Why do mosquitoes bite humans?

Mosquitoes are out there to drink blood to fill their stomachs. Then why don’t they bite all humans equally? We all know that in a room with many people, some of them will be troubled so much by a mosquito while some others are left alone.

We used to have yoga sessions in a hall with many others and mosquitoes used to frequent the hall. From the yoga postures, hands had to be freed to kill the mosquitoes. Then it so happened that only my husband and I were doing yoga in the same hall. After some days, we suddenly noticed that mosquitoes were not present in the hall. We came to the conclusion that if you are calm inside, mosquitoes leave you alone.

Then there is another view that mosquitoes come to remove the excess blood that some persons may have. They are thus bringing balance in nature.

There is also a view that mosquitoes bite on acupressure/acupuncture points to relieve problems of the person being bitten. So if you don’t have any problems that need to be treated, chances are that mosquitoes will leave you alone!

A research on this topic showed that one of the key ways mosquitoes locate their targets is by smelling the carbon dioxide emitted in their breath.—they use an organ called maxillary palp  to do this, and can detect carbon dioxide from as far as 164 feet away. As a result, people who simply exhale more of the gas over time—generally, larger people—have been shown to attract more mosquitoes than others. This is one of the reasons why children get bitten less often than adults, on the whole.

According to one study, people who drink just one bottle of beer, increase their detect-ability levels to the mosquito world. As per the opinion of an entomologist, mosquitoes attract people dressed in striking colors such as black, navy and red.

Life’s lesson from Life plant

I cut out a leaf from the Life plant (Miracle leaf, or ‘Ilamulachi’ in Malayalam) and hung it in the air. Within a week, roots started sprouting out of its serrations, and in a few days, cute, tiny leaves also appeared. The mother leaf hanging in the air with so many tiny little babies! No water was available to the leaf for this period.

I went out and looked at the plant from which I had plucked and brought the leaf. None of the other leaves had sprouted baby plants. 

The separated leaf was facing adverse situation, which led it to propagate itself.

Then the great lesson of life struck me. The Universe puts us through tough situations to bring out the best in us. Without realizing the significance of having to face difficulties, many parents approach me for counseling when their children have to take some tough decisions in life. They fail to understand that those experiences are necessary to make them balanced, mature individuals!

There are no short cuts in life

Observing the lives of self and others at close quarters for more than five decades, I am fortunate to grasp the basic truth of life; that there are no short cuts. I definitely got the divine grace to understand this, because every day I watch septuagenarians and octogenarians who are looking for short cuts, forget about the youngsters!

It is prevalent in every walk of life. As a dentist, I know that majority of dentists do short cut in doing root canal treatment. In infected cases, short cut approach will not remove the infection, so they give systemic antibiotics to compensate for the work that they have not done. Who is bothered about the grave problems that irrational antibiotic prescription will cause for the future generations?

As a Reiki master I encounter again and again Reiki channels asking whether they can do the self healing by short cut. I have seen many of them who do short cut healing not receiving the full benefit of Reiki, which can be beyond imagination when one does proper self healing every day.

The interesting aspect is that the short cut is solicited only in the efforts one has to put in. What about happiness, enjoyment, material aspects one wants in life? They have to be available in full measure, no short cuts here, please!

When you want a mango tree in your garden, it takes years after you plant the sapling, for getting a fruiting tree. To enjoy the full taste of mangoes, it has to ripen naturally. But we get tasteless mangoes in the market because they have been plucked prematurely and ripened by artificial means.

One becomes obese after years of over eating, but weight reduction is sought overnight. This gives opportunity for many to come up with ingenious ideas to earn so much money from these culpable individuals. I know some of them getting irreversible problems from usage of such weight reduction products.

We will stop looking for short cuts when we start liking what we are doing. And how can we start liking what we are doing? And that is another complicated question!

