Four Trophies and a T-Shirt

After we finish the 60 day challenge at Bikram Yoga San Jose, there is a "Challenge Party" a couple of weeks later. Everyone who finishes collects a trophy and says a few sentences about what made them take up the Challenge, what they learned over those 60 days and their Yoga experience in general, especially if they are first time challengers.

This year was my 5th time finishing this challenge. Did share my thoughts on the challenge at the party.

The question that lot of you have asked me can be summarized as "you go almost every day when you are here? so what is the point of this 60 day challenge?" and the short answer is?

The challenge makes me realize what I take for granted. Normally if it it raining outside or if I have a fever, sore throat, too many meetings that go in late and are stressful, I have the option to say "will skip today and go tomorrow", but not during the challenge. Once that day is past and the last chance to go to class at 8:30PM is missed, that day is not coming back. 

It teaches you that when it is time to make a choice between having a dinner and crashing vs. going to yoga late at night or doing back to back classes over weekend to make up for travel, the tougher decision is the one you have to make when challenged. That spills into real life, when it is time to roll up your sleeves and do the right thing by your work or with your kids or family. 

This year, the trophies changed to a T-shirt. The family likes this move as they would rather see me in newer T-shirts!

 While colleting that shirt, had an idea to take a shot of me doing balancing stick pose (Tuladandasana) with the awards on my back wearing the new shirt. 

However, this is take 6/8 and it required the support of wife and both kids to execute. In class you hold it for 10 seconds. I had to do this pose for more than a minute and a half back to back .. guess the knee locking went to the dogs by take 6 and the leg is not as high as I thought it was and the head is not as low as is should be! Need to put a mirror on the sidewall of the new home studio to help me make adjustments.. 

There is no substitute for a mirror!

As a wise man once told me (translation : as Brad Colwell told me two months ago), "pain is temporary, but a photograph is forever!" . Should have done a few more takes.. but the folks got tired of having to place those trophies on my back within that 10 second window and take them back just when I could hold it no longer. 

I also had to put up with snarky comments after every take like "your posture sucks. Your leg is not up yet. why can't you just hold on a little longer".. I wanted to launch into a long lecture on "come and do this 6 times back to back and then talk .. etc. etc." but held back. I needed their co-operation and they were giving me their valuable time for this crazy idea of mine. So took a few deep breaths, smiled and said "please, one more try"!

See, the yoga helps!

Now for the usual graphs and charts. There was travel and bugs during this challenge as previous ones, but rain or shine (more rain than shine this year) and sickness or health, showed up and did the best I could. You can see that the last three years has seen me finishing the challenge with lots of doubles, thanks to travel. Sometimes I just wish to be able to do this yoga once a day and take that for granted, but you all know my lesson learned already.

This is the weight chart. Have to analyze this throughout the years to see trends. Within the 60 days, seem to go from a 150 to a 140lb range in last few years possibly because of Christmas vacation weight gain?! 

Here is the data since the excel data collection was more or less regular.. 

It has been stable more or less over the last five years and that is a good thing. 

Have made new friends over the years and during the course of this challenge and learned a lot more than "don't take things for granted". 

Definitely recommend folks to try this 60 day Challenge, even if you are new to Yoga. It is a morphing experience. You definitely start as a larva and come out a butterfly in those 60 days or something close to that, and you learn to assimilate a few things on the way and leave a few things behind as well that don't serve you!

On a side note, my wife never tried dancing but was my biggest critic when she watched me dance. Now we have three people who are armchair critics of my yoga poses. 

Sadly, they are getting very good at the critiquing thing and their points are all valid! 

So there is more to work on....

The backrash

It has been some time since I posted anything. It has been a busy week, trying to recover at home, at work, trying to claw my way back to a new normal.

The doctors realized that without antibiotics, my situation was not going to improve but there was the allergic reactions to deal with. So they gave me a different antibiotic and that helped take out all other problems except the rash.

For the first time in three weeks, went to work Monday through Friday and made it ! Also did the usual daddy stuff at home without dozing off in the evenings! So it has been a good week. 

