At 40!!

Imagine this….A cold December night…a bunch of friends for life, sipping hot tea (or whatever drink that is perceived as “hot”, I am teetotaler and l love tea, hence that is the only hot drink that comes to my mind), sitting around a bon fire, in a desert on a sand dune, a full moon smiling in its resplendent glory, laughing their hearts out at the stupid things that they did, and generally having a great time!! Even if I just share this thought with my pals, whose acquaintance to just friends to great friends over a span of 16 years, they would instantly set the plan rolling out, and an avalanche of mails would be exchanged, before the very idea would die down because of lack of time for each one of us, office pressures, no leaves, pressing family issues, small kids, EMIs… the list goes on!! Many such ideas have surfaced, evoked much response, but have never gone beyond the discussion stage, mainly because of the petty problems mentioned before. 

Hence, I have put a target to myself, that at the age of 40 I should be sufficiently equipped with all the boxes ticked, so that I can embark of few such journeys! Why 40? I feel that’s the age when you would be sufficiently pocket heavy, not too old for a trek, would have less pressing family issues, (yes office would be an issue…but I really wish I would be able to take a sabbatical from this mundane life) etc. If we are lucky enough we may be able to do this even before, but I guess, by and large around the age of 40 this should be achievable. However, just like Tom Hanks so beautifully says in Forrest Gump, “Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you get, when you open one!!”, who knows, all the predictions of this end of Mayan calendar signaling the end of mankind, may come true, and we may not even be present to celebrate the new year!! Barring calamities, it should be possible to achieve this on a regular basis every year starting from 40, if it’s before that age, it would be awesome, but somehow I feel 40 is the right age. 

With few pals of mine, who from being casual acquaintances have grown over to being a part of my life, who have been with me through thick and thin, would feature in most of these trips. Ideally I would like to have at least one all men trip every year (once in 6 months would be splendid, but unrealistic!!). Since the fairer genders of our respective families have grown to be quite a company together, I also expect them to feature in the couple of trips with the families as well. Ideally, the all men trip should feature one small trek, a grand dinner and at least one “sitting” session in the open, under the full moonlight. Bring in the women, and the small trek would be in a shopping mall, a “sitting” session would be, waiting in the lounge for the women while they shop endlessly, the grand dinner would be monitored for the extra servings of the paneer, or the dessert that we take (It’s all out of their love and concerns for our health, that they do this, nothing against the women in our lives!!). Hence, it is better to compartmentalize things in life, so that you are sure of what to expect and what not to expect!

I sincerely wish that I would be able to succeed in embarking this trip at least once after 40, because ZNMD!!!

A[V]I

Note : Just as I was writing this, I thought some serious application software developers could come up with a Trip Planner software, akin to MPP which is more commonly used, I would give my start and end date for the trip, my desired destinations, my budget and the software would plan out my itinerary the ideal places to visit, my accommodation. I am not an up to date software geek, hence not sure, if someone has already written such a planner. But if nobody has written it, I hope someone who gets to read this blog, strikes an idea and develops one such software, probably patent it one day!!!