Mind of my Stroked Brain

 I was recently chatting with someone who said "have faith in God he will make things ok definitely".  In that context they were referring to life in general, but I am very intimately familiar with this advice, especially after my stroke - referring to both general and particular things. "Have faith in God, he will make things alright", "have faith in a particular God and  ​you  will become alright", "trust in God and you will speak again", etc, etc. Everyone - family, friends, well-wishers, nurses, even my doctors have said it at many stages. Curious though - approximately > 90% of them have referred to God as a "He". I don't know why and what drives the certainty about the "he"...  Usually, if they are from a generation older, the advice is not unconditional. It will be followed by "say some chant X times everyday" , "say some prayer everyday", " do something everyday", etc . One thing is

I have shared sometime back about my current thinking about God. When I was young, maybe till end of school, God was what was told all along by everyone around and there was a faith. Blind maybe, but there was a belief. The usual visits to temples, rituals, ceremonies, etc. There was a sort of unquestioning compliance if you will. I think in college days, it was a very distracted time and distanced/ avoided topic. I think some kind of faith existed but was neither expressed or relied upon. I think early adulthood - maybe a decade and half at least, there was no belief or questioning. Just leading a life seperated from such beliefs. I think this was also the time when a lot of rationality and practicality set in. Maybe 3-4 years before my stroke, a sort of curiosity and questions arose. None of them found an answer but it made me pursue things and stuffs that are usually grouped under the broad definition of "spiritual" pursuits. And then my stroke happened. Many thoughts and

Yesterday, we briefly lost our dog! That must sound very funny - we normally use a dog to find things we have lost! 🙂 Anyway, we stay in an apartment - well above ground.  She is very much a home dog - since it is an apartment and nowhere to go. She is quite cuddly with known folks but very loud and fiesty with strangers. When she gets to go for a walk, it is strictly on a leash. I imagine her wondering where everyone goes everyday for hours. Her world starts at ends around the apartment complex with her walking rounds. She may be concluding we humans are totally mad to go out often for the same rounds for hours. It is understandable she is curious, wondering if there is more to the world. Naturally, whenever we open the front door, she rushes out, sniffs frantically around the lift lobby and runs back inside into the safety of her kingdom. Yesterday late afternoon (probably around 3pm), we had a few folks over and in the commotion had left the front door open. I don't exactly k

The "Matrix" franchise has come out last year with their latest movie - 22 years after the first instalment in 1999. I think there may have been books and similar themed movies earlier, but the matrix probably had the most mass audience impact. It was probably the first mind-bending concept of people living in a made up world in their minds, while physicall living somewhere else. 22 years in a long time. There have been several other similarly themed ones after.... Why do we think so however? While everything around us seems real enough, we do have a constant suspicion that we are in a made up world. If so; who would make up the world for us? I mean, who is easy to speculate - has to be someone we can't understand/ comprehend - a God is the usual culprit. But "why" though? I can't think of anything worthwhile from these bodies (assuming the real physical body resembles this). It could be vastly different - I don't know. 🤷🏽‍♂️ I think we don't need

From the time of the stroke (from when i could think straight at least), till sometime ago ( maybe for 18 months atleast), I was dogged all the time about whether it was some orchestrated moment or just some random occurance, just bad luck or something else which I can't even think about. The frank answer, after a lot, and its a lot of thinking, is I'm not really sure. I have always felt just absence of evidence for one doesnt automatically prove the other. I have kinda been sure all along that Gods, at least the way it usually is propagated, and religions are all crafted up stuff. It was needed to bring about compliance to build up civilizations and organised societies. I guess that time is over. Long back in fact... The other angle is considering it's all random.. everything is a combination of natural and artificial selection and we have today. However, there is too much detail in everything natural to simply consider it random. It's a possibility, but with very less