The only thing that bugs me is that my skin which was the envy of Jr. and the little one is now unrecognizable. They used to touch my shoulder or forearms and say "daddy, your skin is so smooth and shiny!" and my response used to be "hey, do you know how much I have sweat through that skin to get it so smooth and shiny? you know what to do if you want to have the same thing!"  

Right now, the front and sides are past the itch and have scabed over. The lower back and all around the belt area is still in bad shape. 

Apparently rubbing your hand over this area feels like petting a lizard or a baby crocodile.  The doctors tell me that this might take another MONTH to get over. I am just praying that it stops itching. Croc skin, no problem. I don't see crocs itching and scratching themselves all day long.

On the bright side, I went to BYSJ and asked my teacher "do you think people will object if I come to yoga class looking like this?" and the response was "It is so sweet of you to check. Folks come here with all kinds of tattoos.. think of this as a tattoo and just come and do your best. worse case just sit down in the room for 90 minutes"

Planning to start from scratch, again, tomorrow.

"It's never too late, it's never too bad and you're never too old or too sick to start from scratch once again."

What bugs me is that after being so fresh and healthy and doing a 60 day challenge and feeling like a well oiled piece of machinery, a few sick folks on a plane and a few small micro organisms can reduce me to this and I have to start from scratch.

Take a deep breath in, deep breath out.. repeat a few times.. 

Now time to move on.

Perspectives

Another hospital visit, this time with San chauffering me. We go to the reception desk and the lady gives me a mask to wear. I give her a look and she goes "don't you have rashes?" 

Did not respond to her. She wet wiped the pen I used to sign the credit card bill. I smiled inside. Then came the kicker. Please go to that railing and stand there.

Me : I am very tired and drowsy. Can I just sit in one of these chairs? The doc told me day before yesterday that this is not contagious

Rec: The folks here don't know that. Also because you have rashes a nurse will be right out to get you to a room. 

After waiting near the rails for a good 5 minutes and watching two more people go in, I just sit cross legged on the floor near the railing. Realizing my trouble the receptionist was nice. She got out of her pen and took me inside and said "sorry. I thought they will be faster". 

Then comes a nurse. I go to get my blood pressure checked and remove my jacket. She gets a look at my arm and starts scratching her face. 

Me : What happened?

Nurse : Sorry. Just looking at your arm makes me itch! I don't know why!

For a second my mind just went ballistic on her. Do you have any freaking idea woman that the only thing I want to do right now is to remove my shirt and go rub myself against that opposite textured wall that looks like sand paper? Do you have any idea that I am using all those years of shavasana training just to sit still here? I actually "want".. NO NO NO "need" to itch right now and you are doing it just by looking at me?

How will this woman ever survive J's class is she were to take it, without getting a lecture on "want" vs. "need" when it comes to itching and scratching? the mind was wandering off. 

I took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. The world was not fair and hey, it never claimed to be, so what the hell?

She found a way to carefully place the blood pressure monitor sensor out of a rash and took my pressure. Was expecting to see a reading of zillion / zero. It actually read 104/60. Somehow all those things that were going on in the head, I had not taken to heart. It was nice to know.

Again, she said sorry as she meticulously wet wiped the sensor they put in your fingertip and the pressure equipment. I mumbled something to the effect of "it is okay" and "you know they tell me it is not contagious, but everything you guys keep doing tells me otherwise" . She said "we do it as a habit when we see rashes"

Then while sitting in the room the thought of what these nurses and receptionists and doctors go through in their line of work just hit me. 

Here I am thinking of becoming an anti social simply to avoid contact with strangers in planes and airport lounges to minimize picking up new germs when they go in the exact opposite direction knowing the risks? Can I blame them for wiping everything?

These people put their lives at risk day in and day out dealing with body fluids that are known contaminated for the most part and one mistake could cost them and the odds of that mistake happening are much higher in a hospital than in an United flight. (okay, maybe that last one needs to be really investigated, but let's assume United planes have less sick individuals than hospitals for now, okay?)

