Chicken run vs Vegan run

I often find myself questioning whether reading books actually teaches me anything, or if it’s simply another form of entertainment—albeit a rather poor one at times. But every so often, something I’ve read will unexpectedly stick with me, making all the difference. When I was your age, I, too, developed the habit of reading, and back then, there was one author who reigned supreme in the world of novels. In one of his books, he mentioned that even in the most unfortunate situations—say, an accident—you can learn valuable lessons, like how following traffic rules can make a difference. I’ve never forgotten that quote—except, of course, when I’m behind the wheel. Now, you might wonder how this connects to what I’m about to say. You might even argue it’s a classic case of finding patterns in everything. But honestly, what you think doesn’t matter here, its my blog; what I think is the only thing that counts.

Four months ago, on an unfortunate day, I found myself visiting the GP for what seemed like a trivial illness—a mild fever and a cold. Whenever I catch a cold, it tends to drag on for 10 to 15 days, which feels like an eternity. I was hoping the GP would offer some magic cure to speed things up. She assured me to cure the cold within two weeks with no medication. As a bonus, she decided to check my blood pressure. The first time the monitor started running, it shot up like my electricity bill, quickly exceeding the limit and flashing an “E” for error. I thought it meant infinity, but she calmly reassured me it was likely a malfunction and made some adjustments to take the reading again. But the machine, perhaps sensing the change, started running again, only to stop once more after hitting infinity. The GP, frustrated with the device’s refusal to cooperate, tried to tame it. She yanked at the wires, shook the machine a couple of times, and adjusted it further. Finally, the device, exhausted by the ordeal, settled at 165/105.

Looking at the reading, the GP’s concern was clear. But we’d already spent 8 minutes of our 10-minute appointment wrestling with that machine. Sensing her dilemma, I decided to intervene. I mentioned that I had a family history of high blood pressure and that I was quite familiar with blood pressure monitors. I offered to track my blood pressure every day for the next two weeks and return for further analysis. She seemed relieved and let me go without any more fuss. On the way home, I cursed myself for making such a big deal of this common cold. It was still there, so had to keep blowing it, but also blew it out of proportion this time. As it turns out, this treasure of high blood pressure is our family friend, everyone shares it. A decade ago, another GP had caught it during a routine checkup and placed me under 24-hour surveillance. Fortunately, I stayed just below the 130/90 threshold, narrowly avoiding medication. Then I bought a blood pressure monitor and became obsessed with it for a while. But the wildly fluctuating readings drove me crazy, don't really like anything or anyone—that changes its mind constantly. When my kids stole the batteries for their remote car, it made me feel very relaxed, with a feeling of BP going down substantially down! From then, I successfully avoided having my blood pressure tested in any setting, thereby managing to keep it in check. But, as they say, no good lasts forever.

In a series of unfortunate events, I found myself watching a Netflix series called You Are What You Eat  a week ago. The show, with its vegan agenda, followed a fascinating experiment involving identical twins—one of whom went vegan, while the other maintained a regular diet. It tracked the effects of 8 weeks of plant-based living. The series discussed the dangers of antibiotics in the poultry industry, which made me feel sympathetic toward chickens. I didn't say 'who cares about the chickens given our own rampant use of antibiotics in humans?'. Then they went after farmed fish, revealing their heavily processed diets and the use of artificial colors to mimic the wild varieties. That stung a bit, considering my tendency to buy wild-caught Pacific salmon—at twice the price over Atlantic salmon. But the real kicker came when it revealed the dark secrets of the dairy industry. That’s when I totally submitted myself! Finally, someone was not just bashing the poor meat-eaters, it would be disrespectful not to listen to them.

