Shri TNC Rangarajan shares with us links to a specimen of an
ambitious Life List (goals you are fully committed
to accomplishing before a specific date), and his own Bucket List (things
you would like to do during your
lifetime).
The individual’s Life List includes: learn to fly a plane,
participate in a talk show, live in wilderness for some time, save a human
life, star in a commercial, etc. The aspirant fixes a deadline, 25 May 2017.
Some of Rangarajan-ji’s goals are: love and be loved; see
family happy, healthy and prosperous; have one healthy meal a day (a tall order
for me though); have one good belly laugh a day, etc.
Thanks TNC. With this wake-up call, I now switch my
allegiance from ‘Mind is the Worst Enemy of Man’ to ‘Mind is the Master of the Universe’, and set my own interim targets:
Going to bed half an hour late shall no longer constitute
a valid reason to skip next morning Kriya or walk for the lady of the house
(LOH) and me. Our morning walks, known to start on a happy note with mundane matters,
shall not hereafter gradually warm up into arguments, and end in a silent march
back home.
A full month in advance of our five-day family vacation to
beaches in Florida, we had suspended our regular visit to Santa Clara Senior
Centre for gym, swim, and spa. We will now resume it, and I will teach LOH what
I had learnt from my village pond – how to swim. Doesn’t matter, it will lack technical finesse. As we head
for Phoenix next month, she will be fully prepared to demonstrate to our elder
son her prowess, in the swimming pool of his newly acquired house. An occasion she is looking forward to.
A long stay in the US necessitates repeated visits to my
bank while in Bangalore. Hereafter, the fresh arrival of mouth-watering sweets
at Adayar Anand Bhavan, next door, shall not alter my resolve not to sneak in.
And in US, visits to Santa Clara Library shall not be designed to check out a
little before 3.30 pm, when Stan’s Donut shop, in front, closes for the day.
With our innate ‘weakness’ for visiting temples, I shall
persuade LOH to cover new temples, and not repeat the same temples. Badrinath,
Kedarnath, Vaishno Devi, Puri Jagannath, Dwaraka, Srisailam, are temples we
look forward to having darshan at.
That reminds me. Chanting of Vishnu Sahasranamam while still in the bathroom to
save time will stop forthwith. I will respect LOH that everything has a place,
and a place for everything.
Adaptability thy name, they say. Before dialing any 1-800
number, I shall rehearse my date of birth, residential address, telephone
numbers, or Social Security number, so that he/she no longer holds the line as
I rush upstairs to hunt from various locations. Also I shall memorize the new
equivalents: A for Albert, B for Bob, C for Charlie, instead of: A for Anoop, B
for Batra, and C for Chaturvedi.
V.V. Sundaram
17 March 2012
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