One thing that made it through my thick head was that my tendency to judge quickly based on what I saw has not changed or improved. I still judge.. but 9/10 times these days I go back and re-evaluate my stand and am okay to stand corrected within a few seconds or minutes. It would be nice to not judge instantly, but that has been me for 40+ years, so it will take time to change that habbit. 

On the way out, did make it a point to thank each and everyone of the folks who helped me. That was a few days ago.

The last few days have been muddling through work, taking phone calls at home and no driving. Walking in the backyard with no shirt on exposing the glorious rashes to Ra for him to do the rest. Seriously they told me that 5-10 minutes of direct sunlight will help. 

This morning was tough. I had chills all last night and my body was aching so bad that I took a day off of work and went back to bed. When I woke up, it was almost 3PM. Had slept through the entire day from 10PM to 3PM skipping breakfast and lunch. 

Took a shower, did the sunlight thing and put on some more ointments and checked my mail.. and that brings to the second perspective. There were four people who were suggesting that this was an insect bite and six suggesting that I should stop doing Bikram Yoga immediately as it was probably the root cause of all problems. These are all people who are family and very close friends.

The doctors are saying that this is most likely a case of "pityreasis rosea" where the cause is a virus or it is an amoxycillin reaction. They told me that heat will make the rashes more obvious and it is good to not overheat and take warm water showers instead of hot water showers. But they also tell me that Bikram yoga cannot cause this. It can only make the rashes look more purple.

Telling my family and friends that "Bikram yoga is good for you" (exception is wife, MIL and kids)  is like going to a Fox news show and saying "Islam is a peaceful religion"!  Recently in one of those United lounge conversations a guy tells me "Terrorism is in the muslim religion itself!". I was just taken aback. Simply did not know how to react to it. Here is a devout Christian telling a not so devout Hindu that Islam is synonymous with terrorism and I don't have a witty comeback.

Most of the folks who have never set foot in a hot room have an opinion on Bikram Yoga from the media? It is usually opinions, not facts. "If this is what I perceive and I am in the media, it has to be true.. because I am on TV and you are on your couch".. well that seems to be the trend these days.

Have never been a Muslim so I have no right to make a judgement call on the religion, but we do have muslim friends and families who are just like us. Hardworking, sincere, family men and women who go about their day. Some go pray every friday and some don't. Their kids are as normal as ours from every view point. There are definitely data points that tell me that the "all muslims are violent" statement is false.  

Incidentally, it was my 4 year anniversary and I was "itching" to go do Yoga to commemorate, but all I ended up doing was itch. It was depressing. Have written so many posts on my experience with Bikram Yoga over the last 4 years. 

My family and friends sometimes don't see why I love it so much. It is not possible for everyone to experience every religion before making statements on it. One can only hope that all good religions teach the message of understanding and eventually transcending religion to see the god within oneself and others is the final step for religious graduation. 

Same thing for Yoga. I cannot make everyone go experience the hot room and then make up their mind. Tried that and realized that not everyone can see the value of sweating it out for 90 minutes with a bunch of strangers in front of a mirror.

San did try it after my MIL and me repeatedly asked her to try and after 30 classes she said "It is a great feeling after the class finishes, but I simply cannot handle the smell Sundar! I have no idea how you do it, but it is not for me. You go as much as you want, but don't ask me to join you!"  Now that is a sense of realism that I can handle. She is a better person than me for cutting to the chase and saying "if it works for you great. go for it"

The kids used to come for the family class (warm room instead of hot) and loved it. The minute Jr. came to the adult class she stopped after 4 classes. Her reason? "Daddy, I am practically on the floor after the warm up. The teacher told me that my blood pressure is not same as adults so I will feel dizzy. I feel bad sitting down when others are trying so hard all around me. Don't want to be a spoil sport". When she comes up with something like that in all sincereity, I said "fine, do your one mile run every day. maybe you can come try with me in a few years"

The little one nonchalantly states "you know I can TOTALLY do it if I want to.. I really CAN! It is just that I DON'T want to do it!" . Personally the little one is ready for everything and nothing at the same time. She is going to kill me sooner or later in just trying to figure her out.

