The other day I was travelling in a train and my co-passenger asked me -“ what is your recipe for good health ?” I did tell him ,that I walk daily, do yoga and play badminton ,whenever I get an opportunity.

However, when I reflected on the same, a bit more, I realised that apart from a regular habit of physical exercise, the two most critical contributors to good health are, good food and good sleep.

If I say good food, I do not mean any nutritionist prescribed diet but healthy food, which our forefathers had ,and recommended to us. It could be green leafy vegetables, fruits, a lot of fluids and egg, fish or meat ,once in a way ,if you are a non vegetarian.

We may be connoisseurs of food and may also have a good appetite. It may be a good idea to have home cooked food and indulge ourselves occasionally, when on travel and not the other way around. What we eat is under our control and we cannot blame anyone else for the same.

According to Ayurveda and even allopathy, the root cause of most human disorders, is due to the indigestion of the food we eat ,every day. If we are able to plan and manage what we eat, then our health can be managed by ourselves.

A simple indicator to our physical health could be our weight. If our weight is within a range – Our height in cms minus 100 ( plus or minus 5 kgs), then we are in control of our weight . For eg if my height is 165 cms. Then my weight should be within the range of 65 to 70 kgs. This is just a thumb rule for good health and not certified by any medical practitioner.

The second key contributor to good health is our sleep. An average human being requires at least 7 to 8 hours of sound sleep. Do we manage to sleep 8 hours every day. Most of us blame our work and life schedules for lack of sleep. But, if we dig deeper, we find it is more because of our habits like binge watching of serials, movies and TV and the ubiquitous mobile phone which leads to lack of sleep. This is very much under our control.

If we develop healthy food habits and ensure a sound sleep every day, then only a daily routine of exercise of our choice ,could enable us to be healthy ,right through our life.

Exercise could mean a walk, jog, playing a game of our choice like badminton, football etc or gym or yoga or dance or anything, which we would enjoy doing ,and not consider it as a necessary evil which somebody has to remind us, to do it. The moment ,it is boring and drains your energy to do it, it may not become a habit.

So, healthy food, sound sleep and a regular exercise will almost guarantee good health. Apart from these three critical factors, the only thing we need to control is our attitude to life and living. Are we happy or sad ,every day of our lives. Do we crib or are we grateful ,for all that we have in life ? So ,our mental health ,is equally responsible for our happiness and this leads to good health.

So the mantra for good health is healthy food, sound sleep, regular exercise routine and being happy and grateful in life.

Let’s try from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

17th July 2024

Every day we hear of cybercrimes happening all around us. All of us are happy that everything is digitised in life today and we are able to do all our financial transactions online. The convenience of internet and mobile banking is indeed a boon.

However, I was recently visiting a friend and he narrated a harrowing experience ,of being a victim of cybercrime and it shook the wits out of me and my spouse. I could not even believe that, this could happen to my friend, who holds a Ph.D and is well versed with most things in life.

I want to share the details of his experience ,for my readers ,so that more of us are aware of how cyber criminals operate and what precautions we could take, to prevent such crimes and also report them to the authorities concerned.

It all started with a fictitious phone call from an unknown person, claiming to be calling from an international courier company, that he has received a parcel from an international city and it has reached Mumbai. The parcel has been confiscated by the police and he needs to verify his credentials.

Then he gets another phone call ,claiming it is from the police, who have confiscated the parcel as it contained some illegal items. He needs to get on a Skype call ,to identify the parcel and the veracity of the senders.

This friend of mine stays alone and they advised him to get on a call on Skype and kept him on call for a few hours. Meanwhile, during the call, they also advised him to transfer some money, into a particular account, since they had to verify money trails. hence, it was necessary for him to send the money from his account. This continued and in the process he transferred a substantial amount, since he was mentally under siege. This is termed digital arrest nowadays.

When all this ended, he realised that it was cyber crime and he had lost a substantial amount of money to cyber criminals. Then, he reported to the police and the cyber crime cell, of the government. The good news is that ,after a long drawn process of investigation and courts etc, he got his money back ,although he went through all the mental turmoil and also the process of courts, advocates and had to spend some money to recover his lost money.

What I would like to highlight is that ,when such fiticitious calls come to us, we should either not pick up or not share any personal details including bank details, PAN or Aadhar numbers etc. We should report to our friends/relatives and also the police ,if we suspect any foul play since all such calls come from mobile numbers and can be easily identified.

In no case, we should transfer any money and as early as possible, keep all evidence of the phone numbers and name of caller and report it to the cyber crime cell of the police(1930 in India). We should definitely not get into any video call with any agency, as no police force or other agencies, will ask for our personal details on phone or video calls.

In a world, which is digitalised, all our information is available on the internet. Such criminals collect all our family details etc and try to threaten us ,with half baked information. We succumb to such calls unknowingly and then regret our actions. Any of us could easily fall prey to such actions. This blog is just an eye opener ,to such crimes happening around us, every day.

If we take the basic precautions of either not picking up unknown calls or ensuring that we do not share any personal information on phone or video calls with anyone, it could prevent such crimes. Further, we should report such calls immediately to cyber crime cell of the police ,so that innocent citizens do not fall victim to such nefarious acts of criminals.

Let us spread the word and take all the necessary precautions from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

21st April 2024

 

The other day I was in an old age home. Nowadays, they call them “assisted living places”, because when children are not there to assist their parents, they have to find places, where they could be assisted by others.

At a time, when the world has become the market place, I am not against assisted homes and assisted living ,as many times parents do not want to live in alien countries and at other times ,children do not have the space or resources, to have parents or elders with them.

Recently, I visited a friend’s mother. She seemed very happy with her stay. She was happy with the clean environment, hygienic food, a lot of activities and festivals being celebrated for all religions ,along with the cohabitants.

These homes are professionally managed and take care of the elderly very well. I went around the place and found out that it was well designed and every detail ,was taken into account. Apart from lifts, dining halls, entertainment rooms, guest rooms, there was accessible wash rooms with supportive arm rests, wash basins, a well furnished kitchen and doctors and nurses on call.

My friend’s mother seemed very happy and even advised us ,to visit all the floors, to see and experience the facilities for ourselves. We went around all the floors and it was indeed impressive.

But, when we left her flat, she told us that everything was good except when recently some of her neighbours fell sick, they were rushed to the hospital by the staff but when they died ,their bodies were donated to medical colleges for research. When we enquired, if they did not have any kids or relatives, she hesitatingly said ,that nobody visited them when they fell sick and hence the elderly, had given prior consent for their bodies ,to be donated to medical colleges.

My eyes were moist and I could not believe ,what I just heard. Life has become such. We do not have time to visit the elders in our family – it could be parents, grandparents, uncles or aunts. Today, we may not be living in the same city or country and hence they are forced to live in assisted living. But, imagine not visiting your parents when they are sick and not even being there ,to do their final rites when they die.

Although, I was aghast at what I came to know today, I was not totally taken aback. In every aspect of our lives, we do not have time to do the basic things in life. We do not have time to take care of our own health. then how on earth ,can we take care of others’ health.

In the past, if anyone in our neighbourhood fell sick, every neighbour, friend and relative would visit them and take care of them. Today, we are not even aware of ,who our neighbours are ! How can one expect anyone to take care of us, when we do not bother about others ?

We may need to look ,deep within. We need to realise that we will not remain young and youthful ,for the rest of our lives. The day we get old, our children may do the same ,of what we are doing to our elders. May be our kids could be more alienated, than we are.

It may be time ,to set the clock back and reset our lives.

S Ramesh Shankar

21st April 2024