Pages

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

30 before 30

This list thing is fun. I made one more list. :D 30 things I want to accomplish before I'm 30, not necessarily in that order though. That gives me a good 8 and a half years to do all these wildly all over the place things I want to do. (Oh, and earn enough money to be able to do them. Hmmm. :P)

  1. Publish at least one (fun) book i.e. fiction and at least 5 research papers in scholarly journals
  2. Attend a literature festival as something more than mere audience.
  3. Edit a book that is not my own.
  4. Learn a musical instrument. (hopefully one out of: tabla, violin or guitar.)
  5. Learn a dance form. Well, at least a couple levels in a dance form. (I have been wanting to learn Kathak for the longest time possible!)
  6. Finish my last level of learning French and go to France for some sort of short academic exchange or something.
  7. Learn 2 or more languages out of Sanskrit, Urdu, Arabic, Japanese and Spanish.
  8. Learn how to wear different types of saris. I only know 2 at the moment.
  9. Learn how to cook traditional cuisines from at least 3 other cultures, whether they are Indian or any other cultures in the world.
  10. Learn pottery.
  11. Learn driving and own at least one car.
  12. Learn the basics of good photography.
  13. Learn how to make bhang and have it on one holi! :P
  14. Write a script./ Direct a short film.
  15. Develop my craft. (Yea, I know it's vague. That's the point. :P)
  16. Take my stamp collection to at least 100,000 stamps.
  17. Not lose touch of hand-written letters to e-mails and not lose touch of long written, loving e-mails to skype! ;)
  18. Own at least 50,000 books of my own. (Yes, I sort-of have always wanted to have a mini-library of my own. :P)
  19. Buy a diamond ring each for my parents.
  20. Make the perfectly embroidered sari for my mum.
  21. Knit the perfect sweater. (could be for anyone! :P)
  22. Go on a bike trip with my dad. (I know he won't take me to Ladakh like he went for his awesome bike trip and I so want to. But well, any place else, where hopefully, it won't be as cold as it is in Ladakh, is fine with me.)
  23. Visit New Zealand.
  24. Visit the Harappan civilisation ruins and the Swat Valley in Pakistan.
  25. Go sky-diving/ bungee-jumping.
  26. Earn enough to be able to fly wherever Sun and Moon are on their 30th birthdays.
  27. Teach at Xavier's. Even if it is only as a visiting faculty or filling in for someone.
  28. Muster up enough courage to experiment with my hair at least once.
  29. Become the favourite aunt. (Of course, Moon and S will have to help me here and have babies first so that I can spoil them! :P But well, they have 8 years, I know they'll do it! :P)
  30. Lastly, fall in love with someone who is not a commitment phoebe, alcoholic, workaholic, nicotine/ sex/ substance addict, megalomaniac, religion/ cricket/ soccer fanatic, couch potato, sadomasochist, misogynist, MCP and generally anyone who falls in the super-undesirable category. Maybe get married to him. And NOT have children. (Don't laugh. It takes more work to NOT have children than it takes to have them. Apart, all the pressure and explanations you'll have to deal with every time you visit family would be insane. You'd even be willing to go through labour and 9 months plus 18 years of shit just to avoid that third degree!)
OK, now that I have a list, I need a plan that will help me cross things off list. Some are easily achievable. Some, I think can only be achieved if I rob a bank. But well, we'll see. :P For now, I think, getting back to my dissertation might be a good idea. ;)


Edited to add: S looked at this list and asked me (a very valid) question: What will you do when life happens and you don't have time to do all these things? Well, I realise some of these things are not exactly easy to achieve. But even if I finish 25 out of these, I think I'll be happy. All I can to do is try my level best and scratch things off the list. :)

16 comments:

  1. Is it humanly possible to do so many things ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. See, that's the thing. I don't know what life has in store for me. I am going to try. These are the things I want to do. Some things come naturally to me, like learning languages, cooking and dancing. Some other things, like getting a hair make-over, knitting and embroidering will only take some resolve and patience on my behalf. Having a library and so many stamps, well, suffice to say I'm already halfway there! :P So, mostly, it just involves hard work and perseverance on the academic and career front to publish and edit things and managing the finances properly to do the international vacations and other things. I'm going to hope I can do it. If I can't, well, may be I'll upgrade them to a 40 before 40 list! :P No pressure, you see! :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. 100,000 stamps and 50,000 books! My mouth dropped open reading those (which might be because I own about 20 books and 4 stamps!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. haha!! Well, it's easier if you inherit your grandfather's stamp collection when you are 7 and then, you too start collecting stamps since then. :P With books, it's a little more difficult since I didn't inherit anything! :( But, well, I'm weirdly materialistic like that. I need to own my books. I've been living here for a year now and already I have about 80-100 books here. Thinking about how difficult its going to be to get them home now. heh. :P

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey! I have complete faith in you that you will do all these. Probably thats why nothing on the list surprised me! I guess I know you well enough CD....Now get back to the D!!! Big bad D!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's pretty realistic. I like. =)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey, thanks for having me in your blogroll!

    That list is intimidating. I turn 30 in a little over a year. I will go away at once and pretend never to have seen it.

    (Okay, I had to look again. I've done 5, 11, 28 and 30.)

    ReplyDelete
  8. @ Disha and Kyra: Thanks! :) I hope I can fulfil it. Yes, yes, I'm going back to the D! :/ :P

    @ Unmana: Thanks for stopping by. :) And not to worry, like I said, I'm going to try my level best. If I don't get it, I'm not going to sit and cry over it. It just gets upgraded to another list! :P

    ReplyDelete
  9. In fact, I think only 30 is unrealistic. Bloody impossible, more like.

    ReplyDelete
  10. hahaha Kyra! Hear you loud and clear! :P

    ReplyDelete
  11. You have done a marvelous job! I am really inspired with your work.

    ReplyDelete
  12. @ Ayesha: Thank you! :) I do hope you will return again. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. 2types of people: The one's been to new zealand and one's who havent :P just kidding but i really like the list! they are always fun to make and more so to strike off,i havent done a list in a long time! maybe i should.have you noticed how it keeps changing with each advancing year! sigh..
    i feel old.:(

    ReplyDelete
  14. @ HG: I agree about the 2 types of people! And I just happen to know too many of the first type who keep on yapping about its beauty. If I don't go soon, I might end up killing one of them! :/ :P

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hey! BTW: Editing the book: Why dont you cross it off the list by finishing MINE?????

    ReplyDelete
  16. You don't know what a bitch editor I will be. You don't want your baby edited by me. :P That said, I'll be happy to finish editing it if you'll be ok with all the harsh remarks. :P

    ReplyDelete