More than a to-do, for your every day

Images: Rohit Pillai
Text: TLJ

Almost all bucket lists involve some or all of these things: travelling to an exotic and far-off place, listening to favourite artist perform live, or doing an adventure sport. For the simple reason that these have all been told so many times and in so may different ways, in this issue of TLJ, we tried to find bucket list stories that did more, had more.

We looked out for these stories for over a month and reached out to a whole lot of people. With some of those who agreed, we even nudged them to dig deeper and think of things on their bucket lists that they haven't thought of again, looked back at, or are still hesitant to follow through for whatever reason (starting with "maybe it isn't too bucket-list-like?").

In essence, this is an issue full of those rare, life-long wishes that just don't get articulated often enough.

What struck us though, while putting all of these stories together, is the sheer number of 'simple' things that sneak their way into a list that's usually accorded a larger-than-life status. Maybe some are obvious (in a worse-case scenario, trite too, perhaps) but they bring with them a sense of contentment, an inner quietness that can't be explained in words.

It is in this context that Rohit's photographs become an indispensable part of TLJ's issue 8. They serve as reminders that the apparently 'common' things can indeed hold pride of place in a list that tells you life's short, and that you have to go get the big things before you kick the bucket. Regardless of the length of it, there's a whole lot of things you *must* do before the said bucket-kicking, without them being necessarily exotic, big, important, or social-media-friendly.

Here's to those work-in-progress items on your bucket lists, those that speak to you everyday.

Go back to school, even if it's been years since you graduated