Of Lists and Tick marks

list (n.) A series of names, words, or other items written, printed, or imagined one after the other.

Now, there are various ways in which you can split the entire world into – land and water, men and women, young and old, honest and dishonest, developed and under-developed, fatsos and skinnies, winners and losers, hunters and hunted, light and dark, us and them, good and evil, heck even Made-in-China and not Made-in-China and so on. However, in my opinion, the entire world is divided into two distinct sections - those who create lists and those who don’t.

Well, I claim ignorance about you, but I am officially besotted with creating lists. A list for everything and everything in a list. Welcome to the structured way of life. Write it on a piece of paper, remove it from your system RAM and do the task only when it needs to be done. No need for expensive stress buster therapies at a later point in life. Not sure how the non-list-creating populace keep innumerable things in their head (unless they have an elephantine memory). Surely they must be forgetting some things altogether. Even slipping on tasks or brushing some under the carpet.

I am sure most people are into the habit of making grocery shopping lists (to remind the husband to buy soy sauce too along with the tissues and spinach and 157 other things), but I have not seen many extending this concept into other areas of their life. How about things-to-do-for-weekend list, the weekly lunch planner, the never-forget-another-birthday list, the elaborate-affair-of-a-gala-dinner list, the things-to-do-before-you-die list, the eateries-to-visit list, the books-lent list, the dues-to-pay list, the songs-to-download wishlist et al?

I like to think that the real list-o-maniac prefers the real handwritten lists to the virtual excelsheets. Though you can sort and do all sorts of things with the excelsheets, the satisfaction, the euphoric feeling that you get on completing a task and putting that all-important physical tick in the box on a real list is divine. And if you are smitten like I am, you can sometimes finish the tasks first, add them to the list and and then promptly tick it off. Now that's what I call a real indulgence.

Well, I am delighted that I have completed and published this blog post. Now excuse me please, I have a task to tick off.