A JOURNEY CALLED LIFE

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not just the absence of disease. This definition has been given by WHO, so no questions are raised. I bet maximum of you thought that health is just being disease free. But its so not true. In order to be called and felt healthy, you need to be at peace in all dimensions. Man has had a love hate relationship with being healthy. In the stone age when there were no pollution or lifestyle diseases, man used to die of infectious diseases. And now with medical science reaching newer heights everyday, men are dying from cancers and other lifestyle diseases (for which science has yet to find answers for) What we are missing is that we need to strive constantly to keep ourselves healthy. Because prevention is better than cure and of course, Health is Wealth. You won’t be truly able to decipher the importance of the second phrase unless you or some close family member of yours has been really sick. So t...

This post is a tribute to my paternal grandparents. They are no more in this world. But I remember them all the time. Its not that I particularly decided to write something about them on Grandparents' Day ie 10th of this month. I am a person who does not believe in celebrating a single day dedicated to love (Valentines), parents (Fathers and Mothers Day) or birthdays even. I feel that love and gratitude should be showered all year round. But somehow this year, Grandparent's Day seemed to be the perfect excuse to mention them on the blog. I am the one in Dadi's lap (in pink sweater) Since they are no more I can't plan anything special with them. I. however can dream about the countless anecdotes full of love and pampering for me. My Dada and Dadi were conventionally opposite. By that I mean my Dadi was strict while my Dada was lenient. Usually its the opposite in most households. I have always been brought up by strong women; be it my Dadi, Mom or my Didi. A...

For a reader who is fond of reading thrillers, this book looked quite interesting. I mean I am used to reading Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot and hence I got excited when I received this book by an Indian author, Nisha Singh. This is the second book in the Bhrigu Mahesh PhD series. I have not read the first one but am particularly happy that I got to read this one. The novel is quite lengthy as its a 400 plus pages book (432 to be precise) but not for a single moment you would feel bored. I, for instance finished the book pretty fast as I was too curious to get to the bottom of this mystery! The story is set in Krishna Dwar, a fictitious town in North India which is a popular pilgrim spot (as the name suggests). Bhrigu Mahesh is an ex Policeman turned private detective who works with his friend Sutte. The relationship between them bears an uncanny resemblance with Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Sutte fails to read between the lines unlike his genius friend. He is ca...

Everyone was fast asleep in their beds. I mean my mom, Dad, Mr Giraffe, Mr Caterpillar and even my Guddu were sleeping. It was absolutely dark outside. Only the faint flickering light of Dad's mobile charger was visible. I was unable to sleep. I was overtired from my day at school. When I am overtired, I either sleep too much or don't sleep at all. That is what my Mom says. My granny put me to sleep in the afternoon. And I woke up quite late in the evening. I could not even go out to play as it had got dark by the time I woke up. And now, at night I could not sleep. My snooze cycle had turned topsy turvy. When I just was cursing the eerie silence and darkness, I saw a beam of blue light outside which just got brighter and brighter. No it was not police (our society is frequently visited by them; thanks to endless conflicts) It was something in the air, something unusual. Oh! it was a UFO from my colgate pack, just a lot bigger! How the hell did it slip out from my roo...

So who said that meditations have to be performed only with closed eyes? Well it is a notion I think 99% of us believe in. Of course meditation is Dhyanam which has to be performed in a peaceful environment, away from the hustle bustles of life and at a fixed place with closed eyes. Since I hardly get enough time to sleep (hello crazy surgeon schedules) I can't think of meditating. But I feel everyone should take out time in doing so. As much as concentration is required, its important to introspect everyday. Its is imperative to improve oneself and keep evolving positively. When I got my hands on the book 'Open Eyed Meditations' I realized that its never too late to start self improvisation. To start with, Open Eyed Meditations is a self improvement book by Shubha Vilas, the author of the best selling Ramayana : The Game of Life series. It is basically practical wisdom for everyday life, put together in a very thoughtful and useful manner. As soon as I started ...

Relationships are complicated. Whether its between siblings or with parents, its always jinxed. But beautiful nonetheless. There are so many things that strengthen bonds: whether its shelling peas with your mom or bullying your elder sister for completing your holiday home work. Its all those moments spent with your near ones that are cherished throughout life. I mean kids move out of their parental homes. Siblings move apart because of job or marriages in different homes or unluckier, different cities. But distances never seem to be the driving away factor. In fact the more distant your loved one is, the nearer you are to him/her because of the constant reminder of their love. If you are a regular reader of my blog or if you even know me well, you must be acquainted with the fact how close my elder sister is. I mean she is more than my mother to me. She has spent more time with me than I had spent with my mother. Since my mom was working, I was predominantly taken c...

A heartfelt letter to life Dear Zindagi It's never too late. No I don't mean that I am going to die. I think I have a few more years to live ( I am just 34!). Anyways coming to the point. I had been longing to say these to you since long but neither had the courage nor time. Today I am coming face to face with you to share my deepest secrets, deeper desires and expectations and of course complaints from you. So here I am, pouring my heart to you. You had been pretty good to me since the beginning. I mean I have always loved you, my life! You have given me a set of wonderful parents and a even loving elder sister who is almost more than my mother. Again you had been pretty loving during my academic years. You have given me a profession which has enabled me to lead a prosperous life. And I believe that you will keep on endowing me with more pleasures. Coming to my personal life, you have given me a pretty girl to love and eventually marry. And then yo...

When I crib about my unhealthy lifestyle and start talking about initiating a healthy life, people just assume that I am pretending. For common people, doctors have the most healthy lifestyle. But the reality is exactly the opposite. Though we may preach about good habits all the time, we are the last ones to practice. Blame it on our hectic and inhuman schedules, we are more prone to hypertension (owing to stress), varicose veins (long standing hours for surgeons), centripetal obesity (long sitting hours in physicians), infectious diseases like tuberculosis and the list is endless. Some of them are part and parcel of our jobs while ailments like hypertension can be kept at bay by adopting some modifications in my lifestyle. On the ocassion of World Heart Day, I pledge to introduce some tweeks in my busy schedule that will help me to lead a healthier life. These changes are not only for me, my readers too should try to adopt them if they are already not leading a healthy l...