Sunday, May 23, 2010

Astronomy (heaven and hell are covered under that, arent they?)

Bhai wakes up six-ish everyday and rushes to the gym. I get to sleep in, most days till after he gets back.

Hmm. I hope the sun has caught up and now rises from the west.

Hmm. If the sun did rise from the west, it'd mean the earth would be rotating the other way? And if that were to happen, would we get to see the dark side of the moon? Or does the earth influence the rotation of the moon too. Damn you Arthur C Clarke for making Space a real thing and our Solar System the place i would most like to go on a holiday to. You know, rent an asteroid, ride a comet. Visit the Jovian moons, Europa especially. What a pretty name.

Hmm. What happens when you damn dead people? Do they get demoted to hell if they've accumulated a certain number of damns? Or are the account books closed once they reach the gates. If they are already in hell, are they fried in oil rich in all the bad fats?

Hmm.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Shit Happens

Yeah. Everyone knows that. Which is why we have been passed on well developed techniques for dealing with it. God moves in mysterious ways, poorva janma karma, every thing happens for the best - whatever be your cup of irrationality. Its supposed to help you accept shit and move on. Not mope around wondering - why me? Why did i miss that step? Why was the exam so hard just this year? Why did that bird have to fly over my head just then?

But, leaving aside shit that is generated by the randomness that is this universe, there is shit that happens to you for a reason. I dont mean The Alchemist type reasons, the universe is trying to send you a message crap, i hated intensely disliked that book. The day i find myself quoting non-sarcastically from it will be the day that i die. Ahem. Coming back. Shit that happens to you because you did something or said something or should have done something. Shit that you can somehow link back to you. Shit that you can and should learn from.

Sometimes i find myself in such a hurry to move on that i fail to differentiate between random shit and causal shit. I rationalize, i look for excuses, i find them, i move on. Once i've convinced myself there is nothing i could have done, its all pretty simple. A shrug and its done.

And now, because i've just realized that this is exactly what the Serenity Prayer says, and says much better, i paste it here.

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things that I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.

Friday, May 07, 2010

Vitamin Girl!

Its Friday evening. I write this flopped over a bed. Its raining outside, the wind strong enough to bring trees to their knees. The view from the window is nothing special, leaves from some random plant growing in the no-mans-land between our house and our neighbour's, whitewashed walls of a building in the background. But balance that against the fact that i'm home early enough to be able to look out of the window and see, the fact that the rains have spoken against a nasty summer, and the wind, oh the wind... kill me. Kill me now.

No? Okay. You've had your chance. I will now proceed to unleash upon your creation what, if you take out all the crap, will amount to me complaining about the state of my insides. Without having lived to an age that makes such behaviour tolerable.

No, sorry. Its too late now. I hope you've learnt not to waste your chances.


So this pain. If you'd ask me to tell you where exactly it pains, like any half intelligent person i've cornered to talk about my pain would, the best i could tell you until a few days ago was - lower left. It started somewhere in the lower left region and on days, went on all the way to the sole of my foot. Why it got tired of living such a scattered existence and developed a stronger sense of self, we may never know. What we do know however, is that a few days ago, after more than a month of vaguely wandering about, it focused its entire existence on a very specific part of the lower left. Thus giving me the confidence needed to go see a doctor.

Picking a doctor, ah, that was no easy task, given the fact that i've left my mark on every major ortho hospital in the city. Dad suggested i use the most recently used algorithm, which coincidentally threw up a doctor who minimized effort on my part while maintaining confidence-inspirability on his. Off i went.

He asked me to to lie down and wiggle my toes and touch them with my hands and stand on one foot and on another and bent my arms and legs but didnt get anywhere close to specific part, c/o lower left. All the time keeping up with a stream of medical jargon that, in spite of all the medical TV series i consume, i initially thought was directed at me. He finally explained the whole thing to me but by that time i'd zoned out. I heard "fitness condition blah bleh nerves blah vitamin deficiency blah blah blah blood test". Okay, sure. All i expect from a visit to the doctor is a cure. I'm fine not knowing anything else.

I came down to blood testing and i kid you not, they charged me 3K for it! Bloody Vitamin deficiency! Plus, one of the vitamins i was suspected to be deficient in was Vitamin D. I might as well have gone and stood out in the sun. The tests came back and what do you know, it was Vitamin D. Ridiculously low. If i hadnt been such a good kid at school and lets fact it, my mom handnt been teacher in the same school then the teachers would have asked me to stand out in the sun and none of this would have happened. No long term planning, i tell you.

At the end of the exercise, i now have:

1. a month's supply of Vitamin D tablets. Small, peach in colour and sweet. Much confidence that is supposed to inspire, leave alone build up bone strength!

2. weekly dose of vitamin D in sachet, to be drunk with milk. Milk? Who drinks milk anymore?

3. A prescription to include sunlight in my diet, between 11a.m. and 1 p.m. only. I've been imagining myself as multi-Vitamin girl ever since i heard vitamin deficiency, my super power coming from vitamin supplements. But this is even better! Now, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., all i have to go is go out in the sun and i become Vitamin Girl! Saving the universe from destruction, from 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. only. The rest of the time the universe has to look after itself.

4. A blog post


Its day 1. I already feel better.

P.S. Do sunscreens come in the way of absorption of Vitamin D i wonder. Or are their screens intelligent enough to only block out the UV?
 
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