How are Senior Citizens coping with Covid-imposed leisure?

How are Senior Citizens coping with Covid-imposed leisure?

(Dr P Vyasamoorthy)

Like other senior citizens I am also keeping myself engaged during lockdown in a number of ways. One of them is certainly to ring up a number of friends especially who are alone and single. I get interesting news & updates. ICRISAT Venkatesan, has found Viveka chudamani and Vivekananda’s lectures interesting. Another octogenarian Smt Sarojini, has taken up a course on Vedanta – called “Atma Vidya” conducted by a Swamiji. Sri Chary is onto a similar online course offered by Chinmayananda.  Smt Gowri Jayaram is a devotee of Sri Sachitananda Swamy of Dundigal – she keeps participating in morning Satsangh and prayers broadcast online every day. Mr Rajendra Rao passes time by helping out the management  in procuring essential things for the senior facility he is living in.  He is younger of the lot there and ventures to go out to help when feasible.  Sri Shankar Rao keeps busy identifying avenues to bridge donors and recipients.   Smt Kamakshi manages to be with herself satisfied with TV news, movies plus long chats over phone with her daughters abroad. Dr Vasunder Reddy is busy recuperating after a surgery. Dr Thomas and his wife are enjoying the calm, serene, noiseless surroundings of Ameerpet as all coaching centers and hostels are empty. Dr G Nageswara Rao, Vice President Aasara told how he is mobilizing funds for charity, how he is motivating seniors to be helpful during lockdown etc. He has been in touch with hundreds of seniors, making maximum use of staying at home.

Sri RN Mital and I had a long chat recently. He talked about AOSC organizing Zoom meetings, info he had gathered by talking to others etc. Having been associated with AOSC since inception, he has started writing the history of this association! He has also started watching birds from his balcony – He can now identify six birds, and recognize specific sounds of some. He says birds are good in communicating among themselves: one bird talks at a time and the other listens / waits for answering. While envying his sharp eyesight at 92, I marvel at his zeal and enthusiasm to celebrate life and living.  He also shared with me joyful days of his 15 days long trip by ship to England in the fifties. One Hussain and his wife were his table mates in the voyage; they were very helpful and they continued their friendship over letters for a long time. Happy recollections of the past are immensely satisfying.  I cannot imagine spending 15 days in travel now!!

Smt Indira Narayan, President of Senior Citizens Forum, made a collection of funny quotes turning them into presentation file. It is a great learning exercise for her. Sri M Chidambara Rao, President of AOSC, discovered the writer in himself and penned three short stories. Sri Ambadipudi Suryanarayana, lifelong learner that he is, signed up and completed a few online courses including those on dementia.

For me, TV serials have dried up. News is mostly depressing. Even the Airtel Dish TV Connection has conked off. So, for my part, I have taken to binge watching of Tamil Short Stories in the laptop. There are plenty of them. Some of them are so good that I get a re-play in my dreams. In a web group called SSS Global (moderated by me) meant for senior citizens that has 250 plus members, we exchange daily mind games, puzzles and quizzes.

Apart from getting inspiration from what others are doing, what else can you do?  

• There are plenty of webinars announced. Most of them allow you to join even without prior registration. Try some of them.  
• Join some WhatsApp groups where you can meet your friends virtually
• Start sketching or painting. Mr Bhalla, president of AISCCON took to painting after retirement. He still finds time to relax with painting and come up with pictures worth entry in competitions.
• Record your own experiences using smart phone; come with short podcasts and share them
• I wrote a long letter of three pages in long hand on plain paper. Took screen shots of it and sent them over WhatsApp to my daughters. This way I could prove to myself that I have not forgotten how to write! I could re-live the thrill of the art of letter writing.

I hope this encourages readers to share their views / experiences of life during lockdown!

