Theoretically, all days are the same – consisting of 24 hours, 1440 minutes and 86400 seconds. Measurement of a day is calculated based on Earth’s rotation on its axis and revolution around the sun.
(The Earth takes 24 hours to rotate counterclockwise around its axis and 365 days in a year to revolve around the sun.)
But are all days really the same ?
The day before yesterday I had a good and sound sleep at night, woke up fresh, did my daily exercises and Pranayam, ate a healthy breakfast on time, did the daily chores, had a sumptuous lunch, relaxed in the afternoon, saw TV after dinner, had a chat with my friend, browsed through the daily and read a book before retiring to bed.
Perfect ???
I got up at about midnight and couldn’t go back to sleep. As a result I got up late next morning, didn’t feel like doing the exercises and rushed through the Pranayam, skipped breakfast, got into an irritable mood, had an argument with the maid, dashed through lunch, felt drowsy in the afternoon, watched a few episodes of a serial for some distraction but couldn’t enjoy, halfheartedly munched through dinner and went to bed early.
The same 24 hours , 1440 minutes and 86400 seconds but not the same anymore which indubitably proves that there is a big difference between theory and practice.
As time is dispassionate about humans so are humans not bound by the neutrality of time. While scientists have tried to tie down time into units of measurement, the fallacy lies in the inability of us humans to be in tandem with it, to enact our daily roles in precision with the hands of the clock without any single deviation or distraction.
And what if by some cosmic whim the earth decides to slow down (or rush through) on its axis and cogitate on reviewing the whole equation of yearly revolution around the sun?
Won’t all the bag full of theories of astrophysics go haywire?
Won’t the expostulations of science be upended?
And what about us humans ?
Will we go about our routines in slow motion or dart through to follow the new regime ?
Or just run against the grand clock as we always do in search of that perfect pace when everything will fall in place as per our own whims and fancy?
I see the thinkers, philosophers and the best of human brains scrambling over sheafs and sheafs of formulae rewriting all the hitherto theories in vogue while that unseen watchmaker has a good belly laugh over the perplexing rigmarole squatting in a quiet corner of his universe.
I hardly remember my infancy. Nobody does. As toddlers parents handhold us through terrains of life which are absolutely new to us. In our formative years we gather knowledge and skills. As teenagers we are body conscious and crave for love, romance and adventure. In our marriageable age we seek our life partners to build a nest of our choice. In our middle ages we understand what responsibilities are, mourn the past, ignore the present and worry about the future. It is in our old age that we embark on a quest for inner peace and calm.
When I was young I hated the unwanted attention and wanted to grow old faster. Age meant respect and to be taken seriously for who you are. In my middle ages I was too preoccupied and overburdened and lost many chances of enjoying life. Now that I fall in the age group of being old I have become happily carefree about what people think about me and how I live my life. It’s my life, right? I shrug off the slots society struggles to put me into. I don’t castigate myself for being forgetful. Being lazy is kind of my privilege.
In brief, I have embraced myself. I pamper myself. I make excuses for my oversights.
And Oh yes…I don’t give two hoots about anything…and I am totally unapologetic about that…
In our busy schedule of meeting innumerable deadlines we do not have a breath of time to pause and enjoy and feel the fleeting moments of joy, beauty and peace.
In Hindusthani Classical music we were taught to “stand” on a note or “swar”. A note is just not a passing or small musical sound , it’s a world of melody in itself. To understand it we were told to go deeper and deeper into one note till we could reach its bottomless depth where real music and revelation of the infinite lay in store.
Similarly, till we press the pause button and “stand and stare” we cannot “breathe in” the feel of the moment which is full of life, nay, it is life – life of infinite happiness, tranquility and breathtaking beauty. In our hurry and scurry we make haste by each moment of life overlooking what we are missing.
The poet reminds us that a life wherein “we have no time to stand and stare” is a life half lived or livednot at all.
Footnote : William Henry Davies (1871 – 1940) was a Welsh poet and writer, who spent much of his life as a tramp in the United Kingdom and the United States. His poetry themes included observations on life’s hardships, the various ways the human condition is reflected in nature, his tramping adventures and the characters he met. (Wiki)
In this part of the globe we have extreme winter and extreme summer. Winter is freezing and summer is scorching.
At times the temperature is as high as forty five degrees and above and as low as 2 degrees. But it never snows. Many times we have wished and imagined that maybe one day we will open out our windows to a white street or snow laden parks. But that’s not happened so far.
