Six Monthly Resolutions

 I don't do things by halves-except resolutions. Half-yearly resolutions are more fun. You can make and break them more often than yearly ones, for one. Like celebrating a birthday more than once. You can even celebrate daily. But anyway, I am digressing. On to my 2022 half-yearly resolutions.

Will (or Shall- sounds better) meet old friends - or any friends- more often.

Shall live life more, and work less, progressively. That's progress, right?

Shall try and appreciate other people's achievements, including simple ones, a lot more.

Shall not give speeches longer than 5 minutes, even under pressure.

Shall not stop punning, unless the brain stops functioning. If it has already, you gotta tell me.

Shall try and taste the best of food and drink, and something new regularly. Time is running out, that's why. 'Miles to go before I sleep' kind of thing, taken positively.

I will not break any resolutions, until I make ones that contradict these. Then, I will decide whether to break these or those.

I think that's pretty comprehensive...

Puns and Me

 I am not sure when I got punny. Was it before or after I got funny? IDK. But I did!

Writing is a passion, since at least my MBA days. I wrote for Mural, our wall mag, and was also editor of most student magazines along with Dash during those two years. The 1982-84 yearbook, comprising our take on all 120 (or what remained of these) folks, spicy and funny at the same time, was our Magnum Opus. 

Anyway, to get back, punning became a habit (some might say a nasty habit). The puns just seemed to flow. On the positive side, they indicate that the brain is still functioning, even after 60 years of almost continuous use. Unlike some parts of the body, which are partly paralysed. The negative depends on the reaction of the victims. But then, it teaches them that Life is a sinusoidal curve, with ups and downs. What made me happy a couple of days ago, was this punny note on a present from two students who got Golf lessons from me. 

I am equally happy with the Golfy gift inside as I am with the goofy puns..just my type!

Why Thoughts Occur

If you thought that this was going to be a brainy kind of research-based post on the brain, think again. I just thought (why?) that I should post something and to keep that thought alive, started typing. You get the drift? Ok, so now, let's take it a step further.

Thoughts occur for a few basic reasons.
1. A brain thinks it has to have thoughts.
2. You can ask it to shut up, but usually don't. You know how it is, with certain people; so it is with certain parts of your body.
3. Therefore, thoughts occur.
4. Sometimes, they are simple fulfillable desires-like I want ice cream, or a chai, or, to listen to a song.
5. Sometimes they are not- like wanting to become the ruler of Baghdad (isn't someone?), own a yacht (not sure even how it's spelt), own a beer factory (someone does, I am pretty sure), have twenty butlers at the same time (notwithstanding that their butts would collide with each others' in their eager attempts at buttling), etc..

Then, finally, I thought about why I should think any such random thoughts. And instead, like a good follower of the numerous gurus I have read, decided to be in the present. And concentrate on the cup of tea I have in front. After the effort of all that thinking, it does taste very good.

Slogans and Catch-phrases

In India, there used to be some catch-phrases that we would see regularly from the sixties onwards - I can't help it, I was born in the sixties.

'Garibi hatao' was one such, plastered all over the media. What happened to that we don't know, but the trend these days seems to be Amiri hatao, or 'inclusion'.

Our college in Hyderabad used to have student bodies which would scribble their slogans on walls. "Down with zionist forces" used to be one of them. I didn't understand then who they were, and what they had to do with us. Still don't, in fact.

'Brain drain' was another favourite of the intelligentsia, who seem to coin new phrases when they have nothing better to do. Whatever little brains we billion people had, were apparently being drained through immigration to the West. But what prevented the half-a billion or more who stayed back from using their brains is what never could penetrate my (thick) skull. Now, we seem to have an abundance of brains, but no drains, if the rainwater stagnating on every street is an indicator.

'Communal harmony' used to be another harmoniously touted phrase, which evaporated into thin air after the anti-Sikh riots, the Gujarat riots, the Muzaffarnagar riots, Mumbai riots, ...you get the picture.

Phantom Limbs

The other strange finding from the experiments of the good brain doctor (author of Phantoms in the Brain) is about phantom limbs. It seems a lot of patients who have a limb amputated (cut off, in plain English) due to disease or accident, still have sensations in the amputated limb. They can also feel pain in it!

Some innovative treatments that the neurologist proposes are visualising in front of a mirror that you have the limb and then 'adjusting' the brain to the new information. For some inexplicable reasons, this treatment has worked. The moral of the story is that the brain's neurons readjust to new information (eg: amputation) in a particular way. They also get sensations from another body part (eg: face) which replicates the lost part (maybe an arm or foot)in terms of reproducing the same sensation. Touching the face may feel to the patient as if his (non-existent) arm is being touched. This is in accordance with a map (Penfield Map) that specifies which parts of the body are close to each other in their original sensations in the healthy individual. Fascinating stuff, but the author hastens to say, there is a lot that they don't know yet...