HOW I START (and end) MY DAY : SURI

                        Selfie,  

        taken a few  months back

I am a retired person,  72 years old, with not much work or any other commitment. 

After a restful sleep,  I open my eyes.  It is past six.  During rainy season and winter,  I wake up late like this. 

Generally,  I wake up around five and meditate for about ten to twenty minutes;  do some simple physical exercise.  Offer my morning prayers. For the past few days, maybe because of the climate,  I skip all these. 

In Homeopathic parlance, I am a "chilly" patient, who cannot bear cold well.  Actually, my homeopathic friends describe me as a 'human barometer'.  If the climate dips,  I am the first one to feel it in my bones,  before the TV news cinfirms it.  But I ignore all these and don't let them to affect or depress me.  I know how to protect myself. 

So I get up briskly and start my morning chore. 

I switch on my smartphones. They need charging.  So I charge them. 

Then I open my second-floor window.  A calm,  serene and beautiful morning welcomes me.  I do some nature worship,  sky worship and sun worship (though he is not visible,  hidden by dark clouds).

A cup of butter tea with soaked and dehusked almonds enliven and energize me. 

Posting Good morning and related messages in my Tamil and English blogs is the next step. 

I check my WhatsApp messages.  If I find good,  useful material,  I keep it for posting to my relevant blog or repost it to other WhatsApp groups. 

Usually, I have some light breakfast,  two idlis or two dosas or a cup of pongal with chutney or sambar. 

Take my medicines for sugar. 

Read the Tamil newspaper,  Dina Malar. 

Check gmail. If I find anything interesting, I read it. 

Then Facebook.  It provides me a lot of interesting and useful materials for posting to my blogs.  Offer my comments,  if something merits it. 

YouTube.  Many new, unknown and interesting videos come to my view.  I post them to my mail, for reposting to my blogs,  if they are copyright-free.  It is sometimes difficult to know whether they are in the public domain.  

Around eleven,  coffee without sugar. 

Go to the nearby shop to get milk packets,  vegetables and anything else required for the home. 

On the way to the shop,  I peep in at my daughter's house and smooch my darling little grand daughter. 

Home. 

Read some ebooks.  I read two or three books at a time,  a little from each. For example,  now I am reading:

eBooks

1. THE WEB OF LIFE by Fritjhof 

    Capra

2. I,  CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves 

3. THE SCION OF IKSHVAGU by

    AMISH TRIPATHI

4. THE DRAMATIC DECADE by 

     Pranab Mukherjee

5.  SPECIMEN DAYS by Walt 

     Whitman

6.  AFRICAN DIARY by Bill Bryson

PRINTED BOOK

  உப பாண்டவம் -                   

  எஸ்.ராமகிருஷ்ணன் 

Books completed reading in October :

1. I,  KRISHNA DEVARAYA           

     by Ra.Ki. Rangarajan

2. 1991 by Sanjaya Baru 

3. THE ACCIDENTAL PRIME 

     MINISTER by Sanjaya Baru 

4.  HALF-LION by Vinay Sitapati

5.  THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH

      by Ken Follett

6.  FALL OF GIANTS  by Ken Follett

7.  WORLD WITHOUT END 

     by Ken Follett

8.  POLAND by James A. Michener

9.  THE WORLD IS MY HOME 

      by James A Michener 

10. A QUIVER FULL OF ARROWS 

      by Jeffrey Archer

11. ONLY TIME WILL TELL

       by Jeffrey Archer 

Sit before my PC and start posting YouTube videos already selected and kept in my mailbox. 

Some rest.

Mobile sudoku.  This is my as per the advice of my brother: Exercise your brain and protect yourself from the dreaded Alzheimer's. 

Between one and two,  simple lunch with raw onions,  some citrus pickle and one or two vegetables. 

Watch some movie in Jio Cinemas or MX Player. For example,  yesterday I saw:

THE KING'S speech,  starring Colin Firth.  It is the story of the stammering King George VI (he is the father of the present Queen Elizabeth II)  and his brother,  King Edward VII, who abdicated so that he could marry,  Wallis Simpson,  a twice-married American woman. How George fights to overcome his stuttering and diffidence with the help of a speech therapist is the plot of the movie.  Excellent performance by Colin Firth.  I enjoyed the movie very much. 

Afternoon nap. 

Evening coffee. 

Call my friends and relatives and some time, exchanging news and views. 

We are a large family,  scattered all over Tamil Nadu,  besides one in Andhra and another in Kerala.  Of these, one of my younger brothers is close to me and as we have many things in common like love of books.  When we speak,  usually it lasts for not less than  30 minutes. 

Rest of the time is spent mostly in some or other social media. Nothing frivolous. 

Night food,  usually some simple,  easily digestible food. 

Reading. 

At nine,  swich off my phones and go to sleep. 

Not much of a day! =What to do,  that is the fate of old people in corona-time. 

Looking forward with hope to the New Year.