April 2nd, 2007
Thirty Things I Want to Do Before I’m Thirty
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Cross-posted as a guest-post on Melody’s blog.
The voice in my head is telling me that it’s time to begin a new life.
As I move into a new role at work, in a new financial year, almost thirty months away from my thirtieth birthday, my thoughts turn to the questions I have often asked myself -
- What is the purpose of my life?
- What do I really want to do with it?
- What will I leave behind when I’m done?
As always, I don’t have answers to any of these questions. I don’t know the purpose of my life, or what I want to do with it, or what I’ll leave behind when I’m done. What I do know is that I haven’t done enough with my life, not nearly enough.
Sometimes, I think of a fat, ugly, awkward twelve year old boy I once knew. He studied in a Hindi-medium government school at one godforsaken end of Patna, read Chacha Choudhary comic books in Hindi, and struggled to put together one sensible sentence in English. He wore thick glasses in a cheap plastic frame, hand-me-down ill-fitting too-short shorts, and white-and-blue rubber slippers from Bata. He watched Chitrahaar on Doordarshan and third grade Hindi movies on a black and white TV with his parents. He sucked at sports, stammered when he spoke to girls and was bullied by his classmates for being the teachers’ pet. That totally pathetic boy was me.
If you had told me then that, fifteen years later, I’ll have the life I have today, I would have looked at you blankly. Because I couldn’t have understood your English, or comprehended the world you were describing to me, or imagined how I would ever become the person you were telling me about. But I have become who I am, and, sometimes, I’m as bewildered by it as that boy would have been. Sometimes, I think that there’s enough in there for a book already, in my journey from that world to this. But, sometimes, I feel that I’m, in fact, standing in one place, staring at the hourglass that is my life running out of time.
So, I have decided to do more with the time I do have; the result is a list of thirty things I want to do before I’m thirty. The interesting thing about my 30 by 30 list is that every single thing on it looks impossible today. As impossible as being ‘the man I am’ would have looked to ‘the boy I was’ fifteen years ago. I’m putting the list up on my blog, on the 30 by 30 page, and will post about my progress on a weekly basis. In the worst case, I’ll give up on the list in a few weeks. Even if don’t, I’ll probably be able to do less than ten things on the list by the time I’m thirty. But, if I do manage to do all thirty, what a story it will be! So, even though I know that the odds are impossible, I’m doing it anyway, because, never again in my life, will I be young enough, or foolhardy enough, to even try something as insane. And, maybe, as I try to find ways to do these thirty things, I’ll also find the answers I’m looking for, by trial and error.
So, finally, without further ado, in no particular order, here are the thirty things I want to do before I am thirty -
- Publish a novel.
- Publish a best-selling management book.
- Publish an anthology of my poems.
- Publish a travelogue.
- Write a movie screenplay.
- Write a weekly column for a national newspaper.
- Host a talk show on TV.
- Put up a play at Prithvi Theatre.
- Put up an exhibition of my photography.
- Take Gauravonomics into the Technorati Top 100 list.
- Start my own web startup.
- Start my consulting practice.
- Teach at an IIM as a guest lecturer.
- Buy a house on Worli Sea Face.
- Buy a second weekend house in the mountains.
- Have assets of more than a crore.
- Run the full marathon.
- Climb to the Everest Base Camp.
- Scuba dive in the Egyptian Red Sea.
- Take a river cruise down the Amazon.
- Take a month off to backpack through Europe.
- Take a month off to drive around North America.
- Travel to at least thirty countries I haven’t visited before.
- Live in Europe for at least three months.
- Watch all the movies in the IMDb Top 250 Movies list.
- Read all the novels in the Time Magazine 100 Best English Novels list.
- Learn French and watch all of Francois Truffaut’s movies, without the subtitles.
- Learn Italian and watch all of Federico Fellini’s movies, without the subtitles.
- Learn Spanish and watch all of Pedro Almodovar’s movies, without the subtitles.
- Date Sushmita Sen.
Do bookmark my 30 by 30 page and return to see how I’m doing.
Wouldn’t have thought I’d say this but all the best!
And umm, also your 30-by-30 page isn’t acessible. Maybe you want to add ‘Get all tbe bugs off my blog’ to that list?
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@Ideasmith: Thanks for the wishes and the tip-off. The page was working, the link wasn’t.
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[...] Michael Hampton wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSo, I have decided to do more with the time I do have and made a list of thirty things I want to do before I’m thirty. The interesting thing about my ‘30 by 30′ list is that every single thing on it looks impossible today. … [...]