In all this drowsiness, I read a message that said "by the way, the guy who started the yoga you do, is being arrested for something or other. maybe you should seriously rethink going to this yoga". That is when I closed one browser window, opened another and started typing this post. 

Having never met Bikram and knowing him only though the Yoga routine he has passed on, if someday I meet him, the only words I will have for him are "THANK YOU!" and it will be in a much bigger font than that.

There is no way I can judge him for anything else other than this routine, which is sheer brilliance. 

The short straw

A friend recently told me "It seems like you picked the short straw when God was handing out health blessings"

Another friend told San this weekend "Next time Sundar comes back from traveling, you should have all the doctors on standby in the tarmac!"

As soon as I come into the house from the airport the little one asks "Daddy, are you sick?" and she sees my facial expression and goes "was just guessing!"

Given all the innuendoes at home and around that go to my face and sometimes behind my back, it is time to take a hard look at the statement "I am normally healthy". Given there is an army of people who wish and pray for my health, must be pretty bad at straws for me to be this way.

It is time to face that statement head on and go "Nope, I am not". I have bent that statement to mean "Normal" equals eating only home cooked food, severe diet restrictions, interacting only with known people and a minimum people set at that which are by default healthy (read that as no travel)  and getting regular exercise (Yoga has become like rehab for me and if I stay away for a few weeks things get bad very fast very soon).

It is also true that I pushed myself a lot towards end of February. However all said and done, was not prepared for what was to come this weekend. 

Came back from Asia, took a shower and took a good look at myself in the mirror and was shocked to find my body covered in rashes. They must have been there in Asia but given the night time showers and funky hotel bathroom lighting, somehow did not notice them. They were also not itching till I was on the flight.

The last 72 hours has been quite an ordeal, trying to lie down in any position, avoiding itching or being on drowsy medication, praying that this is not something contagious. 

The good part is that is this not pox, measles or herpes. We waited impatiently for 48 hours to get those results. The root cause is not known. The docs are guessing that this is my body having a delayed reaction to the antibiotics taken last month! Apparently when they give you multiple antibiotics at the same time, the body can fight it and cause this problem. Wish we had known that then! Would have skipped all the pills completely

Anyways, right now I am not a pretty sight and the wife and kids were not happy given I wander around the house without a shirt.

Some of these are large and growing.. wonder how big they will grow before it stops! 

Hey, I am a technology guy who is known for anal retentive documentation.. So had to put that Quarter there for a size comparison. Also trying to still keep a sense of humor given the situation!

This thing is not contagious, but if something can spread within "one body" and grow, the default thought is "this has to be contagious if it grows that fast".. again, we are not doctors and that is where Fact trumps Opinion. 

Right now I am on drowsy anti itch medication after painting ointment on the dots carefully and selectively, and sitting in my underwear in a closed bedroom.

Soon I will attain nirvana, with all this sitting meditation!

From Madras to Monsanto...

When we were young, the tradition in South Indian brahmin families was to give newborn kids something called "Urai Marundhu". Urai is grinding and Marundhu is medicine. The recipe for this medicine was handed down from generation to generation and it was not something that was written down as far as I know. 

Pretty sure that with the modern generation of "all knowing" women who simply dismiss tradition thanks to their Westernization and belief that Google has all the answers you need to raise a child, these recipes will be gone. Even if the recipes survive, the select roots and seeds that one needs to make this medicine will disappear from the planet. 

Now coming to the details of said medicine, it is a combination of 7-8 seeds, dried fruit pods and rhizomes that are ground into a paste, then put in a bath of cow dung (that is the best way to describe it and the Tamil term they use is "padam pannaradhu"), and finally a small part of this paste is given to newborns along with mothers milk.

Grandmas will say "this will help the babies with digestion for the rest of their life". They also have another quick fix recipe for babies with gas problems using "Omam sorasam" which is an extract of a seed that is similar to Thyme called Ajwain or Omam.

Modern mothers will prefer to give drops of Mylecon or Woodwards gripe water. I am reasonably sure that the mechanism for instant gas relief is similar in the store bought medicine and the natural remedy if you study it using the typical western scientific method. 

