Really? I don't think so!

It was only after I got to the ground that I realized the devious ways my Mum’s mind works in. Well, I shouldn’t have been surprised. She is after all MY mother! Mommy was totally pimping me out for all the eligible girls present there. Here’s how it worked. I was standing with my Dad on one side of the ground checking out the food stalls (obviously!). Ma goes about socializing and networking like she’s one of the girls from SATC. But truth be told, her hawk eyes were scouting for nubile, young women to pitch to me. And after she’s done with her recon mission, she calls me over and introduces me to her friends AND their daughters. She’s goes like, “Here is my son. Engineer. NRI. And doesn’t he look like Abhishek Bachchan?”. Obviously, she couldn’t tell me anything straight up, but one look in her eyes and I knew what her end game was. She’s cute na? She’s well educated, has a good job, comes from a good family and can cook! Why don’t you call her sometime? Of course, if she had it her way, she would have probably had me engaged then and there. Thankfully though, I managed to drag her by the hand away from all the madness. She was quiet, but her body language was yelling, “I AM NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER. I WANT GRANDCHILDREN! AND I WANT THEM NOW! THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, EVEN IF I HAVE TO KNOCK YOUR ASS UNCONSCIOUS AND MAKE YOU TAKE THE GODDAMN PHERAS”

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Morty & skydiver dude trying to be all cool for the camera

Mum once told me that to travel one needs to get 3 things right: the right age, the financial resources, and most importantly, the will to travel. So here’s a couple of things I believe I should definitely attempt before I get too old, go broke, or become too chicken for adventure.

Some day, perhaps!

I’ve always considered myself to be a water baby. Hence, its not surprising that topping my bucket list are a host of water based  activities. Scuba diving, surfing, snorkeling, diving with sharks are some of the things I’d love to try. The last one in particular. Considering that I’m not much of an animal lover and detest sea food (yes, a kalank on all of them Bongs out there), I think it would be interesting to live through the Jaws experience first hand. Step one for the aforementioned goal is already in the works. A trip to V’s Caribbean homeland, experimenting with T&T cuisine (which, I gather, is very much like Desi food, so I should feel just at home) and lazing on the beach, sipping on a Mojito, is step two. Step three: **gulp** stepping into a steel cage, descending down the clear blue waters, with sharks circling around me, and being terrified of being eaten alive by the very thing I came to see!

Sweet Lord, thats one gorgeous view!

Moving onto less dangerous, but equally incredible things to do! People who know me would agree that physically strenuous activities are really not my thing, but a man can dream, can’t he? I think that climbing to the top of the Pyramid of Giza would be super cool and would certainly make for interesting conversation on a date. Hot date: So Morty, what did you do last weekend? Me: Well, I was in Egypt and I climbed to top of the Great Pyramid of Giza with my buddies and had a beer. Hot date: **too stunned to say anything** I’ve always thought that Egypt is a country much like India. Steeped in mythology and culture and a fabulous destination for tourists. I really want to visit the place someday. Ever since Lucky Ali crooned O Sanam to that gorgeous woman in his video, I was convinced that Cairo/Egypt is one place I must go to. Standing on the top of the pyramid, would be one of the most breathtaking moments of my life.

This was just the tip of the iceberg. There’s the carnival at Rio, the touristy spots in Italy/Rome, the gondola’s in Venice, Kerala backwaters, Rajasthan, Ladakh,  and of course the millions of places I could visit in the US itself. My list could go on and on. The world is huge and we have so little time. A single lifetime simply isn’t enough to enjoy the beauty of this planet. Makes you realize how insignificant a part you are of this huge ass planet.