Author Archives: memoriesandsuch

In My Hands Today…

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The Lost Girls of Paris – Pam Jenoff

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1946, Manhattan. Grace Healey is rebuilding her life after losing her husband during the war. One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, she finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench.

Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.

Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a ring of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war.

Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.

Meditation – To open your eyes, close them

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Wikipedia defines Meditation as a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. Scholars have found meditation difficult to define, as practices vary both between traditions and within them.

Meditation has been practiced since 1500 BCE antiquity in numerous religious traditions, often as part of the path towards enlightenment and self realization. The earliest records of meditation or Dhanya as it is called in Sanskrit, come from the Hindu traditions of Vedantism. Since the 19th century, Asian meditative techniques have spread to other cultures where they have also found application in non-spiritual contexts, such as business and health.

Meditation may be used with the aim of reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and pain, and increasing peace, perception, self-concept, and well-being. Meditation is under research to define its possible health benefits which could be psychological, neurological, and cardiovascular as well as other effects.

Meditation has been associated with all the major religions of the world, be it Hindusim, Islam, Jainism,Buddhisim or Christianity. There have been many religious practices which has its roots in meditation, be it chanting the lord’s name with a rosary or sitting in one position and comtemplating the infinite.

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I have written about meditation previously, but even though I have tried meditating in fits and bursts, after a few days, I usually find myself starting to slack. Earlier this year, I restarted meditating again. It started with someone asking if I was interested in being a part of a group for Deepak Chopra’s 21 day meditation course. Intrigued, I said yes and started the programme. During the programme, I also came across an app which was giving free access to all their meditation programmes for a year because of the current situation and I decided to take them up on their offer. Initially, I used to meditate at night before bed, but soon started falling back on old habits and trying to miss one day thinking it was no big deal. Then I switched it up. I started waking up about 30 minutes earlier daily to meditate and to my big surprise, this really worked for me. I found that I really liked being awake early enough when the house was in silence and the 15 minutes I spent on my practice started paying off. These days, I find myself waking up early even on weekends and public holidays, when I would normally sleep in, just because I want to meditate in silence and darkness (or with minimal light). I have now been consistent with my practice for more than two months and it has done wonders in my own behaviour. I feel that I have become less anxious and also feel more positive these days, with the cloud of negativity that usually hangs around me, lessened to a great degree. I am also trying to be more grateful to things around me, which is a positive thing.

Mediation is a practice and you only get better the longer you practice it. Every meditation practice is unique in its own way and even if you feel you did not have a good practice, incrementally you are getting better. Meditation is great for both physical, mental and spiritual well-being. It lowers your blood pressure, improves blood circulation, lowers heart rate, reduces anxiety, slows down your respitory rate, reduces anxiety, lowers blood cortisol levels, reduces stress, gives you feelings of well-being and improves and deepens your sense of relaxation.

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Contemporary researchers are now exploring whether a consistent meditation practice yields long-term benefits, and noting positive effects on brain and immune function among meditators. Yet it’s worth repeating that the purpose of meditation is not to achieve benefits. To put it as an Eastern philosopher may say, the goal of meditation is no goal. It’s simply to be present.

Meditation is not as difficult as we think. All we need to do is sit in a quiet place with no distractions. Close your eyes and start focussing on the one thing we all have and do – our breathing. Just breathe naturally, there is no need to to changeyour breathing style and technique. If you mind wanders, and this is common and natural, just acknowledge it and go back to focussing on your breathing. You may also feel phantom itches and perhaps pain. When this happens, again acknowledge it and go back to your breath. When you start, you can start at 1-2 minutes and then once you become comfortable, slowly start increasing the time and you can go as long as 15-20 minutes. The longer you practice meditation, the more your focus becomes sharper and you can after some time, focus on your breathing without your mind wandering for the entire duration of the meditation.

