Bucket List: 101 Things I want To Do Before I Die

     I made this list almost a year back. Its a very personal thing, but I thought about sharing it today, hoping to inspire someone, like someone inspired me to make mine :) Its fun and a good way to know yourself :D 

1. Scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef
2. Get a Tattoo
3. River Rafting
4. Horse riding, again
5. Become a certified  scuba diver
6. Be a life guard at a beach for a while
7. Step once on all the continents
8. Run for a 10 km marathon
9. Make a sustainable living from making and selling handmade; handicrafts/ paintings/ lamps/ jewelry
10. Backpacking in Europe for a month or more before I turn 30
11. Swim at a stretch for 1000 mts, 5000 mts
12. Sell handmade at an exhibition
13. Make a wall graffiti
14. Teach underprivileged kids, often
15. Teach art/crafts to mentally challenged kids
16. Put up a painting exhibition, lamps exhibition
17. Make my sister VERY proud of me
18. Kiss the sky from a hot air balloon
19. Party and spend a night on a private beach sleeping under the sky
20. Go on a blind date
21. Sky dive
22. Do interior decoration of a house, completely
23. Ditch my cell phone and WWW for 10 days continuously
24. Workout to get ideal figure once in my life ;-)
25. Start an NGO in the name of my mom and grandfather
26. Try to make a difference in the lives of Sex workers in India
27. Learn wave surfing
28. Write a blog and a book
29. Swim in a sea and an ocean
30. Find love and marry him- someone who understands all my craziness and is a little crazy too J
31. Learn to cook non veg for friends
32. Learn to eat chicken
33. Not get addicted to drinking or smoking or anything else ;-)
34. Watch a sunset from a boat, ship, plane and a cruise
35. Make someone laugh, daily!
36. Pet a fish, dog, cat, rabbit, a bird
37. Live a no contact life in a hill station
38. Become the marketing head for a FMCG company
39. Surprise visit my grandparents and parents
40. Spend a month at a stretch with my parents and grand parents
41. Have enough time and money to buy a one way plane ticket to ANY place in the world for the same day.
42. Learn French <3
43. Get a psychic reading and a tarot reading
44. Work in France for a year or more
45. Board a train alone without a ticket.Traveled second AC #likeaboss 
46. Wear a mask and paint a city wall in the night. Banksy style!
47. 10 day meditation retreat at Vipassana Center 
48. Learn Mediation and Meditate daily
49. Volunteer at a Vipassana Camp for 10 days
50. Learn and practice yoga
51. Learn one dance form; ballet/salsa/ cha cha
52. Experience astral projection
53. Dive from a ship and a cliff
54. Learn either of them:  face reading/psychic reading/ aura reading/hand reading/ reiki/ tarot reading
55. Get an eve teaser caught
56. Specialize in cooking one countries authentic cuisine apart from Indian, ofcourse! Thai, maybe?
57. Learn to play a music instrument, proficiently
58. Volunteer at a special needs school
59. Attend A. R. Rahman’s live concert
60. Meet a celebrity while travelling
61. Spend a completely unplanned day chatting up with strangers from another part of the world 
62. Drive Harley Davidson with a leather jacket on :P
63. Be a vegan for a month minimum
64. Paint, often
65. Make a baby!
66. Promote positive self-image and thinking
67. Learn everything about Buddhism and maybe convert
68. Travel to a new place once every 6 months
69. Tell my family and friends that I am grateful to them for being in my life and being so awesome, tell often
70. Quit a job without another in hand
71. Travel with best friends
72. Roadtrip on a bike
73. Skinny dipping at Maya bay
74. Witness firefly chorusing
75. Witness bioluminescence
76. Witness aurora (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIXs6Sh0DKs)
77. Spend a night in a forest
78. Inspire someone, often
79. Travel on a ship and a cruise
80. Support a kids education, thoroughly
81. Ride in a helicopter
82. Go para sailing & paragliding
83. Get a massage by the beach & the hills & on the road
84. Witness sunset at Golden Gate Bridge
85. Visit Las Vegas and play at a casino
86. Travel abroad solo for leisure
87. Travel and stay solo in India for leisure
88. Travel without a plan and a return ticket
89. Visit world’s largest aquarium
90. Learn driving a car
91. Watch penguins walk
92. Swim with whales ,turtles and fish
93. Learn to not be afraid of lizards, aah, one day, maybe!
94. Public speaking to a larger audience of over 1000 people.
95. Strawberry and corn plucking from farms
96. Travel international for work
97. Donate a body part
98. Tomorrowland, Brussels
99. Burning man
100. Help everyone as much I can
101. Take care of my parents when they are old
102. Donate a percent of my earning, consistently
103. Gift dad a swanky car and mom a diamond jewelry
104. Travel in a train for continuous 36 hours
105. Invest more in experiences than asset building and shopping
106. Places to see: well on a list of 194 countries these are just some basic pointers ;) much is never much!