But going vegan from a strict non-vegetarian diet is like changing religions. I couldn’t walk around with my head held high in society if I made such a drastic change because of my poor health. However, I have run out of options to tame that rebellious blood pressure monitor. Following this sacred vegan diet for 8 weeks felt like a catastrophe waiting to happen. I am stepping into this storm of clouds and rain, but if I played my cards right, I could use it to escape from the radar. That’s when Arjun fell into my trap. After all, I’m your dad, with deeply-rooted Indian values! The trap was simple: I casually mentioned how bad I am at controlling my food habits and how incredible Arjun had been in sticking to a vegetarian diet for two years, despite intense maternal pressure. He grew an inch taller in pride, gleaming with glee. I pushed on, claiming that I could outdo him in self-discipline by going vegan for three months—if I only had the right motivation. The others quickly chimed in, claiming I was all talk and no action. Arjun joined in as well, eager to settle an unrelated score with me. That’s when I threw out the perfect bait: I challenged him to become a non-vegetarian if I succeeded in being vegan for three months. Arjun, ever the sharp one, hesitated for a moment, but then, swept up in the excitement to take the challenge. The others joined in, confident they would win either way. Finally, Arjun had taken the bait, and I had my perfect excuse to experiment with veganism—and, more importantly, to break Arjun’s two-year streak of discipline and out perform him.

When I was younger, one of my aunts used to call me a leech. I’m not sure which one she hated more, but she certainly studied me well. It’s a bit hard for me to let go of things I latch onto. That trait came in handy when it came to my vegan experiment. Chicken, fish, and eggs didn’t stand a chance. But my morning coffee? That was a different story. Milk was off the table, and soy milk? Well, that was an abomination—I would’ve preferred high blood pressure over that any day. I tried almond milk and coconut milk, but none of them made my coffee worth drinking. Finally, I found oat milk, which was surprisingly good, perhaps because I was no longer comparing it to my original milk-based coffee. Once that hurdle was cleared, everything else became easier, as long as I ignored the occasional traces of ghee that would make its way into my food without Arjun's knowledge. Not that I like it or need it, but I can't make people change their way of cooking always! I continued my vegan journey, travelling with my head held high, impressed with my newfound self-control. It felt surreal. My blood pressure had dropped considerably. I used my free private insurance to get a comprehensive check-up, ticking off all the boxes for the tests. While the Netflix series had certainly influenced me, I knew that it wasn’t just the veganism that helped—it was the broader lifestyle changes that came along with it. I gave it a grand send-off by finishing a sub two hours half marathon. I was in the best shape I’d been in for years, with my vegan run proving substantially better than chicken run! 

After four months of my vegan experiment, I returned to my “normal” life—but it wasn’t the same as before. That old unhealthy lifestyle could never return. An hour or two of exercise became my new norm. Junk food felt more like medicine than a treat. Alcohol was only allowed in good company. And I made an oath to continue my veganism for one month every year, just to remember the lessons it taught me. I think I was probably a bit drunk that day, so may not take it very seriously!

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PS: This was written long back, sometime in May 2024, but I got so busy with my active life that I just forgot to publish it! 

2023 recap

Another year passed by, as always, we celebrated yet again, as a ritual that should never be missed. It is indeed a ritual, as I never bothered to think of how the year was spent and how I want the new year to be. All that matters is how the last day of the year is being spent, making the most of the present. Now that I have seen 43 such occasions, I do see the value of these rituals. I don't intent to search for meanings in these rituals by trying to review how the year went by, though some times I wonder it isn't that boring either. The more you watch the netflix, the more you end up getting poor quality content.

By this time I have become so consistent in setting up my goals that I don't even have to think twice. The goals haven't changed for me for quite some time. It is so much easier when you are the only one to review how well you have done with your last year goals. And it becomes even more interesting when you have a philosophical mindset. If the year didn't go as well as you thought, you always have the perfect excuse like 'happiness is not measured by material success'. But there are few things in life where philosophy doesn't really help, like getting up at 6am in the morning, even though that always featured in my top 5 new year goals consistently so far.

You both successfully navigated the treacherous 11plus exams with flying colours. I wish I had taken the complete responsibility of it from the beginning. Your success was pretty evident for me, after all it is my own genetic material. But Ashwini always finds her ways to breed enough insecurities in mind mind, giving the very same reasons. When your job is finding fault in what others develop, you become so good at it. So I lose again and share the responsibilities and credits equally. It is still a big win as in reality I am pretty convinced our efforts had no influence on the outcome. Anirudh made it through comfortably and satisfactorily, but he was very consistent from the beginning in not showing any additional improvements. The additional military drills were mainly to quench our thirst only. On the other hand, soft skinned Arjun showed unbelievable improvement towards the end, but it was way over what we needed. So the overall impact on the end result was really nill. But as parents we did wonderfully well to get our medals. While it was an immensely proud moment, our medals did come with a hefty price tag of moving the home, which is normally considered as a daunting task.

