Mind of my Stroked Brain

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

One of the very first and very hard things I had to deal with after the stroke was "letting go" . I am not talking only about attachment to things, pretty much everything. Out of all this, the hardest was letting go of "preferences"... Preference for so many things. What I wanted, what I liked and mostly how I wanted things to be done! I didn't consider myself to be very pedantic with many preferences or a "micro manager". Once I couldn't speak, or move and influence how things were done, boy was I in for a surprise! I pity the folks who worked with me earlier... That was really very hard. Letting go... pretty much everything if I had to put the mind to some semblance of rest. It is coming back gradually on some matters as my ability to convey (written of course) is getting better. I have to keep reminding myself to avoid falling into that trap... Can't say I succeed everytime... I was thinking about it though. Letting go of things is a natural

A very amusing experience yesterday. ~ 7:00pm. When I am given a bath, after cleaning the face, hands, chest, abdomen, legs , etc., I am turned to the side (left side) so that the back and backside can be cleaned. After cleaning, washing, wiping, applying cream, massage, powder (phew! feels like a spa for the backside!).  Anyway, after all that, they insert a bedsheet (drawsheet) below me from the back and I am turned to the other side to pull the bedsheet out. In recent times I have been trying to kind of help with this - basically I try my best to turn myself. Haven't really succeeded bur try anyway. To turn around, I have to put down and exert force on my left elbow down on the bed . Yesterday was the same. Except, I had managed to get the PEG tube underneath the elbow. I don't have such fine sensations in my arm, so couldn't make it out. So I turned to the other side - sans the PEG tube which was lying stranded below the elbow. Here I was lying in the middle of a bath,

From earlier this year, the war/ conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out. Conflicts and wars are nothing new to the globe. One is happening all the time somewhere... We are usually fairly insulated from them but for the graphic content on TV trying their best to sensationalise. It usually is localised to the geography and we turn a blind eye. It's insensitive but it is reality. The next days bring with it the next news item as a flavour of the day. This one is different. We are all feeling the impacts - whether it is energy , economy and inflation or food shortages or something else. But that is not the war the world has entered. It is a war we have all entered without realising. After world war II, Germany had a very subdued defence policy , external outlook and defence spending. Same with Japan. They were one of the softest with defence spending and foreign outlook.. but that has changed... Since the conflict has broken out, (i) it has emboldened many countries (ii) it has

I love my wife. I love my kids. I love my mother. I love my sister. I love my close friends. I love my family. I love many.... I love my dog. I used to love my cats . I love all animals. I used to love my bike. I love many other things. However, there is very little I can do to care... People, animals, things... Loving is not the same as caring... I know everyone, everything needs caring. I can only express love but I am not able to care ..  I am not sure if I am right, loving is something I can do for my sake and caring is something I can do for others.. I think as a society we have slowly moved from being a caring society to a loving society.. Everyone loves everything very much but there is limited anyone can care. I think it is not very individual as well . As a society we have moved to a model of everything being linked to economic success. Stuff like service, fulfillment, contentment and other such parameters don't fit in easily. Even if we want to, the structure of our lives