Notes on Webinar on sustaining happiness during Covid

Notes on Webinar on sustaining happiness during Covid

 

I participated today (29th April 2020) in a zoom based webinar called:  “Sustaining Happiness in Times of Stress: Lessons from the Coronavirus Outbreak”.  The key speaker was Dr Rajagopal  Raghunathan of ISB, Hyderabad. He had earlier conducted a full length four weeks online course called A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment recently in which some of us from SSSG had participated.

He spoke of “self kindness” or compassion to oneself, breaking the chain of “thoughts-emotions – action” when you are depressed, importance of trusting people to ensure our own happiness, role of spiritual attitude etc. Pleased to learn that Mumbai is second from  top in the world in trusting others. Was happy to learn of writing “Three good things” daily in your diary – He has maintained it over 7 years – practicing what he is teaching.  

He gave useful tips for getting into sleep – a) sleep at specified time b) keep room a little cooler c)avoid alcohol d) Avoid coffee / tea e) if you cannot get into sleep get up and start reading a book & sleep when you become sleepy. The last tip really helps, as I have done that!! Q&A session was awesome. Also heard of Yoga Nidra, usefulness of Turmeric + honey before retiring, gravity blankets, Shani Bhagwan prayer, WA group lonely single seniors etc etc.

On the whole it was time well spent, learning something that will stick and prove to be useful.

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Review Tamil Short Film - Kartihk and Priyanka

Interesting Tamil Short Film. Heroine is a new introduction and the hero is an old hand. Has some unexpected twists and turns. Ends happily. Telling nine years story in 20 minutes is a great job done nicely. Enjoy

Webinar on protecting Doctors dealing with Covid

Webinar on protecting Doctors dealing with Covid

ET HealthWorld – Webinar on Protecting Doctors and healthcare professionals treating covid-19

23^rd April 2020 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm IST

I participated in this webinar organized by Economic Times Health World. Dr Sushila Kataria from Mediciti, Dr Raman Kumar of Academy of Family Physicians, Dr Ravi Badge NHS, UK Consultant, Dr MR Rajagopal of Pallium India and Dr Minimole Varghese of Fortis Hospital were the panelists.

They spoke on how they protect themselves and others from several points. Some points are noted:

·         They compulsorily have “head to toe” shower before they start work.

·         They follow guidelines for PPE and masks and other products

·         There is a mask cleaning equipment for re-using masks for 4 to 5 days

·         111 is the national helpline number

·         They treat EVERY visitor to hospital like a patient as many are asymptomatic

·         They have six hours shift as they cannot leave for toilet coffee etc in between once they wear PPE

·         Wearing PPE is very cumbersome and hard to work with

·         Family Physicians prefer to offer e-consultancy

·         MCI has now approved e-consultancy

·         Doctors try to minimize presence of people in ICU.

·         Emergency area. ICU, High risk area etc have different check lists guidelines

·         Fresh guidelines for covid have come up everywhere

·         Covid19 has taught people to be 100% compliant

·         Hand hygiene has improved everywhere

·         Next month is likely to be very critical

·         Separate doffing areas for different classes of people

·         Both wearing and removing masks / ppe etc are critical - skills and practice are needed

Although many hundreds participated as listeners – all our microphones were muted – there did not appear to be any questions public or participants. I thought they would discuss the issue of public / patients misbehaving with healthcare professionals and seek some remedies. There was an anchor / moderator who was asking questions by turns to panelist – we could not get to see him! The webinar was useful in knowing problems faced by medical fraternity and how they are handling them.  Useful indeed as it helped me to appreciate their concerns.

COVID-19 imposed isolation

COVID-19 imposed isolation

Thanks to Airtel Digital Smart TV Connection conking off, for the past few days, my house is as silent as cemetery. I am living alone. This made me ruminate on a late friend of mine who was similarly surrounded by noise – loud music or broadcast from his TV set. If you go to his house you need to be shouting to make yourself heard. He likes to talk a lot without any topic, preparation or purpose. There will be incessant flow of words, unconnected sentences, and incoherent statements. If you take pity and want to give him a break, just ask: “Why do you think so?” He will stop dead on track because he won’t remember WHAT he was saying to answer WHY of it.