In this biting cold I hear, from inside my quilt, the streets being broomed by Ram Sharan, our street sweeper, as early in the morning as 7.00 AM , when it’s still dark outside. The sewers being cleaned by hunched up men , mufflers tied around their heads and bidis held in trembling fingers.
It’s the same time and even earlier that the cars are being cleaned by Suresh. I seldom see him during the day. He comes and leaves before the sun’s weak rays touch the asphalt. Somedays we have to do with a dull, overcast sky.
At 9.00 AM my house help arrives with chapped lips, calloused hands and a grey face and pounces on the broom, mop and dust pan with an energy which I cannot muster even after a night spent in a well heated bed.
My other house help comes in the afternoon shivering in a bright yellow jacket. Her feet cracked at the heels. She tells me, ” Didi! Today is colder than yesterday.” I tell her not to work too long and leave before dark. The buses are late in winter. The bus stands are deserted by evening.
The guards at the entrance gate of the Block light up a bonfire of waste paper, twigs and sticks to warm their hands and feet. This year, due to hazardous weather, there is a ban on bonfire. Instead they have been given heaters. In the dead of the night, in this crippling climate, I don’t know how effective the heaters are. I hear them whistling past the streets guarding us from unwanted elements.
We do not have a system of central heating. We use heat convectors, oil and halogen heaters. But at times they too fall short. The air pricks the bones. The water cuts into the skin. On the pavement the huddle of homeless people. Outside the high tech jail (yes, we have one nearby) the family and friends of the inmates wait wrapped in course blankets.
I wish I hadn’t imagined snow in the streets, on trees, on the rooftops. I look at the vacant eyes, drawn faces, scrawny shapes , hardened hands … They who work on the ruins of civilization and rebuild it from shambles to castles…snow is an unaffordable luxury. The pale sheen of sunlight is an unheard prayer! The embarrassed heater is a crude joke! They deserve more – warmer breath, bluer sky, greener hearth.
I wish one day they relish the snowflakes on their eyelashes. Their children sculpt a winking snowman and eagerly wait for Santa ploughing away a path through the white heap towards a promising horizon.
Till then the chill, the fog, the bitter smog remind us spring is far away….very , very far away.
This is my maiden round-up post on impactful books read in 2025.
My reading graph peaked last year. Convalescing in between surgeries, I read books – some half read, some carry overs of previous year and also a few totally fresh and new.
I also challenged myself with one or two non-fictions which are humungous and daunting scholarly works.
Goodreads says I read a total of around 59 books. I am not sure. I didn’t keep count.
However. reading that many books is record breaking as I am a slow reader. I don’t believe in setting records and placing quantity over quality yet it’s satisfying and feels like an achievement.
The book finishing which did give me a sense of pride and accomplishment is this one. Yes, I had set a deadline – to finish it before my third surgery. More than four hundred odd pages I am glad I did not leave it midway or let the heaviness of the subject get to me.
I should have kept this one on top of the list because I started it in the hospital after my first surgery and finished when I was back home. This book gave me a lot of perspective about what, how and why to thinkpositive and was a guiding light in my days of adversity and pain. Though it did not completely change my way of thinking but it did teach me to put a brake on my thoughts whenever they went haywire.
In my quest for happy and healthy living this book was a path paver. I had started reading it many years back but couldn’t finish. Maybe it was waiting to be read at the time when I required it the most. Easy and interesting – one that I raced through.
The most serene, soul stirring read of the year to which I believe I’ll go back again and again. Kind of preordained it was waiting to be picked up at a particular juncture of life.
To this list of soul satiating reads I will add another two – books left aside and picked up when the time was ripe.
Last but not the least, the powerful voice of North-east which I found in this book read out of gratitude and curiosity.
Life is an eternal quest and a book that sets one on this journey is this one which I keep going back to.
One challenging read which left me confused by its verbosity making me realise one more time the beauty of brevity.
And then there are some perennial rituals like re-reading Satyajit Ray – the Feluda series – or any Agatha Christie – the geniuses are always enthralling.
2025 is also the year of Audio Stories – listening to Dipannita Ray’s young adult stories back to back – a great find!!!
I have set a few reading challenges for this year too – a mix of fictions and non fiction – heavy and light weight.
A few days back my aunt, an octogenarian, had a fall at home and injured her forehead. She said it was due to uncomfortable footwear and muscular weakness.