During times like this, when we are anxious on so many levels and worry about our health, finances and scores of other things, a meditation practice will help you manage your anxieties and help you get a grip on things so that you don’t get overwhelmed.

In My Hands Today…

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Searching for Sylvie Lee – Jean Kwok

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It begins with a mystery. Sylvie, the beautiful, brilliant, successful older daughter of the Lee family, flies to the Netherlands for one final visit with her dying grandmother—and then vanishes.

Amy, the sheltered baby of the Lee family, is too young to remember a time when her parents were newly immigrated and too poor to keep Sylvie. Seven years older, Sylvie was raised by a distant relative in a faraway, foreign place, and didn’t rejoin her family in America until age nine. Timid and shy, Amy has always looked up to her sister, the fierce and fearless protector who showered her with unconditional love.

But what happened to Sylvie? Amy and her parents are distraught and desperate for answers. Sylvie has always looked out for them. Now, it’s Amy’s turn to help. Terrified yet determined, Amy retraces her sister’s movements, flying to the last place Sylvie was seen. But instead of simple answers, she discovers something much more valuable: the truth. Sylvie, the golden girl, kept painful secrets . . . secrets that will reveal more about Amy’s complicated family—and herself—than she ever could have imagined.

World Blood Donor Day

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Blood is what regulates the human body and without blood in our systems, we will not be able to live and breathe. It is thicker than water, and feels a bit sticky. The temperature of blood in the body is 38° C, which is about one degree higher than body temperature. Blood has three important functions:Blood plays an important role in regulating the body’s systems as well as supplying oxygen and nutrients to tissues, removing waste, transporting hormones and other signals throughout the body. Composed of plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, the main function of blood is to regulate the pH of the body and the core body temperature. The amount of blood a person has in his body depends mostly on his size and weight.

Blood is an important resource, both for planned treatments and urgent interventions. It can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. Blood is also vital for treating the wounded during emergencies of all kinds (natural disasters, accidents, armed conflicts, etc.) and has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and perinatal care.

There’s no end to the benefits of donating blood for those who need it. Blood is needed to save lives in times of emergencies and to sustain the lives of those with medical conditions, like leukemia, thalassaemia and bleeding disorders, as well as patients who are undergoing major surgeries. For many patients, blood donors are their lifeline. One unit of blood can save three lives!

It turns out that donating blood doesn’t just benefit recipients. There are health benefits for donors, too, on top of the benefits that come from helping others. Donating blood has benefits for your emotional and physical health. According to a report by the Mental Health Foundation, helping others can reduce stress, improve your emotional well-being, benefit your physical health, help get rid of negative feelings as well as provide a sense of belonging and reduce isolation.

For those who have a rare blood group, it is all the more important they donate blood. I am one of those individuals. My blood group is B-ve and I am the only person in my family to have this blood group. In fact, I was so convinced that the result was wrong the first time I did the test to determine thhe blood type, that I did multiple tests to confirm the fact that my group was so different from the rest of my family. B negative is one of the rarest blood groups with around 3-4% of the population having this group. S and the children are O positive and because of this, I had to take multiple injections when I was pregnant so that my body does not reject the children’s positive blood group. I used to donate blood and also had a card from the local Red Cross which stated my blood group and to not do any transfusion if I needed it unless the check the blood which will be transferred into my body, but I lost it when my wallet got nicked some years back. These days, even though I want to, because of my diabetes, I am unable to donate blood. S on the other hand, is an enthusiastic donor and donates multiple times a year.

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Yesterday was World Blood Donor Day. The event serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.

A blood service that gives patients access to safe blood and blood products in sufficient quantity is a key component of an effective health system. Ensuring safe and sufficient blood supplies requires the development of a nationally coordinated blood transfusion service based on voluntary non-remunerated blood donations. However, in many countries, blood services face the challenge of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety.

The need for safe blood is universal. Safe blood is critical both for treatments and urgent interventions. It can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. Blood is also vital for treating the wounded during emergencies of all kinds (natural disasters, accidents, armed conflicts, etc.) and has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and neonatal care.

