eSports tournament hosted by Valve Corporation

80. Attend a live concert of Tool

81. A degree in psychology

82. Meet someone in prison

83. Convince mom not to worry

84. _____________ (This one needs the presence and consent of two female individuals)

 

So, what do you think? Did you connect with any of the points? Could you share 3 things from your own bucket list which are closest to your heart?