25 Before 25 | Make your own kind of Music

There’s this one small thing I have to do before this Sunday ends; 3.5 years ago I wrote a list of things I wanted to achieve and experience. And it was then when I promised myself that I will be spending the next two hours reliving my experiences.

Most of my friends are aware that I have themes for each year, it’s the jazzy version of a vision. My themes for previous years:

2010:  #IgottaFeeling

2011: Travel

2012: Don’t settle for anything less. Period

2013: Make life an offer that even life cannot refuse. Read more: 2013

2014: Attitude and Fortitude to make the impossible, nothing! Read more: 2014

These past 5 years have been an amazing journey for me; of course, there were both good times and bad times but I always felt content of who I was at the end of every year.

Following are the 25 things I wanted to do before I was 25: (these were written in April 2011)

1. Visit 25 Countries before I am 25.

I did 21 Countries (but I have been to China – Twice, Hong Kong – Thrice, Malaysia – Gazillion times) So I guess, it’s a GREEN.

2. Visit Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, Colombia & Nepal.

Egypt, Indonesia, Japan — Done | Brazil, Colombia and Nepal — To be continued 😉 — Amber

3. Walk on the streets of NYC and SING..”When your in NEW YORK” after getting super drunk at a cheap bar

Fail (I never visited NYC) – RED

4. Go to South Carolina and play on the River Court of One Tree Hill Or Meet anyone ONE TREE HILL Character.

Fail (I never did go to the US) – RED

5. Trend a Topic On Twitter.

Done. #BigLilCity 😉  – GREEN

6. Appear live on Radio or Television.

Done. Big 92.3 FM, Baroda, 2012. — GREEN

7. Have a draft of my first novel/book ready. May be published?

Done. You might wanna buy it from Amazon 😉 – The Creed of Julian Dalbert | 2nd book in progress. — GREEN.

A Manifesto

8. Have two degrees/diplomas and be enrolled for the Third.

Well, I have one degree now. Technically, I’m also enrolled to a Masters in Mass Communications and Journalism 😛 — Amber.

9. Have Read over 150 Novels/Books since 2010.

I think I’m on 139th of something; I really do not have an exact track — Amber

10. Contributed to at least three different  social causes.

Done. Child Rights (Worked for Smile Foundation), Peace (volunteered for Aman Ki Asha), Women Sexual Empowerment (An Anthology coming soon) — GREEN

11. Still be best friends with Ayushee Mishra.

I guess, I’m 😉 — GREEN

12. Learn at least one Foreign language.

Fail. I do know some Chinese words? XiaXia ? No. — RED

13. Take my parents on a trip abroad or Call them to wherever I am | Make parents proud of who I am today.

They will always be proud of who I’m. — GREEN

14. Have a project in the market of my own. Can be a fully owned website (blog) or an app or anything.

I have four blogs, one website, one book on Amazon, few blackberry themes with 100k downloads — GREEN baby!

15.<Encrypted> (some wishes cannot be public, you see)

Ssshh. Let’s quietly mark it, Amber.

16.After a special Success, Get Drunk, Get Wet and Dance on the song “Stand up for the Champions”with my special people.

Done. Like many times! — GREEN

17. Have had Worked for at least two amazing companies.

Done. ONGC, Electrolux — GREEN

18. Play full 18 holes of a Golf Course with Dad. Possibly hit a birdie

I was freaking ambitious back then wasn’t I? — RED

19. Have had achieved all levels of  Maslows Hierarchy.

GREEN (Of course Duh!)

20.  Celebrate at least one festival( each year) back home. Have a amazing family time.

Holi – 2012, Holi 2013, Diwali 2013 — Check — GREEN.

21. Skydive, scubadive, Infinity pool, Bungee Jumping, Submarine ride,  a one day trek, learn how to drive a car, Hot air balloon. Do at least ( 5/9)

Hot air balloon, Infinity Pool, Bungee Jumping, One day trek — Check. Others, to be continued! — Amber.

(Yes, I do not know how to drive a car)

22. Attend Ocktober Fest or Sunburn or A Halloween Parade or The Famous Brazilian Parade.

Fail. But I did attend ZoukOut (similar to SunBurn) –to be continued — RED

23. Go on a crazy road trip with friends and Go to Wagah Border (and Golden temple)

Done. Road Trip to Amritsar, Roadtrip in Malaysia. — GREEN.

