Mind of my Stroked Brain

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." "If you can dream it, you can do it." And my personal favourite "Live your life today like there is no tomorrow." These are just a few samples of a million more that we constantly see. In chats, in groups, in emails, every form of social media, etc. They are all very beautiful and very powerful. Most of all, it's all in very simple language. Not cryptic. Not things we can't understand. Yet, life goes on, as it were mostly. One of my friends, recently, was trying to make a similar point and quoted J Krishnamurthy as saying, 'we can only know if someone has understood something if it leads to a change in their behaviour.' We all know and understand basic concepts in mathematics. But how many of us use it in our personal liv

Few days back, I had a few friends home, and I was witness to a hilarious conversation One of them, let's call that person A, is very logical, rational, practical, spiritual (in a non traditional way) and is ready to accept iffi stuff as long as there is a logical explanation or proof. B, is also logical, rational, practical, is spiritual but is more open to accept various possibilities. I don't remember how the conversation got there, but it was very amusing to listen to both points of view about the famous Double split experiment where a particle changes its behaviour between a particle and wave, based on whether it is observed or not. The hilarious part was, just like the experiment, the same observation was deduced by A as supporting a scientific knowledge of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and B used the same observation to support the proof of energy in spirituality to accept various possibilities. The irony was so funny. Then the conversation came finally to Godme

Few days back, one of my nurses, who is a non-vegetarian, asked me if eggs were vegetarian. I didn't know how or what to answer. So she asked our nanny/ housekeeper as to if we are vegetarian then how come there are eggs in the house? My other nurse chipped in, and very confidentiality stated that eggs were vegetarian. I was surprised with her conviction for it's a fairly debated topic. So I dug around online a little bit. Summary below: Eggs are definitely not vegan, as it an animal product. They are not considered Satwik in traditional categorisation.  If we go with a strict thinking that non vegetarian being anything alive before landing up on the table, eggs don't fit the bill. There was no life in the farmed eggs as these eggs are unfertilized. Roosters are not let anywhere near the hens. They are just laid by hens everyday, fertilized or not.  Gross warning: There are lots of debates online, whether its a cycle and can be considered as a hen's period. Well there

Some of you have remarked sometimes on something I have written, as it was very nice or conveyed something well, etc. So I thought I should throw some light on it... In the very initial days, I think around Sep of 2020, I was started to be able to type using my 1 finger. Very strenuous and painful. After a few words, the finger would stop moving or not moving where I wanted it to. So I had to conserve the energy for important things (mostly instructions to Chitra) and a few pleasantries if possible. I was staying in the hospital too. So, mostly it was enquiries and instructions. Maybe by Oct mid, I could write a couple of sentences. That is when I started to write a few things. Then I quickly realised it's not possible for me to type out something fully in one shot. There is no possibility of keeping something as draft in WhatsApp. After losing something which I had painfully typed, I realised it was a bad idea to compose in WhatsApp. So,  Gmail to the rescue... It saves draft aut

Every afternoon I struggle. I am fed some fluid (juice or soup or just warm water) orally. They give it in a small spoon, not full, just half spoons. It may be about 3-4ml each time. However, I am unable to swallow it. It invariably goes into the wind pipe, causing a violent cough and struggle and most days I am unable to withstand it and we stop after a few spoons. For an effective swallow, 1. The morsel of anything (called bolus) needs to be encapsulated and pushed back and down into the throat (pharynx) 2. At the same time, the nasal cavity is closed off to prevent stuff from going into the nose. 3. As the bolus comes down, the lungs have to hold the breath and vocal folds (or vocal chords) needs to close so as to close the wind pipe. 4. The epiglottis (another soft tongue like muscle) seals off the wind pipe fully. 5, the entrance to the food pipe (circular muscles called sphincter in the upper oesophageal cavity) needs to open up to allow the bolus to get in. 6. At this time, the

Sometime back, I had written about my 3 Gods. Its only fair to tell you about the 3 devils as well. I refer to them as Devils and not Demons. The demons are inside my mind and make an entrance, once in a while, in various types. Almost always they bring out the Devils as well. The Devils are hyenas. They hunt in a pack and all 3 of them come together. After the stroke, like many other things, I can hardly control my emotions. Something can trigger a bout of laughter and i won't be able to stop. Equally, many things set me off crying and i won't be able to stop. Sometimes, it goes on for so long, that after a while, I wont even remember what I am crying about in the first place, but I just can't stop. Some days I can't help but feel overwhelmingly sad and down for the general state of things in my life. I know, I know, I shouldn't think like that and count the positives. It is , akin to giving someone a medicine but they can't think about Monkeys while taking it

Good day... Today is Friday the 13th, one of the most feared days of the year by many. So, I looked online why so. Surely, like most other things that we unquestioningly follow, had some basis in olden days and simply not relevant anymore (like the famous gauge of tracks - which is too difficult to change, Daylight savings -which we can, but don't have the will or worse, like the qwerty keyboard - which we are pretty good with, but was designed for just the opposite, but we have got so accustomed to.) But no . I found zilch. No alignment of celestial bodies today. It's as superastitious as a black cat bringing bad luck. I am unusually rigid and very tired today. My physio didn't go well. I am probably coming down with something. But I know what to attribute it to. Our nanny/ housekeeper called this morning and said she was unwell and couldn't come. She was probably struck down by the same phenomenon. We have bought a new appliance which needs to be installed today . If