Swalpa adjust maadi ….!!!

An interesting incident happened last week. I happened to go to an old friend’s house and both wife and husband were fighting. I am bit of hesitant to ask the reason. But my friend had volunteered to explain what happened. It seems they bought a new washing machine after marriage. Fully automatic, equipped with artificial intelligence and very costly stuff! Being curious about the machine, I asked him how it works. It seems after you dump the dirty clothes, it will switch on its own, pulls the detergent and sufficient water and swirl the clothes to remove stains and dirt. It pumps the waste water from one side then the drier removes moisture and push the dried stuff to a container built in. Whole process takes 4-5 hours (2 hrs processing +2 drying approx). I was wondering is there a machine which can also fold and iron the clothes. But the best part is it will not stop the process unless the stains are completely cleaned. It is not time driven but sense driven. I was amazed and asked him how did it get damaged??? He says…

 7AM : I come from gym after a heavy work out and dump the sweating clothes and it starts processing.

8AM : My wife gets up and dumps her night gown. It starts from the beginning again because once it senses the dirt it starts all over again.

10AM :  My Kid is also crazy. Before she goes to the school at 10AM, she dumps her socks in it and goes quietly.

12PM : Clothes move to the drier. Sensing that the process is complete, my wife finds a bag full of stuff and dumps them inside. Now the machine starts multi tasking. One side it is cleaning and the other side drying.

 4PM : The machine finishes the cleaning and dumps the clothes in the drier.

5PM : My kid returns home and dump her hand kerchief and machine kicks off again.

6PM: My wife takes a bath and dumps her daughter’s clothes and hers in the machine.

10PM : when I return home, I dump my pant, shirt.

Initially it worked really well. But after a year, the noise is huge. It’s insured so the maintenance guy came and he replaced some parts. It was fine for a month but the efficiency came down. I think it is overworked. I don’t want to use it too much so I put only my shirt and keep the pants for tomorrow. After 2 years, I find that sensors are not working and the mechanic suggested manual intervention. Sometimes it doesn’t clean the dirty stuff. Sometimes the drier doesn’t work. I do go for regular maintenance. But today it is completely broken because my wife uses it excessively when I am not at home.

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I was mum and don’t know what to say. Looks like the machine is used 24X7, no wonder it gets damaged. Why can’t they just pool their clothes and dump it once. Control the kid and persuade wife so that it isn’t excessively used. Why can’t they just let one process complete and go for another round? Why can’t it be subjected to preventive maintenance once in a while? It has insurance but does it mean they create a trouble and fight at home? Did they care for amount of energy wasted by running the machine for 24X7?

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Digestion system is a highly sophisticated system of converting the Food we eat into the glucose that body can consume. Digestion system means not just stomach. It starts from mouth and ends with anus. Believe it or not, our digestive system is 10 meter long and digestion is 5-12 hour process. Food moves in this chain because of peristaltic movement (expansion and contraction of muscles).

Mouth: Crush the food into small pieces. During the process saliva glands secrete saliva (alkaline in nature, contains enzymes to digest carbohydrates, protective function) and sends it to stomach.

Stomach: Adds gastric juice (acidic in nature, contains enzymes digests protein and fats, protective function) and break it down into tiny particles in about 2-3 hours. From there food moves into to smaller intestine.

Smaller intestine: Secretes intestinal juice (Alkaline in nature, contains enzymes to digest CH, Proteins and fats), adds Bile (Alkaline in nature, Helps digest fats) and pancreatic juice (Alkaline in nature, contain enzymes to digest CH, Proteins and fats) for the food to break down.  Intestines (7 meter long) absorb the nutrients into Blood in 3-4 hour process. Undigested food / waste move to Large intestine.

Large intestine: The undigested food, minerals, mucus, dead cells, waste moves to Large intestine. Here water will be absorbed back into blood and waste will be excreted through anus.

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Just look at the structure how complex it is. Don’t you think we should co-operate with the body to keep it healthy. Here are the few things which can make digestive system strong.