I was told humans naturally tend to worry about things more often than not due to evolutionary reasons. But for some reason I have less evolved skin(it is certainly only skin) that is pretty thick and insensitive to most kind of pains. I consider the reasons to be more philosophical. It is futile to worry about things that you can't control, so being slightly lazier is a feature of highly talented people and not necessarily a defect. But when you have to wake up  at 6:00am to drive your kids 50 miles to their school everyday, I reluctantly agree it was a bit of poor planning. And it becomes a clear mistake when M25 comes on the way where you end up spending two hours atleast while going back.

But on the positive side, these are different experiences that keeps you alive. What is a Life which is monotonous with the same routine every day. These whinings add some color to it. When we initially thought of selling the house, we didn't had huge expectations. But then came the greed, sold nicely by a cunning estate agent, paid with our rational thinking. It is fine to do mistakes, but it is not wise to repeat the same mistakes again. So we ended up accepting an offer that is way below the initial estimate, yet it didn't feel like a bad decision, because we made that decision. The value of house differs from buyer to buyer and it is purely determined by their circumstances. We bought this house mainly for the convenience of school access. Our buyers changed their mind in the last minute because they badly needed another bedroom in the ground floor. I don't think we would have done any better overall if we started with more realistic offer from the beginning. Often we think too much trying to be perfectionists while in reality they hardly matter, like your 11 plus preparations. Yet, we can't and we shouldn't escape those rituals as they provide the comfort of doing our best in whatever we do.

It was also a great experience waking up at 6am every morning. I almost felt I would continue throughout my life as if I was actually missing something in life all these years. It is really hard till you wake up, but once you are up, you feel the real warmth of early morning, even in cold winter. Those are divine experiences for people like me who never getup before 8am. But my experience has taught me that anything that is overly used will become a routine, losing its preciousness. That is the only reason why I went back to my old routine reunctantly, to preserve those divine moments. In fact I even stopped putting that as a new year goal from this year. 

It also provided a great opportunity for our friends to help me by providing food and a place to work during your school hours. In this busy life, people are uncomfortable taking help from others, thinking it will be an inconvenience to others. I know that is outrightly wrong and I have almost convinced Ashwini on this. I love helping others, atleast majority of the people, that I get along very well. I genuinely think it builds stronger 💪 bond between people. It is certainly not about testing true friendships. Trust must always come implicitly. It just multiplies when you provide these opportunities for people to help.

You also achieved another great feat last year. Arjun ended up playing for the U-11 nationals in the table tennis. Being 9th rank with such poor technique is no small achievement. It shows hardwork always wins over skills. Despite being priced heavily for the great techniques, Anirudh couldn't make it. It was no different from 11 plus exams really. Though the training sessions were bit more fun than repeated mock exams, it is the same rituals. If you want to achieve something big, you do need to sacrifice your happiness. Or find a way to enjoy those rigorous drills with a firm focus on the end result. Is that really worth it? You will only know when you have achieved something you have always longed for. 

Not everything was great last year, but that is the life. I lost my chikkappa, the last one to demise from father's siblings. He was the pillar of our big family and much of the credits of our well-being really goes to him. He was also one of the few I loved and admired greatly. We visited him a month before his death and there was completeness, satisfaction in his eyes. His death was painless, something he was really wishing for. But none of them really matters, death is indeed death. Two years back when we lost Manu, I never thought life can be normal again. It is really not normal in many ways. But we need to be like water 🌊, flowing fluently, observing closely, feeling everything, yet not getting stopped by anything.

I finally finished the year by completing one book, Siddhartha. A beautiful philosophical story about an intellect who tries to find meaning in life. I am really happy for him to discover what I had discovered already 😁 It's a real shame that I don't have a very good memory, so I will have to read that again and again.