My Health - let me try to create interest in tracking health

As I promised in the last January 27 blog post, let me start this new category named HEALTH. I believe health is a significant aspect of human life and an autobiography blog must track this.

To be honest, I have not paid much attention towards health issues, being fit, physical appearance or anything that concerns with my body. One reason for this negligence may be the fact that nothing serious has happened until now to coerce me towards putting more time and money for health. To answer the question whether I should have put more attention on health, I remember one incident in Hyderabad- I had one of my ears got suddenly blocked for nearly a month. I was forced to hold mobile phone only on my left ear. One fine morning, when the lady doctor (at Kothagua Apollo clinic) removed the waste from my ear, I realized how great it is to be healthy.

The above paragraph, in no way, should mean I never had any diseases. In fact, I have several memories of being ill. Let me try to recollect:

1. I had pox while in school at Agia. I still remember collecting the leaves of a particular tree (from Prabin Da's home) and how Maa took care of my body with all 'home medicines'.
2. Just before starting Cotton College chapter, Maa was hospitalised and I was an attendee at Solace Hospital(old building). One fine morning during dressing, I was watching the blood and I almost collapsed. On that moment I decided I can't be a doctor. Eventually at Cotton College, I stopped attending the Biology classes without telling Deuta.
3. Toothache has tortured me like anything throughout my life. I have around 6 filling + artificial teeth in my mouth. This is one area that has kept my association with hospital/medical active. Even as on today, I need to undergo root canal treatment in one teeth (something I have been postponing since Aizawl days).
4. The eye swelling in Oxford was scary one. Without any identifiable reason, I suffered from the possibility of remaining  with a bulgy eye for the rest of my life(Curtsey- Mehreen's prediction). But with God's grace, the swelling decreased and now I don't have that at all in my eyes.
5. Blood pressure is another area that has been a concern for me. First time, I discovered my high blood pressure during 2002-03 period. The intense mental pressure for IIT/AIEEE made my life hell. After that, my blood pressure became fixed on 130/90. It affected my lifestyle as well; during moments of intense decision making, I sensed hot ear and blackish surrounding. I invested lot of time and energy in changing my way of thinking and procedure for decision making. I have not experienced that black out type moments for quite a few months now. But the inherent psyche that I have high blood pressure, keeps me composed in the moments of extreme agony, which I think, is a good thing.
6. On physical appearance, I think I started losing hair when I had started working in Microsoft. But the rate of losing hair was so slow that I did not even notice and never spent time to find ways to stop the loss. Once the hair-loss became prominent, I remember of visiting Dr. Batra's clinic for a free check-up in Hyderabad. They did some checking with a machine and informed me that I had already lost a lot of hair. Now, they can try to keep the status quo, but can't do anything to grow new hairs. The alternate was hair transplant, which was quite expensive. Since that day, I have never spent even a minute thinking about hairs. But sometimes, I think it does give me an unattractive look and dull personality. I don't know what I should/can do.
7. On physique aspect, I have not given serious efforts, but, of course, little bit of attention as and when the urge came. First time I ventured into that territory by enrolling for gym (yes, by paying fees) in the last semester of NIT Durgapur with the Robo wing mates. It was in the evening time near City Centre. I started eating chickpea every morning to balance my diet. I can't remember why and how I stopped going to that gym. Later,I started attending gym in Microsoft office- mainly to run away from the office stress and to respect the repeated request from Latif (the gym instructor and Akash's friend). I was quite regular, but those were the worst days of my life, and eventually I dropped off to cater to the needs of GMAT preparation. During the Aizawl days, the 302 steps took care of my health and I lost the weight I put on during Hyderabad. Recently, Karuna Da (IIT Guwahati) introduced me to the world of Yoga. I became so passionate that with Jitu da, I  made a habit to visit the block field every morning. At present in Delhi, the home-office walk has been quite effective. In fact, my search for rented house had a big component of health i.e. finding a house at walking distance to office. I realize and appreciate myself for the fact that I have become more concious of my health now-a-days. I am also thinking of purchasing a walk-measuring wearable device.

So, in summary, with no hospitalization and no piercing of any body parts, I have lived a disease-free life until now. May God bless me! Health is Wealth! However, this also makes me a bit paranoid about hospital/surgical operation etc. I want to live a life with no hospitalization and with no lifestyle initiated diseases.

While doing the mandatory health check-ups  before joining NISG, one idea came to my brain. Since India does not have a life long profiling system of all citizen's medical records, why can't and shouldn't I try at an individual level?

