Thursday

Hair is becoming unruly. Debating whether to go for a full head shave. Later order a hair trimmer from Amazon for < 500 Rs. Delivery date says May 8th. 

Friday evening we have a pencil sketching session by Akshay from Dubai. As a budding cartoonist I watch in awe.  I recharge Apple Pencil and plan to revive my Idly cartoon series. [ Idly takes a look at bikers ]

The learner’s. 

Prithvi saw for sometime, but got bored and ran away. 

The welcome drinks

Pressure cooker cake making in progress. Apparently equal part of maida and sugar was added. Cakes are quite dangerous!

Chocolate chips was put at top – it got melted and didn’t taste well. Below the top layer it was yum.

The finished game. It was a nice variation of Snakes & Ladders. San’s College friend’s School Friend had come up with this idea.

Write a 4 letter word with both hands.

Scratch someone for 2 minutes. 

Stand like Statue of Liberty till next turn.

I get an idea – why not create this snakes and ladders game in Flutter. This board game will get stale – we tried playing on Sunday and already we were bored of the repetitions. The game can randomly pick from a repository of harmless tasks – or – one can choose the level – easy to ridiculous.

The number of cases is on the rise. The govt says the rate of doubling has reduced from 7 days to 4 days. Well it is a media spin. It is not slowing down, but doubling every few days. But the Govt has to do its job of not panicking people.  Compared to the European countries India is doing lot better, but how long  can we continue like this – will this be sustainable. 

I see people in groups commenting on photos of over crowded markets where people are rushing to refill their supplies. They don’t have any other option – its a fight for survival – they might not even have a fridge at home to stock up veggies for a week. Millions in India live on a daily wage mode. What will they do after they run out of their little savings. When we lived in Kandivali, Mumbai – I sometimes used to run through the slums – because they were built on the hills and had upslopes. People are packed in thousands in narrow streets and dingy huts. How will they survive this epidemic?

Tamil Nadu has announced a 4 day curfew. Madurai,Chennai,Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruppur.

Bangalore things seem to be quiet. I keep creating mental models in my head – how the world is changing. But I know its all useless. How the world will look like in another 3 months I have no clue. Looks like dine-in restaurants are out. People wont be taking vacations anymore. Or who knows – cities like Dubai, Singapore – might be able to attract more tourists because of their clean image? 

We step out of our apartment gates once a week – to get weekly supplies. I have a vague feeling we are consuming more than usual – or because I do groceries now I am getting the feeling. Our apartment complex has an in-house store and I go once every 2/3 days to refill supplies – sometimes its onions, potato etc. 

Every Sunday we measure our body weights. This week we all have gone up by an average of 250gms. 

This week I started with my standing desk – so did not go for a walk ( try to squeeze in 2 in a week ) – and also did Angamardhana only twice this week. Gotto pick up pace for next week. 

Finish off Sunday with UNO in the morning. Post lunch I watch Unda ( Bullet ) a Malayalam movie and more Flutter.

Mondays are hard for me. Also coming out of a long weekend – it was a bit more stressful. Around 3:00 PM, felt my throat getting sore. Lot of piled up tickets and escalations come to me non stop.

But I stumbled upon a happy piece of news. AR Rahman’s 99 Songs got released in Apple Music.

I got nostalgic. Whenever AR Rahman’s songs gets released I will go buy the cassette and will listen. At least 3 times – so I get used to it. One has to train one’s ears to listen to AR Rahman’s songs. There are so many layers – and at first hearing it comes all together and difficult to appreciate.

I could do 2.5 times on Monday – and by evening my ears had got tuned to 99 songs.

The songs are really good. Not at the level of Rockstar or Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya – both were love at first hearing – but definitely top 10 of all time AR Rahman’s.

Prithvi’s online classes got cancelled / postponed. Boy is back to enjoying his self. 

Monday he apparently hurt his fingers plucking the guitar – so he will not do the little 10 problems his mummy gives daily. However he could still game – because he used a different finger it seems. Heights! 