·    Take time and eat slowly. Crush the food as much as possible so that the stomach doesn’t suffer. It saves lot of energy that our stomach & intestines spend in breaking down the food.

·    Slow eating will add more saliva which will kill bacteria, virus, parasites in the food. Well chewed food helps smooth movement in oesophageous (food pipe).

·    Don’t drink water while you eat so that it doesn’t dilute the gastric juice and bring down its effectiveness. Drink more water before food (stop drinking 30 mins before food) so that more water is available in blood to produce gastric juice.

·    Don’t interrupt the process in stomach by eating again and again. Don’t eat at least 5 hours from the time you ate. Coffee, tea, colas and juices that we take 1 or 2 hours after food dilute the half processed food. The digestion process has to start all over again. Meanwhile the food half processed starts fermenting leading to gas, acidity, acid reflux etc.

·    Drink only water from 2 or 3 hours after consuming food So that the nutrients can be absorbed into blood effectively.

·    Excrete atleast 2-3 times a day to keep the large intestine clean. People say it is not a good habit. How stupid it is. Are keeping some gold or what? I think it is good because it is better to get rid of waste asap.

·    Not just outer body, inner body needs rest. Maintain at least a gap of 5-6 hours between meal to meal (for non veg it should be 12 hours). This gap completes one full cycle of digestion, gives rest to digestive organs. During the rest, they recoup their energy, cleans the toxins and up for the next cycle.

·    Drink lot of water (2-3 liters in 2-3 phases) immediately after getting up in the morning so that the waste in the stomach, intestines, blood can be cleaned completely.

·    Our body follows the sun. Early mornings (8AM -9AM) eat heavy & nutritious food because the digestive fire will be like rising sun. Body needs more energy at this time. Afternoon (1PM to 2PM) have a little less but sufficient food. Digestive fire is at its peak and it can digest anything at this time. In the evening (6PM – 7PM) have a very light food because digestive fire subsides in the night.

·    Even if you don’t follow it now, all the organs will do OT and support you. The result will be known only after 35-40 years of age. Slowly the organs will fail one after the other because of OT they did in young age. The organ which is meant to support for 100 years will shut shop in 50 years.

·    Remember the golden rule…. “Drink the solids and eat the liquids”.

·    An old adage goes like this “एकभुक्तं योगी | द्विबुक्तो भोगी | त्रिबुक्तो रोगी |“. [The one who eats once in a day is an Yogi, twice in a day is enjoying too much, thrice in a day is a patient]

The pain or pleasure can only be felt by the one experiencing it. Similarly the happiness that you get will be known only if you follow it for few days and experience it.

Me, my Friend and my Car

I have a personal story to share with you. Keep it to yourself….

 Long ago my parents bought me a car (Diesel sedan). I had a best friend who loves me so much. I always wanted his company so we made an agreement. The pact is that I provide the inputs like fuel, oil, water for the car and he will maintain it in a good condition. We enjoyed the ride for few days. I got to know the world, technology, people, society and having a fun filled life. My friend somehow not interested in outside world and he loves only the car. One day instead of diesel, I gave him petrol. He protested saying it doesn’t fit in. I asked him to shut his mouth and manage. Poor fellow he doesn’t know the value of petrol. I am giving the best. Am I not?

One day my vehicle broke because the exhaust was jammed. My friend started repairing the vehicle. I have already spent half a day watching him do something. I got pissed off and called the mechanic. He used some cleaning liquid and cleared the jam immediately. From that day the exhaust troubles me once in a while and my mechanic used to fix it.

Every morning he wants to clean the car and asks for water. I told him I don’t like water. One day the car was stinking. I gave him kingfisher beer to clean it because I like it. Dumb ass!!! Just staring at me. I again have to call my mechanic to get a car freshener. Why doesn’t he understand me?

I used to get lot of valuable things and kept on storing it in the back seats, bonnet and on top of the roof where ever we find a space. One day he told me to get rid of them. Is he mad or what? Who has time?

My car grew old and not able to pull the weight. One day the car bearings broke and the other day batteries gone and AC failed. I know my friend is never gonna fix it. My mechanic knows me and came to the rescue. God!! Why can’t the mechanic be my friend?

