In the last two years of walking, February 2022 has been my worst month. I walked more even in January 2021 when I first started. I need to get off this malaise that has affected me and start walking anew. Doing this monthly update is good because today after I realised how much behind I am, I am determined to finish my daily quota. I am in Nagaland now and on the outskirts of its capital city, Kohima. I am hoping to walk through Nagaland this month and enter the largest of the northeastern states Assam. Then it’s past the chicken neck in West Bengal and I will soon reach the state of Bihar.

I have been reading a fair bit this month and am at about 15% of my annual target. I am hoping to read at least one non-fiction a month this year and so far I am on course for that. I am also feeling a tad bit overwhelmed because in addition to the housework, cooking and work, I have to read and write and sometimes this becomes hard and I end up dropping one, which usually happens to be my walking. I need to figure out how to do it all and when I do so, I will update you.

GG starts her internship tomorrow and she will be at a big 4 company doing something she is currently interested in. The internship will let her figure out if this is indeed what she wants to do in the future or if she needs to move to something else.

Today’s quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Emerson exhorts us to not be pushed by our problems but to let our dreams lead us to where we want to and need to be. This is a lesson I need to learn, so this quote is very timely.

And on that note, stay safe and see you all next week!

It’s been a week now since R has gone back to India and I am slowly getting into a routine of managing the housework, cooking, work and writing. But in all this, my meditation and walking seem to have suffered the most. This month, I have not walked as much as I usually do, so I am sure my steps this month will be highly impacted. But next week is a new month and the chance to redo things, so that will be my restart for my steps and my meditation.

My parents are now more or less settled in their new home and say they are far busier here than they were in Mumbai. With the stress of cooking and cleaning taken care of, they can focus more on making my father better. Also, our previous flat was on the third floor of a walk-up building and so my father, who has Parkinson’s, was unable to walk which is now easily possible because they are on the second floor of a building which has a lift. They have a nurse on-site and any potential medical problems will be easily dealt with. This is such a huge relief for my sister and me.

Singapore is firmly in the grip of the Omicron wave and all we can do is stay masked and sanitise our hands whenever we go out. But if fingers crossed, we do get infected, we know now that since we are all triple vaccinated, we will not be impacted so much. It will be, hopefully, as bad as a bad cold, and we will come out of this healthy.

Today’s quote comes from the American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey who is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. She says the greatest lesson of life is that you are responsible for your life. When we think about it, this is so true and resonates with me. I know I am responsible for everything that happens, both good and bad, and so I need to work to make sure that more good things are happening in my life as opposed to the bad.

So, signing off this week with the usual caution of staying safe, staying masked and getting vaccinated if you are not already.

I’ve been back in Singapore for a week now and this week, R, my helper went to India. She had already planned on the trip, but because her father suddenly took a turn for the worse, she decided to leave as soon as she could. But unfortunately for her, the day after she booked her ticket, he father suddenly passed away. She was distraught, but could not leave earlier because the airline didn’t fly daily and she needed to do PCR tests and other formalities before she leaves.

Luckily for her, when some of her relatives wanted to cremate her father immediately, her son, cousin and brother-in-law took a stand and kept the body in a morgue till she reached and the cremation took place the day after she landed in India. I felt sorry for her because she so wanted to meet her father and get her son married in his presence, but life had other goals for her. Now, she will come back after a couple of months once she gets her son married and settled. Until then, we are on our own. It’s a good learning period for all of us, especially GG & BB as they will learn valuable life skills in this period.

Speaking of whom, they are currently having their end of the semester exams which should end by the end of the month. GG will have a week’s break and then start her internship while BB gets to enjoy his holiday. His industrial attachment will be in his last semester before he gets called up to do his National Service. He has also gotten called up for his NS medical exam which will happen soon.

This week’s quote is about utilising opportunities and is credited to the American actor and comedian, Milton Berle. He reminds us that if opportunity doesn’t knock, we should build a door and do all that we can to ensure that we are available when the opportunity comes calling.

Stay safe everyone and talk soon! 

Hello from Singapore! I am finally back from my three week holiday in India. It has been a hectic three weeks, but it was so worth it. I got to not only meet my parents after 2 years but also helped them close their home in Mumbai and shift to a senior retirement community in Bengaluru. I know it would have been very hard for them to do it themselves and I am happy that I could help them out.

Here in Bengaluru, I also got to meet relatives and cousins, some of whom I had not met in years, so that was another plus. But now I am back home and will go back to my usual routine of meditation and walking which I had missed while in India.

Ever since I landed in India, Omicron cases have been increasing in Singapore. We’ve been getting more than 10,000 cases daily. India’s cases on the other hand seem to be dropping after a peak in the third week of January.

Today’s quote is something that the American author, coach, speaker, and philanthropist Tony Robbins has said. Robbins who is is known for his infomercials, seminars, and self-help books reminds us that our past does not equal our future. Simple, to the point and something we all tend to forget most of the time. So forget what you did yesterday, focus on today and tomorrow.

And with that, bye from me for this week!

Hello once again from Mumbai. Here’s a gorgeous sunrise from our building terrace. I have been so busy the past week, I don’t have much time to walk. So I have been trying to walk at least 40-50 minutes each morning since I usually do wake up pretty early. There’s a lovely nip in the air and in the week I have been the temperature have been hovering between 15-20 degrees Celcius which, for those who know Mumbai is very unusual, especially for this time of the year. Mumbai usually gets a cold spell sometime in December, usually between Christmas and the New Year, but this cold spell has been chilly and most days I wear a light cardigan and a shawl to cover my ears when I am walking. But the air quality in Mumbai is really bad, the result of a dust storm in the middle east and India’s western border areas which were pushed to Mumbai via the winds and the Arabian Sea. Hopefully, the air quality gets better soon because some days I can smell the smoke and have problems breathing.

This week, I did get a text message and then a call from the local authorities asking me to first stay home for a week and then asking me if I had any symptoms. From this, I understand that the information we share on the Air Suvidha portal is not fully shared with the local authorities because the person I spoke to didn’t know that I was fully vaccinated.

Today’s quote comes to us courtesy of the English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era, George Eliot whose real name was Mary Ann Evans. This quote tells that it’s never too late to come into your true self. Many a time, we don’t do what we want to do because we are concerned we are too old, too young and too busy. But according to Eliot, that’s not true, we can do anything and everything we want to do until we are probably dead.

That’s all from me this week. Stay safe, stay masked and get vaccinated. Till next week, goodbye from Mumbai!