If that works out, most of the rest of the list will fall into place…
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Rani D (2 comments) Reply:
February 19th, 2009 at 4:09 am
No way, a house or even very small flat on Worli sea face, even in a recession will cost at least 3 crore (the top end ones will easily cross 40 crore).
So if you have a house on Worli Sea Face on your list, the one crore is superfluous…)
cheers
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@BB: Actually, no, it’s the other way round. The money will come only if the other things on the list happen.
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and just when I thought there was no mention of the love angle in all this (pretty accomplished there already, eh?)… you come up with Sushmita Sen!!!
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@Twilight Fairy: Well… you know me…
@Mel: Thanks, sweetie.
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best of luck dude!
yess!! the bare minimum! i’ve watched all the movies!
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[...] has made a list of 30 things he’d like to do before turning 30. He has about 30 months to do all of them, and he plans to post about his progress. Wish him [...]
I guess it would take quite some time to accomplish all that, good luck.
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Well,well…that is one ambitious list…I will follow closely so as to have the vicarious pleasure of doing all that is on your list!
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I’m happy to say that I’ve done at least one of these things!
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@Rossoneri: All 250 of them? I’m really impressed!
@Goli: I have given myself thirty months, so let’s see how it works out.
@CuriousCat: I’ll strive to maximize your pleasure, madam.
@ Avantika: Which one? Date Sushmita Sen? ;-
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If you do all these things before 30, your rest of the life is going to be pretty boring
BTW getting into the top 100 of Technorati isn’t as easy as it sounds. You might have to blog full-time if you want to get into the top 1000. Mind you, Technorati links last for only six months so whatever you do to collect links has to be done within six months.
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Rani D (2 comments) Reply:
February 19th, 2009 at 4:10 am
c’mon…you’ve obviously not read up the lives of the world’s billionaires…lots of steps more…
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@Patrix: I know.
But it cannot be more difficult than dating Sushmita Sen, eh?
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Heh. Nope, I think dating Sushmita might be easier.
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@Patrix: As I said, I’ll be happy if I even did ten out of thirty, but setting the bar that impossibly high always brings out the best in me.
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Hey. I used to love reading Chacha Chaudhary. Who can forget the man whose brain works faster than a computer (!) and Saboo, the chap from Jupiter? Nothing like a little unintentional humour to save the day.
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@Masquerader: I loved him too, but given a choice, would probably have preferred TinTin and Asterix.
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It takes a brave Bihari to let out those things in the open and striving to take a go at them. All the best.
Me too a displaced Bihari, staying in Navi Mumbai travelling to work in Mumbai for the last 5 years and generally being out of Bihar since twenty years. And being 12 years ahead/behind (I’m 39), I’ll have to think of 10 more~!! ( 40 at 40)
Happy to find yr blog.
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Thanks to Melody for hosting yr 30/30 post!
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@Ranjan: Both brave and foolhardy, no?
I think I’ll be going back to your blog frequently for tips on how to manage my money better.
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I am quite sure that you finish a lot of that list if you put your mind to it. As they say, a big part of the fun in any thing in life is in the pursuit. All the best..
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@Pratyush: It has started off well, so let’s see how far I can go with it. Thanks.
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[...] has been a week since I put up my thirty by thirty list, and already I have had some early [...]
[...] made a little list sometime back - ‘Thirty Things I Want to do Before I am Thirty’ - The interesting thing about my 30 by 30 list is that every single thing on it looks impossible [...]
BTW i used to find chacha chaudhury …..the thing abt a volcano bursting somewhr everytime sabu gets angry was amusing:)
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[...] post on the thirty things he wanted to do before he is thirty was a brave one. I wondered at his bravery and wished him all the best only to land up in trouble [...]
FYI,
Your post was picked up by us for AMUK AMUK podcast. Check it out here.
Regards,
Aditya
p.s: if you feel this is spam, please delete this comment. I wont be offended
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@Aditya: Hey! Thanks for including the post in your podcast. Will check it out later today. And, of course, your comment is not spam!
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[...] or by e-mail and you’ll never miss my poems, stories, or essays.It has been one year since I made my 30 by 30 list – So, I have decided to do more with the time I do have; the result is a list of thirty [...]
[...] have already met the fat, ugly, awkward twelve year old boy I once was. I studied in a Hindi-medium government [...]
im impressed…not by your list but definitely by your idea of knowing yourself better.
it is a really cool way to see what one wants from life…one day il try doing the same list…
thanx for enlightening me…
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[...] have been inspired to draw up this list by looking at a similar effort by Abhilash and Gaurav. Other than inspiration I also borrowed couple of rules from Abhilash’s post, they [...]