Mind of my Stroked Brain

Sometime in 2015 (I think late 2015), I started saying a chant. I don't know if it is a chant/ sloka/ mantra/ prayer etc., I refer to it as a chant going forward. I started saying it. Once everyday definitely and sometimes more than once a day if I felt like it.  It was quite a long chant in Sanskrit with 185 stanzas if I remember correctly. I have heard many famous musicians recite it in many different ways. I had not liked any of them. There was one particular rendition I had liked a lot . It was very slow, very clear and he had a very good voice. That particular rendition took 42 minutes . At a regular pace and not loudly but a silent chant would take about 16-18 minutes for me. When I learnt it, i think it took me something like 2½ months to finally remember it and recite it in one go. When I started with it, it seemed like an impossible task. I think what helped was engaging as many senses as I could to make the impressions on my mind. I used to read it, play the chant on my p

" So it shall be written... So it shall be done!" Not my words. They are lines from a movie "the ten commandments" which was released in 1950s - much before I was born.  The lead cast was Charleston Heston (Moses), Yul Brenner (Ramses) and Ann Baxter (Nefertari). I feel it was ahead of other movies of that time - with regards to the visual effects and magnificence of the scenes. I watched it for the first time when I was in 8th standard (8th grade). Whilst I knew the English language, I was not very comfortable or confident with it. My thinking language all the years earlier had been kannada. So for some reason, I can't figure out why, the dialogues in that movie - especially those highlighted lines had an impact on my mind. It was a young adolescent highly impressionable mind at that time.. It was a very long movie - over 3 hrs. I don't remember exactly how long, but I am sure it was over 3 hrs as we bought the movie and it was the first movie we had bought

Couple of months ago, I had written about my amusing experience of my PEG tube falling out. A follow up of that was a write up of my experience getting a new one put in. Well guess what, I got a new one today as well. It was even more surprising... and amazing I must add. About 2 weeks ago, my PEG tube developed a leak. Nothing serious, the mouth of the tube and the cap were not closing "water tight". It started leaking at the rate of maybe 1 drop every minute. I wanted to see for some time whether it will become ok by itself. Wishful thinking - it did not. Very slowly was increasing. Maybe 3 drops every 2 minutes. So my wife asked her friend (an ex doctor - who had kindly arranged for everything previously at the hospital) what we have to do. She has clout in that hospital. She arranged for someone from the hospital to come home and check it out.  He came this morning. He said he was in the hospital procedure room when I was there. They all wear masks in the procedure room o

 There are 3 theories I am aware of with regard to how we evolved as species: 1. That it was a barren planet and one day couple of millions of years ago (or billions), by accident , a single cell figured out how to convert sunlight into its own energy and also by accident figured out how to divide itself and multiply. Many millions (or billions) of years of mistakes and many species evolved. We are one of them . 2. We were a barren planet and one day a meteorite crashed (it was very common millions of years ago with no atmosphere to burn it up). It carried with it cells with some degree of evolution on intelligence (DNA) and how to multiply and many species evovled from this seeding. It still took millions of years, but it had a leg-up in the process. 3. There are many (or one) superpower somewhere who designed the evolution and species and created all species according to that plan/ design. All 3 are very plausible theories and what we make our own is true for us. The thing I have rea

Every day, nowadays, I spend a couple of hours in front of the laptop. It doesn't have predictive typing and everything is so painful to type letter by letter. Takes forever. I keep cursing it and wishing it worked like my phone. However, for those few hours, I get used to the alt key, the control key, and very importantly, the tab key and delete key . I move back to my room later and back to using the mobile. While I love the predictive typing and suggested words, I keep cursing it for not having tab and delete key wishing it worked like that! Aaarrrhh!! It's so bloody frustrating. I think our minds are doomed with "grass is greener on the other side" mindsets!