I had downloaded Invisible Man in kindle. He is almost at the verge of completing it. But I have to literally force him to read 2 chapters a day. Found Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyl and Hyde in free section – downloaded them both. He picked a liking to Treasure Island.

Tamil New Year. Bengali New Year. 

I start Ponniyin Selvan – Part 2. 

Modi extending lockdown till May 3rd. 

Prithvi gets a haircut.

Sucked deeply into work. Had 2 exits this week from my team. Friday evening our dusk standup went for an hour with each giving a farewell speech to this developer – Dinesh – it would have been the most memorable time for him I believe. The 2nd developer – a senior guy – still KT has to happen and he is negotiating. Don’t blame him but the same time as a founder I have to be fair to everyone in the company and cannot do any special favours. It is really sad. 

All this stress got to me. My throat started hurting. Had severe headaches throughout the day. The outside temperature is also on the rise and it gets quite hot in our home. We are on the top floor and don’t have AC in any of our rooms. Friday I started taking breaks every half an hour – get up and walk around. It helped I think. Headache did not come.

On Wednesday San got to know from the Association President that in one of the apartments where 3 girls are staying by themselves, one of them is running a 106 temperature and is trying to go to a hospital. This was around night 8PM. They finally managed to get an Uber which is running essentials – as long as the destination is hospital they will come. They take her to Manipal on Old Airport road where they give Paracetemol and Saline. Suprisingly they don’t do blood test for Dengue.

Thursday they talk to the layout clinic – to send an ambulance. They charge Rs.6000! San drives her to the clinic for testing. Again they do not do Dengue test, Doc continues paracetemol.

Friday morning the girl calls San and says she is feeling very weak and wants to go to the clinic to see the doctor. San takes her to the clinic and this time they do Dengue test. It comes out positive. They get back and decide to get her admitted later in the day. Apparently hospital will inject fluids only up to 3 Liters. The rest 5 to 8 liters has to be compensated by drinking water or juice – every 3 hours. An attendant is necessary. Luckily one of the girl’s relatives is in Bangalore and he could come and stay with her. 

That girl’s mother – she is in Hyderabad is freaking out. San had to console her and give confidence. The mother tried getting a pass but couldn’t to travel to Bangalore. Can imagine how helpless she will be feeling right now. We had an important call at 3:00 PM and San was still on phone till 2:45 PM – almost an hour. I had to make signs asking her to get off the calls to prepare for the meeting. 

San goes in the evening and gets the girl admitted in the hospital. 

This is the photo San took. Apparently they have a Dengue cart and it was kept ready – Standard operating procedure! 

2 weeks back, I didn’t blog it here – there was a death in one of the apartments. A 54 year old lady – she had complications with heart – she passed away at home. San went to their home and helped them with lighting Diya and generally helping them with the paperwork etc. San is reading Death book by Sadhguru – and last week while reading a chapter she said – Wish I had read this before – we did not tie the lady’s foot together, or play some slokhas. 

In Dec 2018 we attended Inner Engineering Course by Sadhguru. There was one meditation where Sadhguru asks us to imagine you are the mother to a child. Then for one more. Then what about a family. Like that he expands and asks can you – can you be the mother to the universe. When we were done I found San – we both sit at different places like strangers – and she was crying unconsolably. It had affected her deeply. 

That’s Sangeeta.

Nothing will stop her from helping out her children – big or small. Both these instances San need not have bothered – but she did go out of her way to help. 

Friday evening 6:00 PM onwards I started a Nirjal fast for the next 36 hours – no food or water –  till Sunday morning 6:00 AM. It’s Ekadeshi – on Saturday – 18th. 

It’s 7:00 AM now as I am typing this. 13 hours into the fast. Autophagy genes will be kicking in shortly and they will be starting their work. 

The mind has to be kept quiet during these times. 

1st option – being totally devoted to God helps. Thinking of Allah or Krishna during this time – the stomach never grumbles or you will never feel thirsty. 