Hence in my first post under health label, I am also uploading the medical reports I received recently (health tests before joining Delhi ) as below:

Results of different Blood tests- I	Results of different Blood tests- II
Pankaj Da's suggestion on tests done and to be done	Chest X ray report- appears normal
And, this last report on the right side was the latest condition of my eyes. As you can see, my left eye has been severely compromised; still I don't wear spec. God help!  The non-availability of the last eye check up report (based on which my current spec was prepared) really frustrated me. Hence, again, I decided to keep track of every report going forward.

My last point is on my preparedness for any sudden health disaster. Apart from my NISG medical insurance, I have two other-- the LIC's section 80D one where I pay INR 8000/- as annual premium and Pradhan Mantri accidental insurance one (only for accident) where I pay INR 12/- as annual premium (I am not considering the life insurances here). The sad part is that most of my medical expenses are on teeth and OPD, where I (in fact majority Indians) don't have any insurance policy. 

All the best for a healthy living! 

The concept of Gatyatmak Jyotish and conversation with the founder- Mr. Ashesh Kumar

After Kavita (Jitani) told me about this chap named Ashesh Kumar of West Bengal and his self-promoted concept of Gatyatak Jyotish (Dynamic Astrology), I really became interested.

About Gatyatmak Jyotish: (Curtsy: http://www.gatyatmakjyotish.in/)
Gatyatmak Jyotish is the brain child of Astrologer Sri Vidya Sagar Mahtha, whose scientific bend of mind and life long devotion gave way to this new branch of astrology. Born on 15th July 1939 in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand, Sri Mahtha questioned the reliability of traditional astrology based on the fact that different astrologers gave a different reading of the same horoscope.

Introductory Graph

The main weakness of traditional astrology is related with the calculation of the strength of planets. The surplus of formulas hinder the astrologers to come to a unanimous decision. After studying thousands of horoscopes, he discovered the dynamic strength of planets. The planets can be grouped under 6 different speeds in relation to Earth- (1) Very fast, (2) Fast, (3) Normal, (4) Slow, (5) Retrograde, (6) Maximum retrograde. He concluded in his studies that at the time of a persons' birth, very fast and fast planets grant easy success to their respective signs of the planets to the native. Whereas normal and slow planets give the natives abundant success corresponding to their signs. In the same way retrograde and maximum retrograde planets have a negative effect on the natives. In 1981 the formula of dynamic and static strength based on the angular distance of planets from Sun and Earth was established.

The second flaw in traditional astrology was the calculation of 'dasha-kal.'  After having done years of research work, he found that each planet affects a person's life for a period of 12 years. From birth to the age of 12 years, Moon, 12 years to 24 years, Mercury, 24 to 36 years, Mars, 36 to 48 years, Venus, 48 to 60 years, Sun, 60 to 72 years, Jupiter, 72 to 84 years, Saturn, 84 to 96 years, Uranus, 96 to 108 years, Neptune and 108 to 120 years, Pluto affect human life. Seeing the special effect of various planets during special periods Gatyatmak Dasha Padhati has been established.

On the basis of these two above mentioned scientific basis it was possible to draw a person's life graph charting one's ups and downs, one's pleasures and troubles in life based merely on one's date, time and place of birth. Gatyaymak believes there is no importance to the presence of any planet in a sign of a horoscope, the dynamic and static strength of that planet is more significant, in the absence of which, prediction would be impossible.

My conversation:
 Mr. Ashesh kumar took my birth details via SMS and we fixed an one hour time window to chat. He initiated the discussion and said he would explain the six graphs that he had sent in three parts.

Graph 1

1) First he started with the 12-year period of my lives till now. In general, during the 0-12 years (Moon phase), there are two kinds of children: one who are dynamic, full of confident and enjoys the friends and families; the other is the non-confident one. I was belonged to the non-confident group, he told.

Then during the 12-24 age, there are three types of students-
a) one who enjoys the student life
b) the hard working ones
c) the back benchers who do nothing
I belonged to the category between 2 and 3, he told.

Graph 2

During 24- 36 age, my sole aim was to get reputation. I managed to get bit of reputation after lot of hard work, but I lost the mental peace totally. I have never taken a sleep of 2 hours after taking food (example of leisure). In fact, I have only been running and running; I really don't know what the enjoyment in life. As shown in the graph-2, 2014 was the rock bottom year of my life.

In the next 12-year phase, I will see the exceptional rise. I would start getting positive result by putting lesser effort. My personality, that has been my weakest component, will become my strongest attribute. Though my upward graph has already started, I am still close to the bottom. In summary, the 36-60 age of my life would be wonderful.

