And Miles to go before i Sleep :
Of late, i have been pondering over the course of my life. On a personal front iam quite near to achieving whatever i had been dreaming of during my boyhood days. This leaves me in a peculiar stage in my life where my mind grapples with an unprecedented aimlessness which led me to do an introspection and ponder over what all i should do before it is time to bid farewell to this life. To be honest i never had real "Long" Term objectives in my life. I mean "Objectives" which are different from dreams and are accompanied by a desperate craving for them. The short term objective that i had in my mind is "almost" accomplished. God willing, things should all be hunky- dory in another year. What do i do then ? As a result of my ruminations during the silent long walks that i have been taking during the last couple of days, I have been able to enumerate several things that i need to accomplish in my personal and profesional life before i die. With due respect to life and acknowledging the fact that the almighty might call me back any moment, let me list a few things that i would like to achieve in the years ahead,(by the way, the terms God and Almighty that i have used here have nothing to do with any religion or school of thought. My beliefs are complex, unorthodox, private and are not confined to the boundaries set by both religion and rationality.)

So here i go,

Sailing : To some of the islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Cross desert Safari : Cross the Thar desert on a camel.
Play Squash
Learn Judo (I have learned elementary Karate)
Visit Tibet and spend a couple of days in a buddhist monastery
Trek in the Himalayas
Visit Kashmir/Ladakh
Experience Weightlessness.
Study at one of the best Business Schools in the World
Teach mathematics in Elementary school, High School and College
Get a Phd in Mathematics
Write a book on Mathematics.
Learn to play a musical instrument
Learn to Speak, read and Write in a foreign language (other than English)
Take a Rollercoaster ride. (Done : Six Flags, New York)
See a volcano
Possess a Chenda and Idakka.
Ride a horse.
See penguins in the wild.
Watch Whales.
Parasail
Travel in a helicopter
Go to Historicon (Done : July 2007)
Play a wargame with complete model set. (Done : SWA and Historicon 2007)
Visit the Taj mahal
Visit the Great wall of China.
Visit the Grand Canyon.
Visit Rome
Visit Wayanad (My wife loves Wayanad :-) )
Row along the backwaters of kerala on a small wooden boat.
Visit Sikkim and Meghalaya.
Visit Coorg.
Trace my roots as back in time as possible.
Visit the cellular jail in Andamans.
Be extremely well read in history.
Run a marathon for a cause.
Possess an SLR camera.
Possess a high definition Camcorder (Done...Bought Sony SR-11..60 GB hard drive, Hi- Def)
Possess a "VERY BIG" LCD HDTV and home theatre system ;-)
Have a short stint as a National Geographic Reporter.
Have a rich personal library. (In Progress..Right now I have 100 odd books and around 25 DVDs)
Go on white water rafting and ocean kayaking.
Go on a tour to Australia and New Zealand.
Shave my head once.
Visit Jallianwalah Bagh, Fort Sumter and Gettysburg.
Write a travelogue.
Sponsor an underprivileged kid all the way from kindergarten through college.
Establish or Work for an orphanage.
Live in a very remote indian village for a week.
Visit New York on a new year's eve.
Be good at programming in some exotic language.
Possess a huge collection of Folk stories from all over the globe.
Have a beautiful garden (where I'll name the various trees)
Talk on radio (I have participated and won a prize in a quiz conducted and aired by All India Radio in 1995)
Address a gathering of over 1000 people. (I have addressed a gathering of around 100).
Learn to meditate deep.

Well, now this makes me feel that life ahead is all packed with fun and adventure and great things to do. From a state of aimlessness i have moved on and now i see a long road ahead with milestones by the sides, stretching as far as my eyes can see.