Now the engine struggles to pull us. Of course my mechanic fixed it to some extent. But it needs support despite the best brand gas I provide it with. Now-a-days he doesn’t speak and protest. He tries to do something when I am not awake. I pray god to take care of my car.

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Meaningless… eh? I know you have already decided to never read my blog again. Let me rephrase the story.

Imagine yourself in the place of me, your immunity in the place of my friend and your body in the place of my car. Now read the story again.

My parents gifted me this body. I and my friend had to co-exist in this body with harmony. I love the material things and he loves the body. He wants nutritious food and I gave him tasty food which I like. He protested and asked him to adjust.

One day I had cold, fever, cough and he wanted rest. I am tired of taking rest and went to the doctor. He gave me the medicine but once in a while I suffer with something or the other. Every morning he wanted water to clean but I gave coffee, tea, complain, boost. I am feeding the best but he doesn’t understand me.

My body started stinking and it again wanted water. Instead I used cosmetics, deodorant and mouth fresheners. I ate unwanted things and kept adding weight. My conscience told me to get rid of it. But I don’t have time.

My joints, muscles have failed as I have used them without overhauling them. My liver got damaged because of alcohol. Lost pancreas and metabolism is affected. I can’t tolerate heat, rain, cold and don’t know what to do. Doctors helped my body to some extent.

Heart slowed down now-a-days and hands, legs, spine doesn’t support. I still serve the tastiest food in the world. My friend doesn’t speak and tries to do something inside. I am praying god to take care of my body.

I feel bad because my friend is weak and he didn’t take care of my car. I know you will agree with me…

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What is this immunity by the way? Is it the white blood cells, plasma, body reaction, conscience? What is it? Where is it? Let’s understand…….

For example what is fever, body pains? Whenever some bacteria/virus/infection is killing our cells, body reacts by the way of fever and body pains. Actually fever or body pains is not the problem, virus/bacteria is the problem. Fever is just a reaction asking you to take rest and body pains are forcing the body to take rest. When the infection gets chronic, you will vomit whatever you eat. Because body has something to do on priority and it is not in a position to do digestion. You will experience lack of appetite some times. It is an indication that digestive system is shut down for some maintenance work.

Similarly loose motion is an act of cleaning intestines. Cold is the act of cleaning respiratory tract. Phlegm is the collection of toxins, dead cells in the body. Cough is an effort to throw away the phlegm stuck in our nasal passage. Hiccups are an action to move the food stuck in food pipe (hold the abdominal muscles and giving a jerk). Sweating is an act of maintaining the body temperature with water and emitting the toxins through skin.

Acidity is the pain created by the damage of mucus membranes in the stomach (mucus protects the stomach walls from acids used in digestion). Gastric pain is caused by the gas jammed in the stomach and intestines. But the problem is toxics accumulated in intestines and indigestible food that is generating gas.

For that matter all the pains we experience is indication of some of the problem. Unless there is pain, we don’t even know about the problem. Appreciate the favour pain is doing to you.

There is someone who creates pain, who directs the body, who cures the body, who runs this body, who protects the body; that is the immune system. It is the loyal system which discharges its responsibility despite all odds.

World inside…..

Ever thought of why we fall sick? Human body is a complex system which functions according to the rules set by the nature. If we abide by the rules and fulfill our Dharma, then it will never fall sick.

There are 7 requirements identified for human body for it to function effectively. They are

1. Air

2. Water

3. Food

4. Excretion

5. Rest

6. Exercise

7. Positive thoughts

Air: Before we understand the significance of air, lets understand the energy. Energy in this world is nothing but heat. Heat requires fire and fire needs oxygen. Body generates heat by burning the food we eat using oxygen inhaled through air and release the energy for functioning of the body. Scarcity of oxygen affects the energy flow in the body. Human being doesn’t have a chance to control breath; otherwise he would have used that time also for earning money.