24. Get hair cuts in Random countries.

Done. Egypt, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia. — GREEN.

25. Stand at one of my favorite places in the world and read this list on 17th March 2014. Mark it Red, Yellow, Green

Sitting can? It was a long list. Yes, I’m at one of my favorite places in the world, Bishan Park (Singapore). — GREEN

Clearly, my past 3 years didn’t really work out as I thought they would (most of it did right?) but you know what, it’s doesn’t matter anymore. I perhaps did 25 things which I never thought I would do, I perhaps experienced many more awe-inspiring experiences that I could have never thought of.

I think it’s amazing to plan and experience how your life unfolds (and I will soon be writing by 30 before 30) but it’s also important to understand whatever happens we must learn to enjoy.

I know next five years might bring some real though times but I guess I’m ready because I have the attitude and fortitude to make any impossible, nothing

Baroda Gang

Japan

Cambodia

Singapore

China

Indonesia

Kenya

Egypt

Malaysia

Malaysia

Singapore

Daman

You gotta make your own kind of music 😉

You can read the raw text written years ago here: 25 Things before I’m 25 (you would need a password)

What makes you feel complete? A travel journal.

Love is that distinct memory from your past that once made you feel complete.

And I have tons of those; like the one…when I was eating Butterscotch Ice cream and walking hands in hands with a girl in the middle of a basketball court of some university in Nairobi,Kenya. I ended up playing a  basketball game with some really cool Kenyans 🙂

Or the time I drove us (on a motor bike) from District 1 to District 7 of Ho Chi Minh City at roughly 2:30 am in the night after consuming at least few liters of beers, a sheesha and few 30ml Whiskey on the rocks.  Trust me, I didn’t feel an inch of alcohol in me, I was rather high with the idea of falling in love with her. (Please don’t drink and drive)

I can list them all but that’s exactly not the point; I recently lost my travel diary of 2013, I had traveled to 7 countries last year and had documented every amazing memory in that shiny bundled bunch of paper but now it’s all lost. It did make me feel a little sad but eventually I realized I have them all right here in my head and if not the head, it’s in my heart.

I will start writing a new travel log diary for 2014 and I will keep blogging my stories but that won’t change the fact that every legendary memory of love will be written in ink straight into the hard coded memory of my heart.

Because it was these moments when I felt complete and it’s these moments I would like to think about before it all ends.

Wanna be Ranbir Kapoor.

The other day my friend left me an angry message on Facebook. Her anger was justified, I didn’t wish her on her birthday ( yet again).

She considers me one of her best friends, I do the same but I guess with me, the definitions, names and terms die with time, all that is left is a faint memory of my valuable past.

After listening to my stupid excuse that I was traveling, she asked me whether I was a ‘wanna be Ranbir Kapoor’ of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani?

Cliche but may be true.

I reverted back with yet another stupid reasoning that Mr. Bunny is not what I want to be but Mr. Bunny is who I was in the year 2009; implying that I have ‘been’ dreaming like ‘him’ since I first got the fever of traveling back then.

But this thought or the idea of ‘being him’ has been plundering my head since then…I think it’s not just me, our world, our generation wants to travel to breathe; they want to live it out loud, discover cultures, take that one year break out of their to life to discover nature, the world as we see of it.

We want to fly.
We want to run.
We are okay to fall.
We just don’t want to stop.

So, we might not look like him (for sure :P) or dance like him; or we might not even wanna be like him but we all, and trust me when I say this, we all, want to discover the world just like him.

My Cambodian Travel Experience

For more travel posts: Fortitude & Choices

Bintan; Checklist Prodigy of 40.

Most of us; at least the sane ones have a checklist for almost everything. Whether it be planning their family life, their career, their baby’s career or their holiday…there’s always a checklist. I had a similar checklist for my last weekend.  This weekend involved a little bit of IT, literature, art, cooking, traveling, discovering, developing, flirting and of course Drinking. It also involved a trip to Bintan. I will post more about the Bintan trip in my later posts for now if you want to read what I predicted about out trip, check out my previous blog post here: Bintan; Eve’s Reality and a Parallel Universe.

