Mind of my Stroked Brain

Disclaimer : every stroke is different (even if they are called the same name). The impact to someone physical / mental is even more different for everyone. What I have said here is my case, my stroke, my experience and my thoughts. Don't generalise it and compare. However, it might be similar (not same) that many might be experiencing.so, hoping it will help... _________________________________ It is a phrase I have have heard from many in the last few years after my stroke - by doctors, physiotherapists, SLP therapists, family/ friends/ well-wishers everyone. " Use it or lose it " - generally applicable to every function of the body, but more specifically for this context, it is the muscular action getting atrophied/ wasted and lost if we don't keep making the movement. Basically the brain  eventually loses/forgets the connections of neurones firing because of prolonged absence in doing so.  It is not like I have not heard of it earlier, but like everything else, it...

I think we should have a different terminology in democracy Today, we have the "Ruling" party and the "Opposition" parties. Both of them (world over) take the terms very literally and their jobs very seriously in that mandate. The ruling party does anything they want assuming they can do anything (since they are the rulers) and opposition (oh boy!) they just oppose and place hurdles in everything good or bad (it's their job no) I think the majority party should be called "elected party" (or something like that), which will keep reminding them that their term is not perpetual and should keep peoples interest to get re-elected and the other parties should be called " supporting " parties (or something to that effect) to stop elected law makers to be a bit more civilized than acting like hooligans. The elected parties mandate will be more people focussed (hopefully). That doesn't mean they can do anything. The supporting party's mandate ...

In the past decade more than anytime earlier, our media (print, traditional tv, internet, social media, OTT, etc) they have all evolved and become more and more complex with more choices. While these categories of content have existed in the past also, they have increasingly got merged (amalgamated) making it hard to distinguish them with hard boundaries. There might be many more, but I broadly bucket them into 3 categories: 1. Entertainment 2. Information 3. Noise/ Disinformation 4. Purposeful time  Even news, which is supposed to be only information, depending on the channel, has various percentages of disinformation and entertainment. Of them #3 is the hardest thing to identify. Usually it is very difficult to identify it in isolation. We can Only recognise that it is mostly noise and disinformation when we consume similar content from different sources for a period of time and are able to recognise the patterns in them and be able to contrast them. The first two categories howe...

Disclaimer: this is all my observations, thoughts and hypothesis. No medical grounds backing it. Please ignore if you don't agree _________ It's the onset of the south western monsoon in India/ Bangalore. The weather changes drastically and rapidly (from hot and dry to wet and cold). In absolute terms, it's not really a lot compared to what we see as extremes in the upper of lower hemispheres, but very much felt because of the rapidity in change. In my opinion (in my case atleast), it is probably the worst time of the year for folks having some sort of bronchial allergy tendancy. I know I am very prone and affected by it every year. The the entire breathing path (nasal cavity, trachea & lungs get clogged because of secretions (phlem) and usually some relief is got by using a spray/ nebulisation of broncho dialators, bronchial steroids and expectorants. As I mentioned, it is that time of the year. Yesterday was a struggle. My nasal cavity was clogged and I could feel the...

Disclaimer: 1. None of these are my original thoughts. I have watched, listened to and seen a lot of useful and useless content. Based on all these inputs, it is processed junk from my mind. Since I can't remember the source, I cite the internet and Google Maharaj. Crudely speaking, I have been consuming all kinds of junk and out of indigestion, I am vomiting out part of the partly digested junk 🙂. 2. I have used some terms loosely. These are terms based on only my informational knowledge and not experiential knowledge with conviction. Please take it with a pinch of salt and chill if not aligned with you beliefs. __________________ One of the things that baffles me is how limited our ability is to think beyond what we are physically in human form. Ex , in almost all alien movies I have seen, the aliens are  depicted in some crude way looking like humans (and smaller mostly) sometimes geen in colour, sometimes distorted but human like faces , different types of fingers but same two...

I have not written in a while. No particular reason. Just didn't feel like it one day and stopped. Many may call it a "writer's block". I don't know if that is what it is. I understand writer's block as struggling to get substance to put down. I was not struggling with that. Vague thoughts come and go all the time. Some in my opinion, might be interesting or amusing to share. However I was not getting the will for it. I don't know what happened. There is nothing specific I can attribute it to. It's not like I am depressed or have lost general interest etc - I have been doing stuff and keeping myself occupied. Yet, somehow this was not happening. Anyway, what was I upto generally. Watching a lot of podcasts (videocasts I guess) on YouTube. I realised it is a treasure trove for information. I used to struggle earlier for informative and reliable content. In this day of diverse information, over information, misinformation, disinformation etc. Anything I ...

I am part of my apartment complex's residents group on WhatsApp. I am sure everyone who is residing in an apartment or colony or gated community will have something similar. There are many things put in it - relevant stuff from the apartment MC to absolutely irrelevant forwards to appreciation messages to issues. The most frequent thing is "rants" - various things - significant issues to insignificant ones. It is the favourite subject as well - it gets most responses with more rants added to it. I wonder 2 things everytime when I see them. 1. As a society/ social community - have we become more negative than earlier times? 2. Most issues need a phone call to the concerned person/ manager/ security etc to resolve. Yet there will be 2 dozen messages in 2 minutes. I always wonder how many made that actual phone call to resolve. Have we become a society where everything is someone else's job to resolve? -- and we are hoping for social action for really big things like s...