Water: The second basic necessity is water. Generally when it comes to prioritizing the water vs food, people immediately vote for food. But tell me when 70% of our body is water, what is more important. A human body can live 40-50 days without food. But not more than 2-3 days without water. Water is a life force which helps our blood carry the nutrients to each and every cell in our body, maintains body temperature and cleanses our body from toxins. As per WHO standards, the minimum water requirement for a human body is 4-5 ltrs. To put simply, for an average weight of 60 kgs body, 40 ltrs water is there in the body. If we can’t replace at least 10% of it every day, our body will become like a gutter inside and it is root cause of all problems.

Just imagine how heavy rain flush out the dust, pollutants off the environs and makes it clean and pleasant. Similarly water that we drink cleanses the toxic waste material from our body and keeps our internal environment conducive and pleasant. Water scarcity in short term, cause gastric problems, acidity, headache, irritability, burns etc and in long term leads to damage of lungs, kidneys, heart, skin and what not.

 Food: Third basic necessity is food. It’s an ocean to talk about. But to simplify it, I can say our food has to have protein, Carbohydrates, fats, fiber, vitamins, enzymes, micro nutrients in small quantities. Above all, it has to have life in it. When the physical property of food is changed, our body will spend 50% of energy to adjust this unnatural form. Food available in the nature is cooked in the heat of sun which fills life it. The food cooked under artificial heat loses its life. To elaborate, just heat the seeds at a temperature of 30⁰c (same temperature as sunlight) and sow it. By chance also it will not sprout because it lost its life the moment we gave artificial heat. Similarly the cooked food loses its life force.

Human being learnt the art of separating the ingredients and making tastes out of it. For example if we look at rice & its byproducts

 White rice – only carbohydrates

 Brawn – Fiber, Protien, vitamins, fats

 Rice brawn oil – only fat

We eat white rice and feed the cattle with brawn treating it as waste. But actually we are giving nutrition to the cattle and eating waste. By eating white rice, we get plenty of carbohydrates, for protein we choose meat/ protein biscuits, Fiber are completely ignored, for vitamins we take vitamin supplements. Suppose if we eat unpolished rice (with its outer red layer), it gives fiber, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and everything. Raw food has all ingredients in the right proportion.

Elders say destruction is easy, but construction is difficult. What I mean is man can disintegrate the ingredients but couldn’t integrate what he has separated out.

Excretion: We will clean our outside body by taking bath but what about our inside body? When food and water reaches the cell, it burns inside and releases energy, waste, CO2. Energy will be used for our day to day activities. The waste and CO2 release need to be ejected out of our body. These wastes go out from our body in the form of urine, CO2 (through lungs), stool (from excretory organs) and through sweat (through skin). For kidneys to filter the waste and send out, more water required. For Lungs and skin to perform, rigorous physical activity is required.

The waste material in food is stored in bowels which have to be cleaned every day. If bowels are kept clean, the whole digestive system will be healthy. Food rich in fiber is required to clean our intestines like a broom. Fiber will be available only in natural raw food and not in processed food like puri or idli or dosa or icecreams or pizza or burger or whatever junk food. People say passing stools 2-3 times a day is unhealthy. But think are we letting out the waste material or some gold. All these comments are baseless, do as many times your body tells you to do.

Rest: There is a majority opinion that body has to be given a rest for at least 6 hours. But are we really doing that? Almost 90% people say that they will sleep for 7-8 hours every day and it is more than minimum requirement. If you observe correctly why we get deep sleep in the early morning than midnight?

Suppose, if we eat at 9 pm then our body takes 6-7 hours to completely digest and settle down. So till 4 am, our digestive system and vital organs like liver, pancreas, heart, lungs, and kidneys work even if legs and hands are resting. Once all this OT is done, they start resting at 4 am, that’s when we go to deep sleep. So if a person gets up at 6 am, the effective rest given is 2 hours. The moment we get up, again the cycle start with coffee.

                Look at the old generation, they take their food before 6 pm and give enough rest to the body. During this rest, their body rejuvenates itself and gear up for the next day. If our organs do overtime every day, they will wear out in 40 years which are supposed to work for 100 years.