·        Europe : Spain, France, Paris, Italy, London, Iceland, Scotland, Croatia, Hungary, Russia, Venice, Switzerland, Prague, Santorini, Amsterdam, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Cyprus, Vatican city. Okay, almost everything: D
·        N&S America: USA (Disneyland, Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco) Canada (Niagara falls, CN tower, Toronto), Haiti, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua
·        Africa: Mauritus (Rodrigues Island), Seychelles, South Africa (Sun city), Tanzania
·        Asia: Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, China, Japan ,Vietnam, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Maldives, Srilanka, Turkey, Burma
·        Oceania: French Polynesia(Bora bora, Tahiti), Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia
·        Antarctica: Paradise Bay (Yes, that too!)
·        Well, India: Leh ladakh, North East, Gujarat,  Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, Karnataka, J&K, Uttarakhand, UP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Goa

Okay, my list is a little more that 101 :D but, I don't know which ones to remove :(

p.s: the ones cancelled are already done :D and half cancelled are half done :)

I CAN is 100 times more important than IQ J

How did the travel bug hit and bit me?

Retrospecting today, I was asking myself, where did it start? When did I get so addicted to exploring. It hit me subconsciously but really hard!

My parents decided to spend summer of ’01 in Waterloo, Canada as dad was working at the University. We stayed in the countryside full of students from all over the world. My sister and I used to spend our evenings at the nearby campus club and used to meet a lot of students from around the globe there. 

One such evening at the club, I was speaking with a girl who was our neighbor too. She told me how people traveled wherever they wanted to once they finished college and had some savings. How she went trekking with friends for a month the previous year and was planning to backpack Europe next fall.

This may sound pretty normal to me or anyone today, but 13 years back to a 13 year old Indian girl it seemed truly rebellious, nonsensical and scandalizing. The whole idea of backpacking and travelling the world was so very cool yet so intimidating.

Probably that’s where it all started. It seemed almost impossible to me to have been ever able to do it but now I know where the seeds sprouted. Rest is history ;-)

KASOL..A PIECE OF PARADISE ACROSS PARVATI VALLEY

Kasol is like love, you can feel it but not really put it words. Its that childhood drawing you grew up drawing come alive. River erupting from the mountains by the pine trees and some cottages nearby. Much like heaven.

Its an Israeli backpackers heaven which the world tells you, and they are not wrong, as I discovered that Israelis and many European travelers have discovered India way better than we have. Brilliant scenery, live and raw music, some fine art, delicious food and ofcourse the premium cannabis.
I could see and smell weed plants in every possible corner, from the farms to the sewage pits.

I think my words can’t do much justice, thus making a visual tour for anyone who dreams of a little heaven. Though I feel the pictures won’t really justify the reality, but for now this is the treat ;) Here is the picturesque Kasol for you.

That’s the view you sit by and wonder, if it was a lie or did it actually happen.

Pretty pine trees by the mountains

I dream, just dream of a house like that. One day, I tell myself.

The most refreshing tea I have ever had. This mint tea took me back to Pratham cafe by the Parvati Valley. 
The owner plucked these mint leaves from his kitchen farm. 

Mom told me, hills are risky in the monsoons. Sure mom, they are. But that’s when I get to see them with their necklaces, clouds. :)

Ya, every corner, literally!!

Well, Bhuntar to Kasol was like moving in a wonderland. That was out of my bus window.

You wake up, walk by and sit by this tributary and think how should your day should look like :) Well, brilliant, ofcourse!

Also, some snow clad peaks peeping out.

IWalked back half way through this pine forest thinking it was never going to end and I would get lost!

S   Sigh, how my childhood scenery came alive.

The bed of fog over the valley, pinch me.

...and here’s yours truly at her happiest self just sitting by the Parvati Valley!

Kasol happened like lot of other places which  just happen to me, often. *wink wink* The universe conspires and takes me places mostly :) That’s something you start believing when you find yourself in places like Kasol.

Goodness I meet while traveling

If I had to tell you about my priority one love in life, it surely will be travelling, without a second doubt J

Being a female traveler in India, comes in a big package of some brilliant goods and little bad’s. 

Often everywhere we read and hear the bad ones usually rank high. But, I discover for myself every time on the road that the bad’s are just a tiny little percentage of the package.

One thing which never ceases to surprise me every single time is the goodness which is still so much present everywhere around. I realize the world and specially India is so very full of good people. People who go out of their way to share, help, care and cooperate. All it takes me is to reach out and ask. 

I have always noticed and now come to believe that the basic humans instinct is to connect with one another. It could be over something as simple as the color of the trees or maybe over the same brand of Decathlon bag on our shoulders while climbing a hill, which I just did half an hour back J We tend to connect and communicate, it’s innately present in the our human nature.

The goodness I discover everywhere just doesn’t find an end. It’s a constant which can be felt everywhere. The more one travels the more one discover that.

All we need to do is worry less, believe more and explore the goodness in ourselves and that of the people around J 

Well that was talking about the goods for the heart, here is what you get for the soul while wandering :)
Out of my cafe table right now.

Logging off from Mcleod Gang, India  J