But access to safe blood is still a privilege of the few. Most low- and middle-income countries struggle to make safe blood available because donations are low and equipment to test blood is scarce. Globally, 42% of blood is collected in high-income countries, which are home to only 16% of the world’s population.

An adequate supply of safe blood can only be assured through regular donations by voluntary unpaid blood donors. This is why the World Health Assembly in 2005 designated a special day to thank blood donors and encourage more people to give blood freely. World Blood Donor Day takes place every year on 14 June. As well as thanking blood donors, it is a day to raise awareness about the global need for safe blood and how everyone can contribute.

The campaign theme for this year’s World Blood Donor Day is “Safe blood saves lives” with the slogan “Give blood and make the world a healthier place”. The idea is to focus on the contribution an individual giver can make to improve health for others in the community. Blood donations are needed all over the world to ensure individuals and communities have access to safe and quality-assured blood and blood products in both normal and emergency situations. Through the campaign, we call on more people all over the world to become life-savers by volunteering to donate blood regularly.

The objectives of this year’s campaign are to celebrate and thank individuals who donate blood and encourage more people to start donating; to raise wider awareness of the urgent need to increase the availability of safe blood for use wherever and whenever it is needed to save life; to demonstrate the need for universal access to safe blood transfusion and provide advocacy on its role in the provision of effective health care and in achieving universal health coverage; and to mobilise support at national, regional and global levels among governments and development partners to invest in, strengthen and sustain national blood programmes.

The day and the theme are also a call to action for governments, national health authorities and national blood transfusion services to provide adequate resources and put in place systems and infrastructures to increase the collection of blood from voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors; to provide quality donor care; to promote and implement appropriate clinical use of blood; and to set up systems for the oversight and surveillance on the whole chain of blood transfusion.

Are you a blood donor, if yes, here’s a huge shoutout to you and if no, please consider giving some blood to someone who needs it, if you are physically able to.

2020 Week 24 Update

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I am fed up!

It’s been almost three months of being cooped up at home and there are times it really gets to me. At least twice or thrice a week, when I wake up in the morning, it takes me a few seconds of thinking to figure out which day of the week it is. Though we can get out of the house to shop or walk, I don’t get out unless it is absolutely necessary. Because of my pre-exisiting condition, I am already immunocompromised and if I get the virus, it may prove deadly.

Singapore’s positive count as of yesterday has crossed 40,000 cases, though most of the cases are from the workers in dormitories. We are averaging about 400-500 cases on a daily basis, and I am looking forward to a day when this number comes down to a low double digit.

This week, New Zealand became  the first country to officially declare themselves COVID free and they have zero positive cases currently. This is such good news and we are all cheering the country and hope this news gets replicated worldwide and soon.

In India, on the other hand, cases are only increasing. The current tally for the country is around 310,000 and India is now number four with the highest number of cases, behind the USA, Brazil and Russia. My home state of Maharashtra leads the country in the number of cases with more than 101,000 cases and accounting for around 32% of all of cases in India. My hometown of Mumbai is the worst hit city in the country with more than 55,000 positive cases and if you add the nearby city of Thane which is usually clubbed as metropolitian Mumabai,the total increases to about 71,000 with more than 2,000 deaths. Subarban Mumbai along with Thane and together with Delhi, Ahmedabad and Chennai, these cities account for more than half of India’s COVID tally.

BB went back to school this week for some lab work and I think he will be going back at least once a week for more of lab time since that is something you can’t do as home based learning. GG on the other hand, has no need to go to school, so she is at home only. They both also had tests or assessments this past few weeks. As per their personalities, GG panicked and was wondering if she wrote the right answer or not while BB was more blase about this. They are on leave now and school for BB will start the week after next and after two weeks for GG.

Well, this was our week, have a great week people and remember, stay safe, stay sanitised and stay home!