Remember those good old days, when fasting is suggested for all common diseases. The logic behind that is resting our body to give sufficient time to the body to repair itself.

Exercise: This is the most painful task for today’s human being. Physical activity increases the heart beat, rapid inhalation/ exhalation, energy consumption, blood circulation to each and every corner of the body, which is essential to maintain the balance in body. Due to mechanization and industrialization, people could get rid of physical work for their day to day living. At the same time lost their health also. But the truth is pain and pleasure goes together.

Rapid inhalation/exhalations omit the CO2 very fast and fill the blood with oxygen. It also increases movements in the intestines so that the stools will be completely evacuated and keeps the intestines clean. Physical activity leads to sweating which releases the toxins accumulated under the skin.

Positive thoughts: As a thinking creature, humans have this additional requirement. Our brain uses 50% of the energy produced in the body. Human brain thinks at least 30-40 thoughts in a minute and most of them are useless. For example, if the kid hasn’t reached home and mother couldn’t reach him through any means, just imaging how many thoughts goes in her mind. But reality could be different and the mother had wasted lot of energy in imagining what could have happened. These never ending thoughts don’t let us focus on anything and keeps jumping from one thought to the other. The person, who can keep the thoughts under control, will have peace of mind.

We are stuck in a vicious cycle of so called “No time”. If you don’t spend even a couple of hours for yourself, what are we working and whom are we working for. And what is the use in such work when your existence itself is in question?

Let me take you through the crux of it again. Human body is made up of 5 elements of nature i.e., Air, water, earth, Fire and ether. Doesn’t believe me??? Ok here you go

	Properties of the elements	Properties of the body
Air	Plenty of availability in nature	Heavy consumption in our body
Water	70% on earth	70% in our body
Earth	30% on earth	30% in our body and made up of all the minerals that are available on earth
Fire	Source of life for earth	Energy source for body is heat
Ether	Empty	Rest for the body

Health comes on its own if we just give what it needs instead of substituting it. Ultimately what you give is what you get.

Home….. Sweet home……

Before I begin, let me wish good health to all.

All of us aspire for one thing in common. Guess what???

“Happiness”

Means are different but the destination is happiness. Some people need power, some need money, some need a girl friend, some need jewellery to make them happy and the list is endless. But in the race for material possessions we tend lose the invaluable asset i.e., our health. May be a sound health doesn’t make us happy but the absence will wreck our happiness.

People perceive the word health in different ways. Suppose if asked “are you healthy?” 90% response will be like “I am fine. I have no health problems.” And the other 10% will say I have so and so problem.

Have you ever heard or said “I/He/She was fine till yesterday, but suddenly it started” Any illness doesn’t appear suddenly. It takes days, weeks sometime years to develop and erupt as a disease. For example, Diabetes – metabolic disorder, BP – variations in blood pressure, Kidney failure like stones etc, arthritis – deformation of bones doesn’t happens in one day. Simplest thing like tooth cavities takes almost 10 years to become visible. Never think one is healthy if he/she doesn’t have any problems today.

Sometimes it is so generalized that we don’t perceive it as a problem at all. Like headache, muscle pains, numbness in legs after sitting on floor etc. Hormonal imbalance in women is like a given thing in today’s world. Since everyone has it, these disorders became property of body.

Health is not just physical in nature but mental & spiritual too. In today’s material world, life is like a running race. None of us has time to stop and relax. But just imagine, there is no one to wake you up in the morning and push you to office forcibly, watch the cricket as long as we want, read as many books as you want to, smile whole heartedly. The thought itself energizes us to the core. The happiness we find in doing these things should be present in us 24X7. That is real health.

Healthiness is a state where there is no disease and no chance of getting it in future. In my opinion I am healthy when I don’t think about my body if I want to do something. Be it a 10 mile hike or 20 km run or a week starvation.

Folks! Just think where we are living. We are living in our body. This is our house. We can only be happy when this house is safe & strong. Indian spirituality emphasizes that body is the vehicle which the soul uses to accomplish its purpose. Take care of it, protect it, nurture it and it will help you achieve anything in the world.