Now the checklist:

Legend     

Check: Achieved

Oops: Fail

Sort Of: Partially achieved or attempted

 

1.  Send an email to everyone in the office (over 170 people) introducing myself as, ” Hi, My name is Gaurav and I will be your…” – CHECK.

2.  Publish my first work on Kindle (Amazon) – CHECK.

3. Stand on the lower deck of a ferry with a German and a Brit friend looking at the Sunset over Singapore while the ferry crushes it’s way through the South China Sea. – CHECK.

4. Meet a random Israeli-American and doubt him to be a spy – CHECK.

5.  Enter a shop, flirt with the cashier (female) and buy an entire crate of Beer – CHECK.

6.  Try  talking to an Indonesian in English in an Italian Accent – CHECK.

7. Take a Roadtrip from South-West Coast of an Island to the North-East Coast of the island with the moon rising from the sea on your right – CHECK.

8. Stay two nights in a wood house built right at the edge of the sea on the beach with coconut and papaya trees around – CHECK.

9.  Eat Mee Goreng for breakfast, lunch, dinner – CHECK.

10. Swim 200 meters into the sea in search of a football (buoy) while the full moon shines bright over you – CHECK.

11.  Play “Paintball” with “Electric Eels” in a group of 8 amazing people just because one of them confused ‘a thin long tree leaf’ to be an  Electric eel. – CHECK.

12. Run after a live cock (with intentions of eating it) with a Swiss knife (Cock = Male Version of Hen) – Sort Of

13. Carry a magnetic compass throughout the trip and check for direction every time we take a turn. Being John Locke, #Lost – CHECK.

14. Live without Blackberry, 3G or Wifi for 3 days,  2 nights – CHECK.

15. Buy Cheap alcohol from duty free like I buy coke from the super market. – CHECK

16. Live without Twitter for 3days, 2nights – CHECK.

17. Sleep on a Banana leaf  under an umbrella on the beach with Shades on – CHECK.

18.  Take showers (and poop) in  wooden toilets with no door locks, no flush – CHECK.

19. Compliment a girl to “keep her hair down” (open) (in bollywood style) and making sure she keeps it like that throughout the entire trip – CHECK.

20. Play football with the football player – CHECK.

21. Run on a beach while  a Nazi chases you with a thick wood excavated from the sea – CHECK.

22. Look for sea urchins to step over – Oops.

23. Catch live sea food like jelly fish – Sort of.

24. Cook food for 9 people over a beach fire using Aluminum foil – CHECK.

25.  Climb a papaya tree, grab the papaya fruit and cut it open with a Swiss knife in bollywood style – CHECK.

26. Compare Indian wedding with a Taiwanese Wedding – CHECK.

27. Swim to a random abandoned fishing boat and try to steal it – Sort Of

28. Sing the Mr. Lobo Lobo song throughout the trip just because the owner of the place was called Mr. Lobo. – CHECK.

29. See a bitch deliver puppies – CHECK. Sort Of.

30. Eye flirt  (and eye talk) with a random Indonesian women over lunch – CHECK.

31. Wake up Eve in the morning – CHECK.

32. Take a dip in the sea every hour. – CHECK

33. Manage to bargain and get a discount of 5000 Indonesian Rupiah on your massage after flirting with the manager. – CHECK.

34.  Play a non-stop nonsense rhyme game with beers somewhere in the South China Sea. – CHECK.

35. Wake up at 7:30am to see the Sun rise from the Sea. – CHECK.

36. Watch a RED Full moon emerge from nowhere in the sea with a clear  thick red reflection in the sea – CHECK

37. Run half nude along the sea while a lighting thunder storm hits the coast with really high wind speed. – CHECK

38. Be called “Hard” and “Handsome” by a 48 year old female masseuse. – CHECK.

39. Stand ‘proud’ next to a trash of 132 beer cans consumed over 2 nights, 2 days – CHECK.

40. Listen to RadioActive – ImagineDragons and write the above – CHECK.

That was my Checklist Prodigy of 40. Will write more (and post pictures) about Bintan in the coming posts: Shady shack, The Red Moon, Eve & Adam, Ships in the Sea and The Bintan.

(The list is in no specific order)