Food For Thought

My 2nd favourite topic is "Food". After money comes the food.
(I must admit that sometime back, I used to eat the same things I am about to criticize here )
"AA Khushee se Khud Khushee kar le"
I came to mumbai when I was in 4th standard.
I had a deadly migraine in few years after I came to mumbai.
This lasted for a number of years. It was so bad that I used to keep anacin in my pocket.
Years passed by and it never went away. I tried ayurvedic medicine, it stopped for sometime. As soon as I stopped medicines, it came back again. I tried homeopathy, it never worked.
I stopped taking any pain killers and decided to suffer the migraine. Everytime, I would vomit the food and couple of hours later I was fine.
I tried to diagonize myself and found the root cause - food and food habits.
My food habits made me suffer from this deadly headache for more then 15 years (and ofcourse my tongue enjoyed only for the time I ate food, right). I feel ridiculous when I think about it.
I changed my food and food habits. Stopped eating spicy food, stopped eating fermented food at night, dinner before 7:30pm max (as early as 6:30 on weekends). And guess what? I have not had this migraine for almost over 1 year now.
No doctor could determine this simple root cause? So doctors cannot treat you, only you can treat yourself ;)
Our World of Perceptions -
I hate to think of mistakes I have made when it comes to food. I had these "perceptions" -
-My stomach can digest anything
-Spicy food is the only tasty food.
- Eating bad food makes your stomach stronger because now it can digest anything, wow!
Ofcourse all of the above are plain wrong.
Think about it, your tongue enjoys but your stomach, it suffers. Its a no brainer.

Mass Hypnosis
Please refer the word Meme, it accurately describes the phenomemenon - Meme
Its like a mass hypnosis whereby nobody is bothered of what he is eating?
Food is the only source of energy you need to survive and you don't even think twice before you eat anything? Its absurd.
Good food is difficult but bad food is easy to get -
Try this - Go on a walk for few 100 meters and look around, you will easily find vada-pav, pizzas, chips, burgers round
the corner. But show me one shop in that few hundred meters selling chaas, lassi, fresh fruit salad, coconut water.
Why? Because those have become more sellable. we all are responsible for it.
Take cold drinks and icecreams for example, I am sure everyone enjoys icecream. Now think about this, you are sleeping and someone puts cold water on you, how will you react? You are doing the exact same thing to your internal body without realizing the same when you drink cold drink or eat ice cream.
This is one part of the story. second part is which ice-cream you are eating? More then 90% of the icecreams are adulterated.
Next comes the packed food and foreign drinks. Chips and colas are eaten like guru prasad, they are good for nothing.
India is nation where milk, chaas and lassis used to flow, what have we made of it? I see no one prefering a coconut water to colas, chaas to colas so on and so forth.

Impressions on our children -
We have defined the word "majja" as chips, pizzas, chocolate, ice-cream, pre-packed juices. Why didn't we define the word "majja" as chaas, Lassi, Fruits, Fruit juice, Halwasan, Mohan thal? We have no right to complain as parents when child is asking for chocolate as an appreciation and not fruit juice. And even if we as parent try to do this, social environment around you will invariable not let it happen (again search for word "meme", its a phenomenon). Everyone who comes home to meet us brings chocolates, it becomes a default gift. Why? Do we as adults do not know that chocolates are bad? why not bring some good quality fruits for a change?
Everytime I enter a kirana shop, I see a parent buying thier child chips or chocolates. For god's sake, if your kids grow up on colas and chips, what will they become?
we will easily create another a smaller US in India in time to come. (It hurts).
Another thing which I face is "sometimes it is ok to eat these things". Think about it, young minds are like sponge, if you allow them sometimes, you will not know when it becomes a part of them. And as I said before junk food is easy to get and hence will easily attract them.
Chocolates, Ice-Creams and cold drinks are your children's worst enemies, keep them away from these things. You are not depriving them of any good thing.

Last but not the least - Adulteration
Believe it or not - Everything you buy from the market from milk to vegetables to fruits is adulterated. So be careful when you buy things from the market. Try to get things from authentic source (unbranded preferred).

I would end with a famous gujarati quote -
"Ann banave Mann" (It means your qualities come from your food).

Truth Vindicated series - Money

Background of truth vindicated series -
You all already read that I believe we are socially conditioned. My idea is to write a series of essays or articles for social unconditioning. Its just the passion for writing (it came late into me) and idea of spreading some right messages in most open manner –

So one of my favourite topics comes first and that is Money.

Money is created in the mind -

A very dear one had once told me that "money is made in the mind" but at a very logical level.
But just wondering about it, I really think that money is made in the mind. It may appear externally but its creation as well as use is in and by the mind.

What is more important? Earning huge amount of money and not live it or Earning enough and live that money?
I came across a very interesting short story named 'The Undomestic Goddess'. It is the story of a very successful, top lawyer, who runs away from her life when she realises that she made a huge mistake. She takes up a job as a housekeeper in a small village, thinking that she'd go back the moment things were set right. Instead, she learns an entire new way of life - where the stress is absent and the weekends are free.
She later realises that she had been framed. She goes back and reclaims her dignity, but finally returns to her $500 per week housekeeper job, as opposed to the $500 per hour she was earning before.

Some basic things I have observed about money is -
-The more you seek money the faster it will run away from you.
-The more you try to squeeze money (I am not saying here to spend lavishly, its about the mindset), you will not get much money.
- Hard work may not always earn you more money, but smart work does.
- Greed is evil, it will wipe out money.
- If you say/think you have enough money, you will always have enough money.

I am not saying to be careless about money but to be non-attached to money.
That is, when you spend money you have to be sure in your mind and heart that you can spend it without any hitch. If you are anywhere in between that you are providing enough resistance to flow of money. It is easier said then done.
Here comes the twist of "greed" -
Generally, people who have more then enough money will tend to become greedy. Look at all the industrialists, they are
always looking to build new business - "more money".
Take example of people who have done frauds. They had more then enough money but they could never live that money. They lost it all because of "greed".
Are we greedy by nature? Probably "yes".
Understand this, we have vessel in which all our money goes but thing which we forgot is that the vessel has no base. So whatever you put in it goes down the rabbit hole and we all know that nobody knows how deep the rabbit hole goes?
And that is precisely the reason for greed.
Here comes the solution "Sayam" -
This is where concept of "sayam" comes into play. You need to have sayam in your life. There should be sayam in the way you live money as well. Sayam means control. Not having sayam will create greed (yeh dil mange more). Yes, that "mange more" is in reality not good :) because more here is never ending.
I can assure you that if you have sayam in your life, you will never be unhappy. Sayam's output will never let non-satisfaction reach you because it will keep you protected from "seeking".
Now add the positive emotion of "Gratitude" -
Another important thing is gratitude. Very recently, I was driving somewhere and I was filled with gratitude towards god for giving me everything I need for good life. Until this time, I may have not left many incidence for complaining but mostly missed being grateful. It feels good that it has changed. I believe it is extremely important that we give gratitude for things we get so easily in life.

"Be rich, Be a king outside.
Be satisfied, Be a Buddha Inside."