The 2nd option – for not someone who is totally committed to God  – is to first read up on all the science and benefits of fasting. Imagining how the toxins are getting cleaned up from the system. How the autophagy genes are out of their barracks with swords in hand – searching and destroying the aged or half dead zombie cells – who have potential to turn cancerous. 

Me? – I am in between the two. I am devoted but not to any one God – like Allah or Krishna. I am still forming the spiritual thesis in my head – so cannot commit myself to any God – or one God. But I believe in the Religious practise of fasting. I am a firm believer in Science though – and the power of autophagy genes.

Here is a video on benefits of fasting I saw long back – which convinced me to do the Ekadeshi fasting. 

Around 4:00 PM I got bugged. And my mother asked me – you want coffee? I said yes. So broke my fast around 4:30 PM.

That’s around 22.5 hours of Nir Jal fast. Not bad. If it was a work day then I could have extend it till 6 PM.

We dug out this Disney puzzle we had – which has never been solved before. I realised my eye sight has gone very poor. I could not see with my current glasses. Have to remove and bring the puzzle pieces very close to see the details. Not good!

Later we invent our own game with a TT ball and a cup and a later we even removed the cup and came up with TT Ball Sammangal game – where the opposite side’s samanangal posture is the goal post.

We were all discussing what we wanted to do after lockdown happens.

Me – Dalhousie 

San – Beach with Amu

Achu – Goa

Charu – Meet friends in Coimbatore

Prithvi – Wants to go to Taco Bell! 

And he has been craving for a Taco or a Quesadilla. So we decided to make him happy. Before that we went to office  – which is in the same layout – and picked up 3 tables and 2 chairs. One of the tables I could completely dismantle – so did in 2 trips in the car. San,I and Krishanu – in his house – have been sitting on the floor and we have started developing back pains. Our posture is not good and the body has started creaking.

Later in the day I setup my standing desk. 

The laptop gets super hot in the late afternoons and the fan that kicks in makes lot of noise – for ventilation purpose have kept it elevated. 

Back to Quesdilla. After moving the tables and chairs – we 3 started work on food preparation. 

Rajma Beans, American sweet corn, Red+green bell peppers, Onion, Tomato + Cheese which was grated. On the left is Maida + corn flour for the Tortilla.

The finished product was nothing close to a Quesadilla. Some stuffed Roti it became.

When asked how is it. Prithvi said Ok. 

Like his honesty, I was expecting kisses and hugs from him – and I was disappointed. 

Quesadilla project was a dismal failure.

I wont bother making this junk food again. At least not a Sunday Prime time lunch.

Was happy to start the week. Let me confess – I am a workaholic. Any time I take a vacation ( I hardly take one or two max in a year ) – I feel restless, count the days I can get back to the routine – where I sit in front of my mac. 

Yesterday (Sunday) I was a bit edgy. Post lunch we saw Uri – there was a good dose of patriotism but somehow the outlook of the world has changed. The virus does not differentiate between a Pakistani or an Indian. We are all in this together. Wish humans realise this and we put all our energies in fighting the virus for now, and later after winning the war – instead of going back to our old ( current ) ways – focus on space exploration or making this world a better place – less pollution, more greenery, more movies and art and literature and take humanity up a notch.

So come Monday, I dived right into work and was happy to start the week.

This is my routine : Morning I kept alarm at 4:45 AM. Open my phone to check Server statistics. Its a routine I have for the last 11 years – before going to sleep and moment I wake up – I check for this email which ADDA sends. Subject is ADDA Says hi. First line is Lub Dub. Followed by the queue lengths ( should be zero else some process has gone zombie ) and server statistics ( load and other vital information ). This email comes every 15 minutes. If I don’t see the email – then many things could have gone wrong. I have to login to figure out things. 

Then I do the ablution, brush, wash my legs hands and face and go light Diya in our home Temple. 

They say lighting Diya during Brahma Muharram is really impactful. Brahma Muharram is around 3:30 AM. The time I light the Diya is around 5:15 AM – its close to Brahma Muharram. Early morning mind is clear and devoid of any clutter – so praying at this time is good.