My daughter used to refer to him as that uncle who loves his own voice. Not that he is immersed in noise always, but also filth, dirt and squalor too. The moment you enter his house you will start thinking of an excuse to get away. If I am going to him on a planned visit I would have asked my daughter to give me a ring after ten minutes so that I can pretend to have been called to return home urgently.

The reason why we want to keep the TV or Radio on, unmindful of what is going on, is that we feel internally lonely. The presence of sound – someone speaking or singing – gives us a feeling that we have company of some (unknown) human beings. My FIL used to keep one old two band transistor radio on most of the time – that was beyond repair which only gave out noise!

Coming to think of it, this COVID thrust loneliness, isolation, confinement etc is bringing out a new me that I was not aware of earlier. Am I really a person always in need of external entertainment to keep myself busy? Do I need meetings, people, TV, mobile, emails, WhatsApp etc to breathe? Is there no self worth to be gained by keeping quiet, doing nothing in particular? Listening to oneself and explore within – is that possible, am I willing? I had learnt the technique of meditation earlier but never took it seriously enough to make it a habit / routine. Is it time now? Several articles talk of things we may do to keep ourselves engaged. What can I do to disengage myself?

Questions and questions arise but no easy answers yet.

   

Lockdown - Self and Friends

Lockdown - Self and Friends

Like other senior citizens I am also keeping myself engaged during lockdown in a number of ways. One of them is certainly to ring up a number of friends especially who are alone and single. I get interesting news & updates. ICRISAT Venkatesan, has found Viveka chudamani and Vivekananda’s lectures interesting. Another octogenarian Smt Sarojini, has taken up a course on Vedanta – called “Atma Vidya” conducted by a Swamiji. Sri Chary is onto a similar online course from another source. Mr Rajendra Rao passes time by helping out the mgmt in procuring essential things for the senior facility he is living in.   Sri Shankar Rao keeps busy identifying avenues to bridge donors and recipients.   Smt Kamakshi manages to be with herself satisfied with TV news, movies plus long chats over phone with her daughters abroad. Dr Vasunder Reddy is busy recuperating after a surgery. Dr Thomas and his wife are enjoying the calm, serene, noiseless surroundings of Ameerpet as all coaching centers and hostels are empty. Dr G Nageswara Rao, Vice President Aasara told how he is mobilizing funds for charity, how he is motivating seniors to be helpful during lockdown etc. He has been in touch with hundreds of seniors, making maximum use of staying at home.

Sri RN Mital and I had a chat this morning. He talked about AOSC organizing Zoom meetings, info he had gathered by talking to others etc. He said he has started watching birds from his balcony – He can now identify six birds, and recognize specific sounds of some. He says birds are good in communicating among themselves: one bird talks at a time and the other listens / waits for answering. He also shared with me joyful days of his 15 days long trip by sea to England in the fifties. One Hussain and his wife were his table mates in the voyage; they were very helpful and they continued their friendship over letters for a long time. While envying his sharp eyesight at 92, I marvel at his zeal and enthusiasm to celebrate life and living.

For me, TV serials have dried up. News is mostly depressing. Even the Airtel Dish TV Connection has conked off. So, for my part, I have taken to binge watching of Tamil Short Stories in the laptop. There are plenty of them. Some of them are so good that I get a re-play in my dreams.

In my laptop, the built in keyboard went bad, as once I tried to clean it with colinol spray. The new one I bought is faulty too – the cursor keeps jumping erratically – so badly that I cannot type even a few sentences. I resurrected one old external keyboard – luckily it is working fine. Hence this long note after a long time. In fact, just last evening, I wrote - using pen and paper – a long letter, took a photo and sent it by WhatsApp  to my daughters.   Except making To-DO Lists or Things to buy lists, my writing has been minimal.

I hope this encourages readers to share their views / experiences of life during lockdown!