To start living in the present

How can we start living in the present? By totally accepting the present moment and also being grateful for all the blessings in life. This in no way means that one should become complacent and stop doing one’s duty in life. But to aspire something too badly and going madly after it, neglecting other aspects of life, will only bring misery to life.

When I was around 16 years of age, my parents took me to a Malayalam drama, which had a great impact on my life. It was named ‘Raktarakshas’, which means an entity that drinks blood. The story was of an ugly daughter of a great Ayurveda physician. He was a well acclaimed man, to whom people came from far and wide and got relief from their problems. The daughter used to pester him to make some potion for her to become beautiful. He just used to pacify her saying that the inner beauty was more important than the physical beauty and she was beautiful according to him.

When the father dies, she searches through his medical literature and to her surprise she saw that there was really a technique, though a difficult one, to turn ugliness into beauty. She religiously followed the technique for twelve full moon sessions and became a very beautiful lady. Some time later, while cutting vegetable, her finger got cut and some blood fell on the floor. Soon her body started transforming into a grotesque figure and she ran out of the house and killed the first man she encountered on the street to drink his blood. Then it was shown that in the medical book, the last line written was “If some body becomes beautiful by this technique, she has to take care that her blood never falls in the earth, or she will turn into a ‘Raktarakshas’.

If we aspire for something and work for it for a reasonable amount of time and do not succeed, we should understand that our path must be different and take a detour. We can adamantly keep following the same path and we may achieve it, but by them we will be so exhausted that we don’t derive as much enjoyment as we had expected.

This aspect became absolutely clear to me when I became a past life regression therapist. Now I know from experience that at the soul level we decide our path for this life time. On taking birth we forget our life path and start aspiring for different things. If we really look into this, we understand that this originates from comparison. ‘If he/she can have it, why can’t I?’ And comparison is sure way to invite frustration and depression.

We are all different, beautiful beings, here on this plane to accomplish different things. Live on a day to day basis, be happy at the end of each day for what you have done to the best of your ability, and be thankful for the higher guidance. Then the life starts blooming!

‘Kitanu’ (Bacteria) phobia

Majority of the advertisements one sees on television give vivid graphics of the dangers of living with bacteria. One has to remove all the bacteria from the mouth, from the plates used for eating food, even from the floor.

If you take a look at the Wikipedia, you see that “Populations of microbes (such as bacteria and yeasts) inhabit the skin and mucosa. Their role forms part of normal, healthy human physiology, however if microbe numbers grow beyond their typical ranges (often due to a compromised immune system) or if microbes populate atypical areas of the body (such as through poor hygiene or injury), disease can result.”

Many people consider  that human beings are separate from the other beings on the earth. It is not so. We are just a part of the whole Universe, and are supposed to have a commensal existence. Of course, some basic hygiene is necessary in life, but there is no point in taking things to the extreme.

Bacterial cells are much smaller than human cells, and there are at least ten times as many bacteria as human cells in the body.  The mass of microorganisms are estimated to account for 1-3% total body mass. Though members of the flora are found on all surfaces exposed to the environment (on the skin and eyes, in the mouth, nose, small intestine), the vast majority of bacteria live in the large intestine. So how are we going to sterilize our intestine?

The solution is not to make ourselves bacteria free, but to strengthen our immunity. But this approach will not help to rake in money for the advertising companies.

Trying to guard one away from bacteria has led to the situation that when he/she falls sick, it is difficult to recover. Because the lack of exposure to bacteria diminished the formation of antibodies in the body and it cannot cope up with the infection. In such situations, fecal matter from a healthy human was introduced into the gut of the diseased person, which led to the cure! “Fecal implant’ now looks to be a promising cure.. ha ha…

And, what’s more, fecal implant is now available in pill form (http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/IDWeek/42044).

The choice is yours. Learn to live with the microbes, develop your immunity OR be ready to eat sh-t.

