Weak we are, and can not shun pursuit. --Shakespeare.

Time is 11.40 pm Christmas day in India. Today I am starting what is planned to be a weekly record of adventure activities I plan to undertake. While the title is meaty enough to warrant an adventure in the "Climbing Everest" category, but that would be hoping too much of a change, in a life, which has been generally urban and routine until now. A bit of pondering went into the title of this Blog. "Quest" sounded like a great title but there is no big quest in plan, perhaps I can hope for a future post worthy enough of this title. Wanted to keep the title simple and hence settled for "In pursuit of adventure".

The first thing that comes to ones mind with words like pursuit, adventure and quest is a much more basic human quality of curiosity. Observing a child quickly reveals that his curiosity helps him learn new things about the world around him. A world he needs to learn about for survival and for fun. The same curiosity is what grows with him and transforms in a search for goals, and achievement of those goals. The goals need not be big and striking, but one needs both simply achievable, and far fetched goals to keep life interesting.

When people can't find their next goal, life certainly gets boring and one gets restless to find something worthwhile to do. This makes people switch jobs for example, some people change cities and change professions. People are always in pursuit of better things and bigger goals. This is what keeps people interested in living I guess.

I am no sociologist to be an authority on this, but generally one can map the pattern of ones own life experiences with that of others and, one can consider the common characteristics as the general truth. Guess this makes sense.

To draw parallel to my life and something that every one who went to school might have felt, is a clear goal that every child has. That is to pass the next exam, and win the next game in sports. I rather not get into level of achievement in that goal, after all that is secondary. The official motto of my school for instance was "Run, then for victory", a school batch mate of mine interpreted this as "First run, and then run for victory". Victory was secondary, first run. So find a goal and go for it, of course pursuit of victory is what keeps one interested in going for the race for ones goal in the first place. But having got it, getting it matters less that running for it.

Then some goals are considered life changing and an absolute must to achieve. For instance passing the state board exams was considered more important. So passing the 10th standard exams and the 12th standard exams were life changing. 10th would be decision time to choose subjects for the next 2 years and 12th would be decision time to choose career and higher education.

Life is anything but boring in school at least. It is by far one of the most interesting periods in life. Same is said about ones college. College comes with its distinct advantage of freedom, and in my case, since I came from an all boys school, an opportunity for greater interaction with girls (how does ladies sound?).
One inadvertently likes one girl more than the rest and one hopes to see a reciprocity in the liking. Next goal, pass the subjects, win friends, play the games and then the goal to one day pop the question, "Girl, do you like me?". The words may never come out, many people never have the last goal in college which is the ideal condition to have. But some time or other you have to pop that question and face it too, whether the traditional way or any other. So a big goal in life is this and there is adventure in it too. Quite a life changing event, right? Another goal that many people have is buying/getting ones first motorbike/automobile.

The next life changing goal which college is meant to prepare you for, is choosing your career and getting ones first job. In professional colleges with the luxury of campus placements, the goal becomes getting job on campus. Some are more entrepreneurial and want to start on there own, and that is also quite a life changing decision.

I had and achieved most of the goals I mentioned above, missed out on two major life changing ones, and settled for alternatives available. But now three years in job, already life is looking boring and I see no new goal. This is how work life can get, and this ain't a great state to be in early in your career. This would be the time to take risks, and one can easily guess that work life is not really very different from your other life they are one and the same, one thing reflects on to the other. A happy work life reflects on you when you are not working, and how you spent your evening is likely to affect how you start your working day next morning.

It is Monday 26th 12.38 am already and this means my work time is only a few hours away.

To finally come to the main point. I want to add some outdoor adventure to my life. The next few months will go into preparation for it. Which means physical training. My house is luckily situated near one of the last remaining green areas in the city of Mumbai. This offers me an opportunity to add some cross country running to my training. Well a big adventure planned is that of bike rides to places around, in preparation for places afar. This Blog will cover/ track that and also help me be true to my goals, as they are now being tracked.