if you want water – Shivam Diaries

If you want water, don’t command from your seat; get up, walk down to the kitchen, drink, wash the tumbler and return. If you drop your shirt button, don’t expect someone to come ; you bend, search and pick it up. In fact, it is good for your back , if you drop something or other half a dozen times, bend and pick up. All these small things help, in keeping you fit.Lying on my back, before raising from the bed, I do cycling in the air, 20,30,50 times and it forces my arthritic knees to cooperate in walking. This simple exercise works better than my tryst with tread mill. Like an elephant, I keep one part or the other of my body moving, neck to toe, which increases the flexibility of my body. You may laugh at me, but I don’t want to become a laughing stock later. Yes, that word came automatically but it is apt. Sometime, apt words appear in your tongue. If you are a daughter in law of old type, you would have experienced their sharpness. Here, I said that word is apt, because, ‘stock’ is an inventory and it doesn’t move on its own.

Earlier, as a part of my body- movement exercise, I was doing facial movements too which, especially in the presence of women from outside, proved disastrous. still, at times, I move my lips horizontally, but if my daughter or daughter in law happens to see that, they raise their forefinger to their lip and warn silently. While doing that exercise, our servant woman happened to be there once and only once. she copied my action. I didn’t like that. I didn’t reserve it; was staying yards away.

If you have no freedom to turn your lips, to right or left , in your own house, 65 years after gaining independence, was all the sacrifices we made worth?

Sandya worship, facing the rising or setting Sun is always a pleasure. Apart from sharpening my intellect and mind, it gives me plenty of scope for body movement. Eyes beam at the benevolent rays’ varnishing the whole sky, golden or purple. The finger movements on the face has to be strictly as per the prescription and not as if you are tickling your lover’s hip or back. I can’sit on my heels for a long time but I am trying to regain that lost skill. But to enjoy the Gayatri’s beauty, when you close your eyes, your inner eyes should open. For some, the inner ears will open; No good.

Inhalation and exhalation has to be proper.

“Count the number of times you breathe in a minute. Now look at the mirror. Vedic rishis have said that if your breath count is less than 10 per minute, you will exude youth, beauty and glow. If it is above 15, you have fallen prey to disease, sadness and old age.” says yogi Aswini.

” As a rule, if you are able, my teacher Srivatsa Ramaswami says you should inhale five seconds and exhale ten seconds, the idea being that when you exhale more, more toxins go out, and also with the longer exhalation, the stomach gets more empty and the inhaling capacity increases. Swami Sachidananda says that the ordinary breath gives you only 500 cubic centimeters whereas with dirga svasam you can increase it to seven times more: 3500 cm. Ancient yogis are known to have the ability to inhale 48 seconds, 96 seconds exhale, and four times retention!”, says Perinkulam Ramanthan, yoga expert, New Jersey.

In his ripe old age, he grows fresh, green vegetables which develops pink roses in his wife’s face.

In your old age, if you can develop a vegetable garden in your backyard and a rose garden in your wife’s face, you are lucky.

Sooryanamskarams helps a complete, head to toe, muscles move, blood flow.

Show me any Ganesh idol on the road side or under a banyan tree, I am there, bending my head and holding opposite earlobes,, one, two, three several times,

I don’t want to bend before everyone later, better let me do it now, before the little charming idol and make my neck muscles stronger.

There are app. 650 skeletal muscles in our body.” Muscles function to produce force and motion. They are primarily responsible for maintaining and changing posture, locomotion, as well as movement of internal organs, such as the contraction of the heart and the movement of food through the digestive system via peristalsis.” says Wikipedia.You may not be in your winter, but winter has to follow a summer. So, be prepared And if you are already in winter, go to kitchen, collect your plate, sit on the floor and eat. Important: Before you eat, bend and serve your wife .You will live long. Your wife has already achieved long life for her, by hard work . Gone are the days of aattukkal, ammi, oral, olakkai and other hard cooking implements which were the sentinels for the health of our women folk . We can still retain our broom stick for sweeping and white cloth for mopping the floor. If you have these two and use them regularly , there is no need for a gym at home.

Whenever I come to USA, a watermelon grows in my belly, for want of walk, walk which was part of my life at Hyderabad. Looking pitiably at that growth, I asked my nephew, Dr. Ramu,

“what to do?”

”Cut carbo and take a walk after food”, he advised .

I have switched over to wheat diet to reduce my carbohydrate intake .

About walk after a meal:

“Over the years, researchers have found that a post-meal walk, as short as 15 minutes, can in fact help with digestion and improve blood sugar levels. In one study in 2008, German researchers looked at what happened when people ate a large meal and then consumed either an espresso or an alcoholic digestif — like brandy or flavored liqueur — or walked at a slow pace on a treadmill. Walking, they found, sped the rate at which food moved through the stomach. The beverages had no effect.

In other studies, researchers have found that walking has a significant effect on blood sugar after meals. Blood sugar typically rises and then falls after eating, but large spikes and variations can raise cardiovascular riskand potentially signal diabetes”.

Remember the words of Nambeesan Vaidyar in Sreekanteswaram, long ago.

”Rento,nalo chakram ulla rakshasanmar untenkil, avarae vadhikku”

Discard if you have a two or a four w
heeler. The literal meaning is ” kill if there are two or four wheeled demons with you” .

Before that, even to post a letter into the box across, I used to take a vehicle . To shout at someone a mile away, now, I walk and by the time I reach his place, my fuel gets exhausted and I smile at him. ”I thought,you came to rain blows”,he asks.

‘No, to drain my fat”, I reply