Week 6 - Coronavirus

Link to Week 5

Monday - 13th

Mondays are hard for me. Also coming out of a long weekend - it was a bit more stressful. Around 3:00 PM, felt my throat getting sore. Lot of piled up tickets and escalations come to me non stop.

But I stumbled upon a happy piece of news. AR Rahman’s 99 Songs got released in Apple Music.

I got nostalgic. Whenever AR Rahman’s songs gets released I will go buy the cassette and will listen. At least 3 times - so I get used to it. One has to train one’s ears to listen to AR Rahman’s songs. There are so many layers - and at first hearing it comes all together and difficult to appreciate.

I could do 2.5 times on Monday - and by evening my ears had got tuned to 99 songs.

The songs are really good. Not at the level of Rockstar or Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya - both were love at first hearing - but definitely top 10 of all time AR Rahman’s.

Prithvi’s online classes got cancelled / postponed. Boy is back to enjoying his self. 

Monday he apparently hurt his fingers plucking the guitar - so he will not do the little 10 problems his mummy gives daily. However he could still game - because he used a different finger it seems. Heights! 

I had downloaded Invisible Man in kindle. He is almost at the verge of completing it. But I have to literally force him to read 2 chapters a day. Found Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyl and Hyde in free section - downloaded them both. He picked a liking to Treasure Island.

Tuesday - 14th 

Tamil New Year. Bengali New Year. 

I start Ponniyin Selvan - Part 2. 

Modi extending lockdown till May 3rd. 

Prithvi gets a haircut.

Wednesday/Thursday/Friday

Sucked deeply into work. Had 2 exits this week from my team. Friday evening our dusk standup went for an hour with each giving a farewell speech to this developer - Dinesh - it would have been the most memorable time for him I believe. The 2nd developer - a senior guy - still KT has to happen and he is negotiating. Don’t blame him but the same time as a founder I have to be fair to everyone in the company and cannot do any special favours. It is really sad. 

All this stress got to me. My throat started hurting. Had severe headaches throughout the day. The outside temperature is also on the rise and it gets quite hot in our home. We are on the top floor and don’t have AC in any of our rooms. Friday I started taking breaks every half an hour - get up and walk around. It helped I think. Headache did not come.

On Wednesday San got to know from the Association President that in one of the apartments where 3 girls are staying by themselves, one of them is running a 106 temperature and is trying to go to a hospital. This was around night 8PM. They finally managed to get an Uber which is running essentials - as long as the destination is hospital they will come. They take her to Manipal on Old Airport road where they give Paracetemol and Saline. Suprisingly they don’t do blood test for Dengue.

Thursday they talk to the layout clinic - to send an ambulance. They charge Rs.6000! San drives her to the clinic for testing. Again they do not do Dengue test, Doc continues paracetemol.

Friday morning the girl calls San and says she is feeling very weak and wants to go to the clinic to see the doctor. San takes her to the clinic and this time they do Dengue test. It comes out positive. They get back and decide to get her admitted later in the day. Apparently hospital will inject fluids only up to 3 Liters. The rest 5 to 8 liters has to be compensated by drinking water or juice - every 3 hours. An attendant is necessary. Luckily one of the girl’s relatives is in Bangalore and he could come and stay with her. 

That girl’s mother - she is in Hyderabad is freaking out. San had to console her and give confidence. The mother tried getting a pass but couldn’t to travel to Bangalore. Can imagine how helpless she will be feeling right now. We had an important call at 3:00 PM and San was still on phone till 2:45 PM - almost an hour. I had to make signs asking her to get off the calls to prepare for the meeting. 

San goes in the evening and gets the girl admitted in the hospital. 

This is the photo San took. Apparently they have a Dengue cart and it was kept ready - Standard operating procedure! 

2 weeks back, I didn’t blog it here - there was a death in one of the apartments. A 54 year old lady - she had complications with heart - she passed away at home. San went to their home and helped them with lighting Diya and generally helping them with the paperwork etc. San is reading Death book by Sadhguru - and last week while reading a chapter she said - Wish I had read this before - we did not tie the lady’s foot together, or play some slokhas. 

In Dec 2018 we attended Inner Engineering Course by Sadhguru. There was one meditation where Sadhguru asks us to imagine you are the mother to a child. Then for one more. Then what about a family. Like that he expands and asks can you - can you be the mother to the universe. When we were done I found San - we both sit at different places like strangers - and she was crying unconsolably. It had affected her deeply. 

That’s Sangeeta.

Nothing will stop her from helping out her children - big or small. Both these instances San need not have bothered - but she did go out of her way to help. 

Friday evening 6:00 PM onwards I started a Nirjal fast for the next 36 hours - no food or water -  till Sunday morning 6:00 AM. It’s Ekadeshi - on Saturday - 18th. 

Saturday

It’s 7:00 AM now as I am typing this. 13 hours into the fast. Autophagy genes will be kicking in shortly and they will be starting their work. 

The mind has to be kept quiet during these times. 

1st option - being totally devoted to God helps. Thinking of Allah or Krishna during this time - the stomach never grumbles or you will never feel thirsty. 

The 2nd option - for not someone who is totally committed to God  - is to first read up on all the science and benefits of fasting. Imagining how the toxins are getting cleaned up from the system. How the autophagy genes are out of their barracks with swords in hand - searching and destroying the aged or half dead zombie cells - who have potential to turn cancerous. 

Me? - I am in between the two. I am devoted but not to any one God - like Allah or Krishna. I am still forming the spiritual thesis in my head - so cannot commit myself to any God - or one God. But I believe in the Religious practise of fasting. I am a firm believer in Science though - and the power of autophagy genes.

Here is a video on benefits of fasting I saw long back - which convinced me to do the Ekadeshi fasting. 

Around 4:00 PM I got bugged. And my mother asked me - you want coffee? I said yes. So broke my fast around 4:30 PM.

That’s around 22.5 hours of Nir Jal fast. Not bad. If it was a work day then I could have extend it till 6 PM.

We dug out this Disney puzzle we had - which has never been solved before. I realised my eye sight has gone very poor. I could not see with my current glasses. Have to remove and bring the puzzle pieces very close to see the details. Not good!

Later we invent our own game with a TT ball and a cup and a later we even removed the cup and came up with TT Ball Sammangal game - where the opposite side’s samanangal posture is the goal post.

Sunday

We were all discussing what we wanted to do after lockdown happens.

Me - Dalhousie 

San - Beach with Amu

Achu - Goa

Charu - Meet friends in Coimbatore

Prithvi - Wants to go to Taco Bell! 

And he has been craving for a Taco or a Quesadilla. So we decided to make him happy. Before that we went to office  - which is in the same layout - and picked up 3 tables and 2 chairs. One of the tables I could completely dismantle - so did in 2 trips in the car. San,I and Krishanu - in his house - have been sitting on the floor and we have started developing back pains. Our posture is not good and the body has started creaking.

Later in the day I setup my standing desk. 

The laptop gets super hot in the late afternoons and the fan that kicks in makes lot of noise - for ventilation purpose have kept it elevated. 

Back to Quesdilla. After moving the tables and chairs - we 3 started work on food preparation. 

Rajma Beans, American sweet corn, Red+green bell peppers, Onion, Tomato + Cheese which was grated. On the left is Maida + corn flour for the Tortilla.

The finished product was nothing close to a Quesadilla. Some stuffed Roti it became.

When asked how is it. Prithvi said Ok. 

Like his honesty, I was expecting kisses and hugs from him - and I was disappointed. 

Quesadilla project was a dismal failure.

I wont bother making this junk food again. At least not a Sunday Prime time lunch.

Link to Week 7