The day before yesterday my second floor neighbour – heavy weight and sixty up – fell down on the street. Could be unsteady gait.
It is said that bad news always comes in threes. Just a day or two into the new year and I am down with severe cough and cold and lung congestion. Probable cause – poor AQI.
Three triggers for this post which is as much for my reckoning as for those in my age group and others as well.
We have an extreme climate which requires special precautions as well as protections in keeping with the season which we either overlook or forget to adhere to.
I am listing a few generic ones and a few for the winter, specifically.
(1) Weight Management – a must for all age groups, specifically, for those in the bracket of sixty plus. It’s good to keep a tab on weight through periodic checks. Same for Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar – common ailments of old age. Also the fact that we eat more and move less in winter, it is absolutely necessary to keep a check on the vital parameters of the body including Vitamin D and B12.
(2) Diet Management – I have been prescribed a high fibre-high protein-low fat gut friendly diet. I guess, it should be more or less the same for everyone in my age group. But I will not recommend going oil free in a bid to be over cautious. Wellness coaches advise intake of 23-25 gm of oil per day. Consumption less than that can cause constipation and dryness of skin.
(3) Body Management – Winter coups us up inside resulting in lesser movement, crouching of body, wrong postures. In our part of the globe a smog filled weather is a deterrent to walking. At my age it’s important to listen to the body. Oh ! Yes. Our body talks to us. Every morning I get up and locate which part of my body is telling me to exercise and I do just that in moderation. No , that power packed half to one hour daily rigorous training routine , I have found, is not advisable, at least for me.
(4) Muscle Management – It is crucial as we lose considerable muscle strength in old age. Along with specific exercise a regime of daily massage (not the spa type but the homely type which our elders advised) enhances blood circulation , in turn, toning and strengthening the muscles and movements. Nonetheless one should be cautious not to put extra or sudden pressure or jerk on any part of the body while getting up, bending down and straightening up, picking up things, especially, heavy ones. Also, remaining in one posture, i.e., sitting or standing too long is also not advisable and the day’s work should be done with intermittent hours of rest.
(5) Attire Management – Winter has a tendency to creep in. To ward off the crippling chills warmers, thermals and skin hugging inners are a must when inside as well as going outside. Keeping the head covered is also mandatory. Along with that comfortable foot wear which supports and cushions the ankles and heels goes a long way to provide ease and steadiness to our gait. Of late I have learnt that spending on footwear is as necessary as on clothes.
(6) Liquid Intake Management – Winter is dry over here. Skipping baths in this type of weather is not recommended. A hot bath does a world of good to aching bones and tired muscles. Water intake automatically reduces in this season which can cause gut issues and impact digestion. Frequent sipping of warm or lukewarm water is one way of keeping liquid intake constant. In the early morning to start with a glass of warm water in an empty stomach, irrespective of any season, is a good antidote to gastritis and acidity and helps bowel movement.
(7) Supplement Management – Our body loses micro nutrients off and on which needs to be replenished through diet or supplements. Our body gives signals, as usual, which we must get into the habit of reading and take the advice of the family or general physician if need be.
(8) Mask Management – This may sound funny but it’s become an imperative in dangerous climactic conditions like ours. I am afraid, most times I forget to wear or carry a mask. It’s safe to keep a few in the hand bag or in the car in case you are as forgetful as I am. Use of Air Purifier or Humidifier, as required, is totally desirable.
(9) Thought Management – Emotional make up has a direct effect on our health. If we think right we can cope with age properly. I think the foremost thing is to accept age. Neither should we overdo nor underdo anything which is not befitting our age. With age we tend to be a little attention seeking. It’s a blessing to have a caring family. But to expect too much can be taxing for our near and dear ones too. And that brings me to the most essential part of this post.
(10) Home Management – Apart from cleanliness and hygiene, a cheerful atmosphere, meaningful conversation and regular and effective communication within the family or household can make the elderly members feel very secure, safe and loved. This goes a long way to make them emotionally strong to face the zig zag curve of old age. It is not a very good idea to restrict a person because of old age. It can be construed as an infringement of personal freedom. Recent studies show that developing good hobbies, indulging in community service and learning something new are essentials for a happy and healthy life.
All these suggestions are partly from my personal experiences and partly on surgeon’s/physician’s advice, motivational/health talks and books and some shared by well wishers. I try to follow them as much as possible and hope these come in handy for readers too.
If I have missed out on any point do remind me by way of comment.
panaecea 