Mind of my Stroked Brain

In recent times, I have encountered the phrase "running around like headless chicken" and each time I have thought, surely whoever coined that phrase had no idea - the headless chicken is not running anywhere, period. It got me thinking on another thing - "muscle memory". Something I have heard so many times. And have taken for granted a lot. Every indication now was contrary to that understanding. If my muscles, for all their repetitions of so many things had done , had an iota of memory, something would have moved. Sure, they have memory. Every cell has dna which is a record or memory of the entire body. But it is purely biological. Unconscious. There was no conscious memory. Here is my thinking: We can regularly exercise and feed it nutritional food. But we can only make muscles strong, flexible, agile, etc. But memory, no way. Without the brain or mind more specifically, they are nothing. When Neeraj Chopra threw the Javelin, he didn't know the angle, he did...

I In recent days, I have heard a lot of TGIFs, many thank god its Sunday, and some even TGIMs. I know we hate Sundays in our house as our nanny/ housekeeper doesn't come and we have to do everything ourselves. Which got me thinking, why do we have the weekly holidays on Sat and Sun and not other days. Is it because of the bad influence of Saturn maybe? Then I got to thinking what is a week anyway? Doesn't coincide with any astronomical cyclic event. Like a day, a month (true month, 28 days, corresponding to the moon's cycle. Not the arbitrary calendar we follow - that's a different story), or the year (365 days to go around). Nothing for the week. Turns out we owe it to the Babylonians (modern day Iraq). They were very good observers of the cosmos in general (stars and planets). They obsessed with 7 of them (Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus ans Saturn). So, when they wanted to segment the month further for better tracking, the choice was straight forward. 7 days...

The guy in the corner room: -------------------------------------------- It has been about 1 and half years since I came home. In all this time, I just have not been able to figure him out. I am thinking he is plain lazy. Just is lying down all the time! I go into the corner room in the mornings, I like the warm sunlight that comes in. He keeps staring at me... It's quite weird, there are always two girls with him. They are usually nice to me. But I keep my distance. Everytime I think of making friends, they go away and someone new comes. I must have seen a dozen at least by now. I don't know what he does. Every now and then I go and check, and the tv will be always on. I have not seen it off for a minute during the day. Sometimes someone puts me up on the bed with him. He just strokes my head. I think he likes doing it. But he doesn't fuss like everyone else does. I get bored in a few minutes and scoot. Somedays I have seen him cry. I can be sure mom will put me up those ...

Many of you, many times, in many ways have told me to get the Vaccination. I had my uncle and aunt come home and threaten me recently. My wife has tried and tried and has given up. My mother comes everyday and tells me in many ways. So I thought you should know my logic - right or wrong.. I am neither encouraging or discouraging individual choices. I hope it won't influence your decision. Actually, Its very easy to give me the shot. Just don't have to take my view and give the jab. There is no way I can resist. I am relying on (primarily) my wife's conscience as my ally in this . There are three parts to my thinking: #1.  This is my weakest argument. Like many of you, I have been watching about the evolution of the vaccines. There is nothing wrong with the science. Im not yet convinced of the amount of data especially length of time we have data. We all know how quickly they were devised and I think every one of them have been approved on emergency basis. I have seen too m...

My nurse's phone saga continues... Few days back, I shared about my nurse wanting to buy a phone. Well, the same day my other nurse's phone well and truly died. It was an old phone, repaired many times earlier and visible battle wounds. No hopes of resuscitation I guess. She has been like a fish out of water for past 2 days. This morning, she asked me which phone to buy.  I have not felt the burden of responsibility come down so heavily in a while. I wouldn't feel so much pressure if I was selecting for myself. I asked the price range and did the research. I felt very relieved when she told me her brother picked a make/ model and that would be it. It was not the same I had arrived at. So I just gave it as a suggestion for the same range and left it at that.. So many times we give opinion/advise to others. I would categorise into three categories. 1. Where out of our concern for some situation, we dish it out. Its mostly unsolicited. When we give it, we kinda know, it will m...

Both before the stroke and after, I have listened to a lots of speakers, read several books and blogs. All admirable ones - for inspiration. I have undoubtedly been very much touched by many of those. But after the stroke, their impact on me reduced drastically. Everything seemed good words one could do when they are able to. There have been many stories representing the struggles of many, battling through their circumstances and a variety of illnesses. I have tremendous respect to them as well. However, as much as I admired all of them, their victories and messages, I simply could not connect with them. It was their individual journey and the corresponding narrative. Until I encountered the story of 'Brisa Alfaro'. This was a different story altogether. It was frankly an unbelievable story. I was moved because it was a very similar story. It was the closest comparable journey so far... I am part of a support group called "StrokeSupportIndia". Often, they organise an...

My nurses were discussing today about their phones. How old it is, etc. One of them remarked that she would buy a new phone next month. She mentioned the make/ model as well. The phone she mentioned probably costs 2 months pay she must be getting from the agency. She is from north india, is staying away from home, working 24x7, most of the time indoors, not exactly a pleasure of a job, letting go of dietary longings, etc. Now, I am no judge what anybody should desire or have. But on the surface, it seemed to me like a very disproportionate reward for the hard work and sacrifices she makes. Peer pressure can be a real bummer!