Of bullet trains and tears

Let us run the family together

Our teeth- An important asset

Sweden sweeps me off my feet

A Coorgi wedding

I was fortunate to get an opportunity to attend a Coorgi wedding. The first surprise that welcomed me on reaching the venue was the sight of natural pleasant faced ladies. These days it has become the norm for ladies, in whatever age group they are, to make a trip to the beauty parlor before any function. It is just sympathy that fills my heart when I see even septugenarians with painted faces that look so out of place. Somewhere along the line the fairer sex has forgotten the concept of graceful aging. Here I was lucky to feast my eyes on faces that reflected wisdom and compassion, without the overlying thick layers of foundation, compact powder and rouge.

It was heartening to see that the youngsters were giving due respect to the elders by greeting them and touching their feet. The older generation was really taken care of, and attended on.

Even though the families were very well off, there was no ugly display of wealth by providing two hundred items for the feast. This is another sad trend that is catching up. There will be a menu of innumerable items, but I have experienced on many occasions that the quality would be compromised. Here there were a few select items, but each one was a gastronomic delight!

I have to admit that the ladies had good esthetic sense in the selection of jewellery. They were very different from the ones I usually see in other parts of India.

And finally it was a great experience to participate in the traditional dance programme that followed the dinner.

The sampige saga

 We planted a sampige sapling outside our house 18 years back. Since then I have been dreaming of the tree laden with flowers. I am crazy for its heady fragrance. I watered the plant with love, talked to it and waited for the blooms to show up.

Weeks passed to months, months passed to years. Then I thought that sampige may be having male and female trees like some other plants, and it may not flower. But during a meeting with a friend who is a forest officer, he assured me that it will definitely flower one day.

My hope was rekindled and I started to talk to the tree again, standing on the terrace. On 19^th May 2013, I was sitting on the lawn and looked up at the tree. I could see some yellow color among the leaves. My heart stopped for a second. Was I seeing flowers? Yes, they were!

My happiness knew no bounds and I ran to the terrace to take a closer look. And I was surprised to see that all the flowers were on the branch that was closest to the terrace, where I used to stand and talk to the tree!

Flower thieves of Belgaum.

 The flower thieves of Belgaum are not qualified thieves, but ordinary house wives. They will take a walk around the houses that have flowering plants, just before the sunrise of soon after, plucking flowers from other’s gardens. They will lean against the walls, lower the branches and take the flowers. They will even open the gates, go inside the house and pluck flowers. If by chance the neighbors question, they are made to keep quiet by the retort, “Is it your house? What right do you have to object?’

It is really sad to see that they will not only pluck the flowers, but also the buds, that too, very tender ones! They can be so hard hearted that they may not leave any flowers for the lady of the house.

On the road divider in front of our clinic, we got some flowering plants maintained by a gardener. The watering is done from our clinic. We had a dream of looking at the flowers from the clinic windows. But the local flower thieves will not leave even buds on the plants. Many times, on our way to yoga class early morning, we will encounter these ladies plucking flowers and buds. When I try to stop them, they will say,’ It is for the Gods. We do puja with them”, as if they are doing a great service to the humanity!

When I reply, “God won’t accept flowers got by stealing. You have to grow plants in your house and offer them.” If I thought that those words would make a dent on their conscience, it was my mistake.

Next time I tried a different approach. I asked the lady, “Are you doing anything for these plants? Do you water them? We are maintaining these plants and watering them. Let every body have the joy of seeing these flowers.”

The lady was quick with her response, “But the plants are on the road, this is public property. So I will pluck them.”

Aha! Look at her defiance. I responded, “These street lights are also on the road. Take away the light bulbs to your house, they are public property.” She immediately left, to come back later when I was gone.

I have stayed in different parts of India, but this flower theft is most rampant in Belgaum. Established flower thieves will always have plastic bags with them to collect the flowers. Novices will keep the flowers in their sari pallu. Once in a while you can see some old men also doing the theft.

I have only one mode of action, fold my hands and pray to God, to instill some civic sense in my fellow country women.