Now if you pop quiz grandma on the details of why the medicine has to be kept surrounded by cow dung, they will tell you that the cow dung imparts certain digestive qualities that come from the cow's intestines to the babies and it is essential for the kid to help digest food, in this case mostly plant food!

Maybe the term for bacteria didn't exist in their vocabulary! You can go ask your doctor and it is a fact that folks who are vegetarian all their life will have issues when they suddenly try eating meat as they might not have the bacteria to digest meat in their gut.  It is also true ( I don't need to publish a study to prove this) that antibiotics do a number on vegetarian stomachs as they kill good and bad bacteria in the process. My family doctor used to prescribe a "only thachi mammu" (rice with home made yogurt.. read bacteria!) diet when we were on antibiotics to bring our digestion back to normal. I am not sure how much these antibiotics affect folks who eat a predominantly meat based diet or how their sensitivity to a bacterial imbalance is different from vegetarians. If you know of studies, do let me know. If you are a predominant meat eater and you get a loose stomach when you take antibiotics, that is enough of  a study!

Why bring this all up and why drag Monsanto into this? I do not hate Monsanto, but don't love them either. Now, I don't hate Monsanto because they did come up with many new technologies that help feed more people in a planet where the resource distribution is screwed up (a man made problem that was not Monsanto's creation).

However, with the amount of money and influence they have, they do get away with experiments that affect the entire planet, with little or no oversight. This is not just Monsanto.

Take Novartis for example. They came up with Dichlofenac. There are eagles and vultures that are considered holy (as scavengers for dead bodies in certain communities) and as gods representatives in other communities and they are all now on the endangered species list because dichlofenac which goes from dead cow carcases to these birds causes renal failure in the birds. Would they have predicted this? would they have been required to study the effect of dichlofenac containing meat on scavenging birds? Probably not. Should they? 

Monsanto is now synonymous with "Genetically modified" crops. This whole modification seems to be a loose term. The devil is in the details. What exactly is the modification? How does that affect the end product? How do these modifications impact things downstream? On who in which way? Will the "studies" that are required to make these products available to the public be required to test these and to what level of detail? You have to be fair to the Monsanto guys as well. You cannot say "test this on every human genotype and only then we will approve". The world is supposed to work with the greatest good for the greatest many principle. 

That said, just like all crops are not created equal, all people are not created equal either! Our genes are different. A big part of what makes our body is millions of bacteria that have a symbiotic relationship with us. So while it is not possible to test the effect of a Genetically modified crop on "all humans" one has to do enough work to understand what goes downstream. 

Will specifically bring up corn, which is a topic close to my heart. When I came to this country 20 years ago (yes it has been that long in the US), corn was a new thing to me. We did not have corn as a staple food in India. It was something we ate as a treat when we visited the beach in the form of roasted corn. Later we got introduced to "popcorn" which again was not that popular compared to sandwitches, samosas, vada pavs and chai when we went to the movies!  Over the years have seen a proliferation of corn here that we can call it corniferation!

Twenty years ago when you got a cup of Hot Cocoa or Hot chocolate you would assume it contained Milk (or milk powder) and chocolate, and you would be right! Today open up any brand of Hot chocolate and it will have a label which goes something like "As much calcium as a glass of milk" or some such thing to mislead you into thinking that it is comparable to milk. Most of these packets will not list ingredients. If you do get your hands on the big carton itself, the ingredients will show "Corn Syrup, Sugar, etc. etc. and as the fifth or sixth ingredient Whey Protein(some will say from Milk, others won't say from where)! In other words, the hot chocolate of today is nothing but flavored corn syrup. The issue is that over time the messaging and the obfuscation get you to let your guard down in a very systematic way. 

Take Yogurt. Go read the ingredients. Corn starch is now a major part of Yogurt. Why bother feeding corn to the cows, let them convert that to milk, take the time to make cultured yogurt out of it when you can just take corn starch and make that more than 50% of the yogurt?! Now the thing that upsets me is that if this is the logic for economics of scale, then why feed a lot more corn to the cows to get meat! Make corn taste like meat and have it as 50% of sausages or hot dogs. I will bet you money that there will be a revolution in this country if that happens. 