Next I go back to our bedroom and lay out the yoga mat and do Bhutta Shuddi – a cleansing process of all the 5 elements.

Then I pick up the yoga mat and mosquito bat and go to the terrace.

Here for the next 30-40 minutes or so I do Angamardhana

Post Angamardhana – I do Shambhavi Maha Mudhra which is another 20-30 minutes.

Post Shambhavi – I do Shanmukhi Mudhra. 

I could not find the video from Isha – which is where I learnt. 

By the time I open my eyes its bright day light. Thank the Sky and the Sun and get back home.

I pick up my affirmation book and write 2 of my affirmations – 15 times each.

Then I start my day with Filter Coffee and Online newspaper on Magzter.

It was tough 2 days. I have to attend meetings, plus have a long list of to-dos which I have to strike off. Also have to meet my committed deadlines. I end up working, even after my dinner. 

Could be exhaustion – Thursday evening I think I drank water from the Clay pot. Even before dinner time I felt my throat go sore. The hypochondriac in me woke up with a start. 

Today Prithvi’s dry run starts. 

From Monday his classes are to start in Zoom. 

Friday was off for all of us.

I had planned to work on Friday. But I ended up binge watching Panchatyat – on Amazon Prime. Also managed to complete Neal Stepheon’s Fall, or Dodge in Hell.

Neal Stephenson’s books grinds you down. You need to be a masochist kind of book lover to read his books. I was in a daze after finishing it – didn’t feel like reading any other book. 

After someone dies, the brain is scanned and uploaded into the bit verse. The 2nd half of the book is entirely in this bit verse. Processes create processes ( Adam and Eve ) and these processes descendants go on a quest. A separate blog post is needed to talk about this book. 

I think the 3 off days I got was a good rejuvenation.

By Sunday mid-day the cold mild feverish feeling was gone. It was just plain exhaustion and body was forcing me to take a break. No more bragging of being a workaholic. 

Lesson to self – should take 1.5 days on the weekend. Will work half days on Saturdays. 

March 30

Right now at home we are not thinking of Coronavirus. How do we manage Dengue is in top of our mind.

Achu had severe pain in his thighs and calf muscle. He did not sleep properly in the night. I had woken up at 1:00 am to give him his mid-night dose. One of the tablets is to be given every 6 hours.  

Post lunch, I take Achu for the 2nd blood test, and platelet count has dropped to 77k. Before doing the test, we met the doctor and she says if it falls below 80k you get admitted.

This spooks me. This clinic in our layout has been there for more than 10+ years, but does not have a good reputation. I think they are pulling a fast one?

I go to the Chemist I typically get medicine from for some practical advise.

She tells, till the platelet count drops below 25k you are fine. Do not get admitted. Just water and pomegranate juice. That’s all is needed for treating Dengue.And even if you are getting admitted, go to a bigger hospital. Not this clinic.

I go around the layout and find another lab and we give blood for testing. Around 6pm the result comes – while I am in the middle of the dusk standup – I drop out of the standup because the result says 110k platelets. 

I am totally confused now. How can this big a difference exist?

After lot of deliberation we decide to stick to the first one. What matters now is to see if the platelet reduction is stemmed. Doesn’t really matter on the numbers. Continue monitoring and if Achu stops taking fluids in – then things are serious. Then get him admitted. 

On another note – I see a conspiracy theory video. Beijing and Shanghai had hardly 500 coronavirus cases. Their stock market did not plummet like every other stock market in the world. Chinese investment firms are still strong flush with cash. They have started acquiring businesses in Australia which are going bankrupt.

In India lot of Startup’s are funded by Chinese VCs. Now Chinese VC firms will get more active and will take over as the American and Indian VCs might tighten their belts. Is it East India all over again? Future history books will talk about this phase.

I am not happy with my productivity. First half went in planning the cash flow situation. We got insurance for all our employees, their kids and spouse. Then had some contingency discussion. Then fixed a few escalated support issues. My todo list keeps growing – not being able to churn out stuff at the usual pace I do.

