Mind of my Stroked Brain

You may have heard of Phantom - Phantom of the limbs i.e. Phantom limb is a syndrome felt by many who have lost a limb. Could be a hand or leg - which has been lost in war, accident or something else and had to be amputated. Basically they sometimes feel the lost limb - strange feelings in the limb or pain in the limb, etc - even though the limb is not there. Its not an easy problem to solve - how can we cure a hand or leg that is not there. It happens because the nerve endings of the lost limb, where it is amputated, sometimes send vague messages up to the brain. The person does not see the limb, so their mind agrees but the brain is still seeing the limb sometimes because it is getting signals. It is a very confusing feeling when the mind and brain don't agree . I don't know Phantom, but I am very familiar with his alter-ego. I have two limbs and various pieces of real estate on my body which are his home. Take my right hand as an example. I can see it . I can touch it with m

Once in a while, I entertain myself interacting with chatGPT from open AI. It has been a while - it doesn't allow me to login as it is always overloaded. Today morning, I got an audience. Couple of days back - somebody who I know had informed me that they were anaemic . So I thought I'll ask it what would be good to eat. I asked a fairly loose question and it replied with some loose information. I realised this person does not have meat. So I changed the question to a more specific one.  __________ Q> What vegetarian food can we eat to increase hemoglobin ? I expected a vague answer like earlier. However, this is what I got: A> To increase hemoglobin levels, you can eat foods rich in iron, vitamin B12, and folic acid. Some vegetarian options that are high in these nutrients include: Iron: Spinach, kale, Swiss chard, collard greens, dried apricots, raisins, fortified cereals, legumes (lentils, chickpeas, beans), tofu, tempeh Vitamin B12: Fortified plant-based milks and br

Couple of days back - I was chatting with a good friend of mine. I was told we become wise, like "really wise" only when we turn 50. I was very thrilled - I will find real wisdom in a couple of years. (I can't help but imagine that "inner peace" moment in kung fu panda 🙂) I was intrigued by it though. What was the reason behind the milestone... A few more exchanges - I still did not get what I was looking for. But I could feel the conviction in the messages. So, I thought about it as well. This is what I think it is (I may not be entirely right but it is what I think): I think we all tend to lead most of our lives like it will go on forever. Anything we have to do, want to do, can do now - can always be done later also. It somehow seems there is a lot of time. Life is ahead of us not behind to keep looking in the rear view mirror.  At some stage a switch comes on. I think it is a combination of age, general health, general strength and most importantly - some e

6th February back again!  4 years today. 1,460 days (1,461 actually - leap year inbetween 🙂) Why does it seem to me like 4y is a long time but 1,461 days feels less? Seemed like it last year too. I don't know if others feel the same thing. It's my 4th Strokeversary as referred to in our the Stroke Support Group that I am part of ... It's actually the 4th death anniversary of mine.  It is also the 4th birthday of mine...  "The king is dead, long live the king" types... Worried about the 2nd part of that slogan becoming real though.... I am a strange being with the mind of a 47y+ old and the body of a 4y old...  So how was last year for me? Physically speaking, going in the right direction. Extremely extremely slow, painfully slow, frustratingly slow - but the needle is moving and moving in the right direction. The only gauge where the needle has not moved (moved in the wrong direction actually) is with swallowing. Big one that! Unfortunately there has been no enco

It is common understanding that we don't grow up till about 18-21 years, although we physically develop and for all practical purposes consider ourselves grown by 13-15. Whilst the body is developed, our mind is still growing. This is not my thinking but recognised by many systems and philosophers world over. Which is why, most of the world agrees that "Adult" is 18 and in most places marriage is legal only after 21 (when we are capable of handling the responsibility it brings with it). However, I think (and I don't know if I am right), I feel another person is still developing then. I would like to call him my conscience (him/ her/ whatever - I think mine identifies himself as a him 🙂) I feel he does not develop fully till he gets enough life experience - maybe till atleast late 20s or early 30s at least. He is like the nose and ears - doesn't stop growing . Every bit of life experience adds to his wisdom. After sometime, he becomes my personal advisor on life -

I have one news channel or the other switched on most of the waking time on the TV - not because I like to watch so much news, it's a kinda a constant noisy company I don't have to pay attention to. All the news channels I watch are live streaming news on YouTube. On cable, we have regular commercial breaks. This is sponsored advertising by brands. They are paid for only for displaying the ads on the cable format and not on streaming. The channels don't want to display it free on streaming format. So I have the pleasure of watching "fillers" at those times when the channel is on ad breaks. These "fillers" are things like weather, political messages, political cartoons or something else to propagate something. I watch a channel "WION" regularly. Their filler of choice is a snippet regarding climate change where different climate activists are screaming themselves hoarse - saying it is critical we act and act now. I get to hear this (as I am not

I have been interacting with chatGPT (open AI) recently. I am reasonably aware of technology. I am certainly not an expert but I don't consider myself "technology illiterate". I find it remarkable. A little beyond remarkable actually... If someone is not technology literate, it is nothing short of pure magic! I know I am suffering from the novelty factor and the feeling will wane, but I am stumped by the capability. I am not very sure if it is a good thing for us though. It certainly is a very brilliant tool which can be very useful, but will we end up using it at the cost of our development. I know, I know, why did we have to build and use calculators when log scales did the job. I get the argument. I however feel the earlier advances gave us productivity but this one - while giving enormous productivity will do so at the expense of retiring our brains. Yes, it has happened many times earlier. Earlier we could remember phone numbers, significant event dates, appointments