In my opinion, next to guns, the second thing that Americans in general defend as part of their way of life to the outside world, is their right to eat meat and lots of it! Used to think that it is probably part of the amendments because getting veggie food on the highways was a lot more difficult than getting meat of some kind in my early days here.

That meant french fries and milk shakes at McDonalds or Burger King when traveling.  Guess what? Go to the fast food places today and you will see a "subtle" change in the menu board. The Milk Shake with Vanilla, chocolate or strawberry has quietly been replaced with Shakes. I am guessing that these shakes are not milk based anymore and my second guess is that it is also more than 50% corn syrup. There is no ingredient list for this that I can get my hands on, so if you know I am right or way off base, do drop in a note.

Being a vegetarian, my main source of protein is Milk, lentils, the vegetable(singular by intent) that is part of lunch and dinner and the occasional fruit and fruit juice from the local Jamba. The milk that was part of the diet at places outside the house has been replaced by corn. As long as that corn does not have any side effects and the product folks come out and are honest about what is there in the ingredients, then one gets to control the intake. 

Too much of anything is not good for the body. They say in Tamil "Alavukku minjinaal amirthamum visham!" which translates to "When taken in excess, even the nectar of the gods becomes poison!". It is one thing to have corn as part of your diet. It is another thing altogether to have it as almost all of your diet. 

It is just a question of time before my wine drinking friends will find out that their wine is now replaced slowly with 80% corn syrup, 15% paint thinner, 3% grape extract and 2% of other unmentionables! Then you will be buying Organic wine at $2,999 a bottle!

Going back to the topic of Urai Marundhus, not sure how many other communities do something like that. For the record, we did give both our kids the marundhu. Chances are they are more immune to "overcorning" (I should copyright that term) as they were born and raised here but one never knows.

What is more interesting is that western research is slowly catching up to some of this stuff..

Here are some recent links..

a. oral bacteria

b. Dicholfenac causing vulture extinction and why watching the birds at Thirukazhugukundram might be history (My grandpa took me and my brother to see the pair of birds come feed when I was about 9 and still remember it! the photo in wiki is from 1906.. guess it is true that they have been coming for 100's of years. It is always 2 birds and that still makes me think how. there, I have digressed on a reference thread. No wonder I get lost on freeways!)

b. Pacifiers that transfer bacteria from parents to children

c. a study on gut bacteria to which I am ready to go become a specimen

d. Trillions of bacteria that make up human bodies and more on them

e. want to know about "fecal transplants" that might save your life? Well, looks like these guys don't know about Urai Marundhu and Padam parthufying! 

My grandmother would be worth many Ph.D.'s if one tenth of the stuff she knew that was passed on from generation to generation was translated in western scientific jargon! 

I do not expect Monsanto to do a study on the effect of Genetically modified corn( don't know which of those modifications passes on a natural herbicide to the corn itself) on a south Indian vegetarian gut. Even if this thing is extremely hazardous to a very small population, don't think the world would care. It will be collateral damage because that is how the world works these days. For now, if they at least say they have done something drastically different, can at least reduce the intake of the new stuff, see how the body reacts and make a decision to avoid it.

As a person who is allergic to peanuts and sesame seeds and who watches the ingredient list on anything and everything, the new corn variants could have an impact. I do not know for sure, but the only way to protect myself is to do a controlled study (on myself) and then decide!

On yet another side note, Omam (mentioned earlier in this post) contains 50% Thymol, which is a bacteria killer! Apparently european scientists started talking to Egyptian, Iranian and desi grandmas in the late 1700's and finally isolated Thymol as a chemical compound in 1800's and promptly patented it, and found applications to use it as a cure for gum disease, preserve paper, be added to cigarettes for a great flavor and even make shit smell nicer!

Sarcasm apart, the regulatory bodies that allow these modifications can only go so far. The rest is left to the users as a buyer beware. This buyer wants more information to be aware! That is all...