The uniqueness of Rameshwaram

My solah somavar vrat was approaching the final lap when our relatives were planning a trip to Ramaeshwaram. ‘We would like your company,’ they told. We also like to be with them, since the head of the family reads Puranas every day for two hours for the past two decades and we get so much information during conversations with him.

Train tickets to Madurai were booked, but our numbers were way down in the waiting list. ‘If the tickets get confirmed, we will go’, we decided. The trip was supposed to be on 27^th March, just after my last ‘solah somavar’ Monday (25th March).

The waiting list numbers came to 2 and 3 by 24^th. But a 24 hour train journey cannot be undertaken without confirmation. Any way we did the packing and waited, and waited. On 26the evening at 5 pm, our tickets were confirmed!

So we set out on our journey, remembering to carry the Ganga jal that we had brought from up North years ago. One is supposed to do abhishek with Ganga jal on the idol at Rameshwaram. The visit to Rameshwaram was finishing our ‘Char Dham yatra’ too.

Reaching Madurai on 28^th early morning, we rushed to the hotel where our relatives were put up, had a quick shower and got ready to visit the Meenakshi temple. After having a nice darshan, finished our lunch and started for the car ride to Rameshwaram. By night fall, we reached the hotel that our friend had booked. He told us to be ready by 5 am next day morning to go for ‘Sphatik Shivling’ darshan, which is possible only from 5 to 6 am. This Shivling was gifted by the Raja of Nepal 900 years ago.

Before the darshan of the main idol, we had a dip in the sea, in the ‘Agni Teerth”. Then we went around the 22 teerths, which are wells established by different sages. When we stand near the well, the person responsible for that particular well will draw water and pour over our heads. It is supposed to wash off sins. Since our hotel was nearby, we went back and changed.

Taking our Ganga Jal with us, we went to the main sanctum Santorum. Our Ganga Jal was poured into a big bucket of water and the pujari poured the water over the idol of Shivling. It was such a bhakti filled moment, I got goose flesh. My eyes closed automatically and I got the feeling of weightlessness. It was an amazing experience!

What is unique about Rameshwaram? The Vaishnavites and Shaivites meet here. It is told that when Lord Rama was asked what is Rameshwaram, he replied, ‘Where Rama’s eshwar ( Lord Shiva) resides.’ On putting the same question to Lord Shiva, his response was ‘Where Rama is Eshwar (Lord Shiva worships Rama).

Antivirus system for you

When someone thinks that a physical problem can exist without a mental component, it just means that he/she does not have a deep understanding of life. The mind body connection is becoming more and more clear to scientists.

We all have heard some time or the other, ‘He got a liver damage. Very surprising, he never touched alcohol!’ As a spiritual healer, I know that anger can damage the liver more than chronic alcohol consumption. Holding onto anger for long periods of time or projecting a serene self when actually one is boiling inside, can totally throw the liver out of gear.

So how can we come out of the emotional imbalances? All of us know that anger, jealousy, hatred etc., are not good for us and we want to come out of them. But is it an easy task? Intellectually thinking that you want to get rid of these major enemies of our system, and trying to do so will bring almost no positive results.

It is here that learning Reiki comes to your rescue. It looks so simple, but can have profound effect on your quality of life. All you have to do, after getting attuned to Reiki by a Reiki teacher/master, is to do Reiki self healing every day. If you can give Reiki healing to others also, all the more better.

The electromagnetic vibration of Reiki, which has an intelligence of its own, brings balance in every aspect of your life.

It takes you gradually to the higher planes of life. Slowly, problems cease to look like problems, but challenges that you think you are capable of overcoming. Whatever armamentarium that you need to meet the every day challenges, is right there with you, because Reiki provides them.

Just like you work peacefully on your computer after you have installed a powerful antivirus programme, you can go through your life in a peaceful and calm manner. You develop the strong faith and experience it in daily life, that the Reiki energy running as the background programme, can have a powerful impact in the way you experience life!