Over the weekend ADDA app new UI gets released in iOS and Android. I had promised my team to take them out for lunch if we release by Feb end. A month delayed but it has come out really well. 

Achu’s condition isn’t improving. He still has pain and his headache is still persisting. He has fitfull sleep and is taking Tremdol – a pain killer.

We go for his test and the count is now dropped to 69k

This is during our standup. Sufi came for cuddles. Today morning her mom fed Pedigree and she didn’t like it. She only finished 1/4th of it – which is very unusual of Sufi. She will always wipe her food bowl clean..Typically she is always at the foot of her mummy – and even when she goes to the bathroom she will be waiting outside. 

Prithvi learns music for Hum and Strum – a very good music school. They are now giving classes online. That’s his piano Sir. We are all adapting quite fast. This could be the norm going forward. 

We do a test and result comes as 57k. We are now worried. The doctor had advised to get admitted the moment the count falls below 80k.

Achu’s dad also wants us to admit him – who is stuck in Coimbatore and is feeling helpless. We debate internally a lot – getting admitted in a good hospital is out of question. There are barricades at the nearby junction and we cannot leave the layout. We will have to get an ambulance and how will we shuttle between home and the hospital. We can get admitted in the same clinic  which is there in the layout – but I don’t have faith they will do a good job. Already I am a little suspicious of them – what if they extend the say or administer unnecessary medicines just to make some money.

We decide to step up a notch Achu’s treatment. Achu sleeps most of the time and misses drinking water or juice. I set alarm on Amma’s phone every half an hour from 7:30 AM to night 8:00 PM. From tomorrow the new drill begins.

Today is April 1 = peak billing day. The monthly, quarterly, half yearly and yearly bills get generated today. It is like Black Friday for ADDA – and the load goes through the roof. All the new sign ups over the last few months are all starting their billing today. The load goes through the roof – users signing in to look at the bills, the Covid discussions, users making payments – I sit glued to the screen – turning off some services, adding more servers.

I get this message that Google’s Neighbourly is shutting down. What a time to shut down – this is the time when they could have been of some use. Perhaps they had planned it all along, or the entire team which worked on Neighbourly might have got laid off ( I am certain it was in India – because this was launched only in Mumbia and Bangalore )

Achu’s drill begins. San takes the day off to focus on making juice and also waking up Achu to drink water or juice. Around 3PM, I pack my laptop, and change of clothes for Achu and I – and we go out for the testing ritual. Before we go to the clinic, we go to the 2nd clinic where we tested ( and they gave better numbers ).

Count is 54k. The 2nd clinic gave a number of 100k. The rate of drop has slowed. Achu also feels much better. Pain has gone away and today he walked by himself without any support. We all are confident.

We come back home. And decide to continue the practise of water or juice every 30 minutes. 

Waiting for my morning standup to begin. Sufi is still with me – she is angry with her mom still? 

Night the kids sleep outside in the room. Sufi goes and lies down whenever the beds are laid. She owns this place.

Friday

We now have a kid preparing for NEET. And 3 Working from home. And 1 kid who has to entertain himself – all locked up in one house! We need more than Social Distancing so all of us can work / study / play without disturbing one another.

Morning we rearrange the tables a bit and as the mom works, the boy watches movies on a 15 year old iMac which still works! 

Afternoon we go for Achu’s blood test. He is quite confident now and even has a bet that his count will go up by 1000.

Results come – it is 58k. We are all much relieved. It was quite a stressful week – with server load, and managing a dengue patient. Phoo!

Sufi is now back to being the tail of her mummy. 

Evening we have a 2nd Team Lead’s meeting – to catch up on what all the teams are doing and strategize.

My zoom background is the filter coffee photo I took in Saravana Bhavan, Kanchipuram ( Week 0 )

I redo my setup with double monitors. Psych! 

San goes shopping and we air the stuff. She gets all “sweet stuff”. 

Achu’s test result comes – 88k. We are officially out of Dengue now.

I work on Saturday too – and by evening I am mentally drained. A tough week comes to an end!