2) In the second part, he told me some good/bad things of my life. According to him,
    A. Good things:   1) Property and money would always be with me
                                 2) I have a very strong family to back me up whenever I fall down
                                 3) Siblings (brother, sister) would be a strongest point throughout my life
                                 4) Whatever I set a target, I would somehow meet it.

Graph 3

   B. Negative things:

1) I would be unhappy with my own personality
2) Luck is missing (I need to put 80% to get 20% output)
3) Help from influential persons, being influential is missing
4) I should expect less from my partner



3) In the third part, he explained what are things that I give priority in this life.
  A. I give 20% of my total concentration time towards family matters. Since, I am single, I browse porn sites, Shaadi.com etc regularly, which are 'family' type things. [I am only mentioning his words; for example, I have never even visited shaadi.com]
  B. I am bit workaholic and devote significant portion of my time in office works. But accordingly, the output is not there i.e. my dedication is not actually converting to happiness from work. I must learn 'Smart Working', he suggested.
  C. I give lot of attention to money matters too. But since, I give importance to family more, I can beautifully balance the family and money
  D. In NON-CONCENTRATION area, I hardly give attention to my personality development, physical appearance or confidence building.

Graph 4

After this, he took a break and asked me whether he had been on track. I said YES. Then we had some more unstructured conversation. I asked him two questions
 A. When and how am I getting married
 B. Is there any future study such as PhD.

Mr. Ashesh Kumar asked for time to research on my queries. I called him a week later and discussed my questions. He did not tell anything specific, but expressed his optimism since my 'good days' are around the corner.

The above summarizes our conversation. The upward graph made me happy; I didn't mind spending INR 500/-. Also, this gives me a reason to write a blog post and open a new label in my autobiography blog.

Isn't this interesting? Seeing the future.....wow !!!!

Note on understanding the attached photographs:

Graph 5

1. The Graph-1 reflects enjoyment, pleasure and relaxation in life in which if red graph is above the blue one, it indicates command over circumstance whereas if the red graph is below the blue, denotes circumstances not in command. The graphs closer to the scale 50 stronger in term of gravity, status and ambition in life. 

2. The Graph-2 reflects ambition and growth in our life (if upward, gives growth in the life, however minimizes the pleasure and relaxation) based on the rule, ‘No pain, no gain’, and if downward either shows a relaxed life or a life which doesn’t let any ambition get created.

3. The Graph-3 and Graph-4 reflects pleasure and concentration in different aspects (in percentage) based on our priorities in various aspects of our life.

4. The Graph-5 reflects best and worst aspects of your life in term of life time experience (and planet information).

The astrological aspect while tracking life

By this blogpost, I am suggesting to create a new label titled 'Astrology'. As I mentioned in my year review post of last year (2015), I have started seeing astrology as a decision making instrument. I wish someday I will make my diaries as 'case study' and invite some astrologer to really analyze the whole human life (my life) corresponding to the movement of stars and planets.

I have no memory of being under the direct influence of astrology at any point of my life. The oldest memory - while travelling from Guwahati to Silchar for the AIEEE counselling, Maa gave me a ring (see picture). Fortunately after a few hours, I got NIT Durgapur- CSE and that ring got a significant amount of credit. I don't remember since when I stopped wearing that ring. Maa brought another ring (of Gold this time) after seeing my pathetic situation at Microsoft. However, I don't wear any ring now a days.

Showing the rings I possess, but do not wear

While in Aizawl, first time I visited an astrologer in Abhayapuri as Maa and Dada insisted. He was Master degree holder and his calculation arouse my curiosity for astrology for the first time. During the 1.5 years of volunteering, I met an astrologer from Bakaitari twice- first he came our home; next time I and Arup visited him. After the two conversations, I was convinced that there is more to astrology than blank superstition. Meanwhile, I developed my own definition of astrology- 'it is a tool which can help you take a decision when you are stuck at 50-50 scenario'.

Recently I was referred to an astrologer Mr. Ashesh Kumar by Xomidhan core team member- Kavita Jitani. He sits at West Bengal, but provides online/phone service if given the birth date and time. I was not hesitant to pay Rs. 500/- as I was in experimentation mood. After reading his report (which I will write next) I decided this is worth tracking in an autobiography blog.

Seeing the future is the most amazing thing that human can think of. This is why anything related to that domain should get a position in any life tracker. I hope I have made enough justification why I am including Astrology as a separate category in this autobiography blog.

If ever in future, I realize that astrology is influencing my decisions more than my brain & mind, I would be out of this experiment. Because, I believe, that would be the first step of supporting cult like with witch-hunting.