The Bucket list

Watched "The Bucket List" starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. Its a sweet movie about two terminally ill cancer patient Carter Chambers (Freeman) and billionaire hospital magnate Edward Cole (Nicholson) both of whom meet in the hospital after both have been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Carter makes a "Bucket List" of things that he wants to do before he 'kicked the bucket'... This gets Edward Cole interested and he also adds his list of things that he wants to do before he dies... What ensues after that is an exciting trip of adventure and self discovery for both the men which left me half laughing, half crying...

The movie has a lingering effect on the audience in the sense that it compels you to think... 'that if it was your last day and you had umpteenth thing that needs your attention... things you always thought you could do but never could get yourself down to doing it.. the numerous thing that you wanted to say to your loved ones which has been left unsaid till now.. the piece of your mind which you always hoped to give your half sadist half paranoid boss before you kiss your job goodbye... et al et al...

Haven't all of us had such a long list of things which all of us wanted to do?

As for me its definitely a yes... So here goes my "Bucket List' of things that I would like to do (not necessarily in the same order) before providence decides to call it a day for me...

• Go on a world trip to all the scenic beauty I have seen only in pictures and experience them first hand
• Conquer my perennial fear in maths and become a maths genius
• Turn around the clock and be able to express my love to what could have been my 1st love
• To be able to experience just one golden days of my childhood if I could
• Have a villa at the top of the highest point at Mahabaleswar
• Own a black Scorpio with mind blowing music system
• Do my MPH at Johns' Hopkins (not that I can not but only if it is my last few days)
• To be known as a good human being even when I am gone

I know the list is endless but then can any body have a hold on the wishes that one can make... especially if it is your last few days of your human existence on this earth...

The best thing I liked about the movie is the conversation that Carter and Edward Cole has atop a pyramid in Egypt in which Carter says that the Egyptian have a belief that when they die and go to meet their creator they are asked 2 questions before they are admitted in to heaven:

Q.1. "Did you have joy within your life time?"
Q.2. "Did you bring joy to people within your life time?"

What a symbolic way of squeezing the entire life's existence in to 2 such simple yet loaded question... whether you got joy out of what you did and were you instrumental in bringing joys to people around you..

When I think deeply, that's what life entirely is... getting joy and giving joy.. and the foremost thing that ensures that you get joy is by giving joys to others which ensures that what you give away to others comes back to you in manifold...