The Tsunami Wave : COVID 2021

       

        As a covid warrior I will share a few field facts I experienced during the second covid wave of the pandemic. In the covid pandemic, alone in India there were more than 3 crores of positive cases detected and total, approx. death of 4.3 lakhs covid patients. Out of these, 3 lakhs deaths happened in the second covid wave and of these 3 lakhs, approx 35% is from Maharashtra state where Nasik district fell in the category of red zone. During first wave I had been consciously hunting for an opportunity to serve the society during the turmoil of Covid pandemic. I got this chance to work in Nashik municipal corporation’s  Bytco Covid care centre in the second pandemic wave. I worked in a lab which exclusively did RT-PCR testing of swab samples and this lab was in the middle of a government Covid care centre. Under a common roof of this Covid Centre patients were not only detected using the PCR tests but also admitted and treated against  Coronavirus disease. We were involved in PCR testing and during the peak of second wave our highest sample count went to approx 1500 on one day in the mid of April and the reports of which we successfully communicated within 24 hours to the respective centres in Nashik. The peak continued from April to mid May. During this course of analysis in second wave seven of our teammates out of 28, turned Covid positive but with cumulative support, treatment and love, all of them recovered faster and without hesitation responded to the call of the duty in the lab. In this tsunami of pandemic according to my observation government provided the basic facilities to the common man and non-governmental organisations too expressed their duty in the form of food donation, ventilator donation etc. Covid patients in the care centre cooperated each other and also served as a moral support towards each other. Unfortunately, a few of them were an exception and they failed to cooperate to the health workers and also failed to follow the cleanliness protocols in the Covid care centre. In the second pandemic wave, relatively the behaviour of virus was very tricky and deceptive , the symptoms were also varied and unpredictable from individual to individual, prognosis was also  confusing and due to which we also lost a number of health workers in our covid care centre. Meanwhile, our RT-PCR team went out of the way in their duty, they almost forgot everything, even the duty timings when they were serving the mankind and reported results within 24 hours for a faster treatment to the positive patients. Despite of the higher sample counts, our technicalities and ICMR portal entry went hand in hand, which lead to transparency, accessibility and quick treatment. During this period, as an individual I learnt how to administer and manage the team, workload management, clinical data management, biological waste management, stress management, time management, Troubleshoot management and also the real-time application of my subject in the field of human diagnostics that too in the turmoil of global pandemic threat. There were times when I stumbled on this path but it was my mother who instigated and encouraged me to strongly serve our country in the form of a Covid warrior. I can hardly ever forget the path which I walked from the main gate of the hospital to the door of our PCR lab. There were beds everywhere, relatives of the patients crying, doctors rushing, ward boys running, every other health worker on the tip of their toes, trying to save the life of every human who was admitted. One such evening I will never forget in my life and will share over here, it was around 6.30 to 7 evening, I completed my work in the lab and I came out. Just then one of the family got the news that their patient was no more, there was a burst of outcry, at the same time it being Ramadan, in the nearby masjid, there was this Magrib (sandhyaakaal) Azaan going on, the sound of outcry and Azaan merged and whirled around my ears and my mind.The entire family was crying loudly but one teenage boy in a shock,  knelt down with painful eyes and a wide mouth open as if he too wanted to shout and cry but there was no sound coming out of him. My mind went numb and Heart went heavy.  I somehow managed to step out of the hospital and from that point till the doorstep of my home I could not stop my tears rolling down. The number of deaths around, the sounds of ambulance, the overall happenings in the hospital, did at times put me into a kind of a depression but at the same time when I witnessed people of all ages getting better and saw them successfully win the war against corona virus infection my heart used to stand back stronger. The smiling faces of the recovered patients’ relatives pumped in positive energy and pushed me back with a full swing. With this zeal, in 5 months my RT-PCR team successfully crossed 50000 sample testings. And now we are all set and equipped with all the wisdom of second wave to stand against the third covid wave. Also the take-away-message I  always inbox to my team is that we survived the second wave and we must treat this as a new birth, new life and new opportunities to serve our fellow beings.

         While, we may feel that the virus is gone but it stays there evolving and mutating in the host cells. Hence some of our habits should be mandatorily inculcated, like the basic hygiene or cleanliness practises (washing hands and legs), physical distancing in events, use of clean masks,  vaccination and consumption of well-cooked, healthy and immunity boosting food. Since coronavirus virus imposes a threat on lungs, breathing exercises like pranayama and bastrika will definitely increase the oxygen level and the efficiency of our lungs

       Based on the experience of second wave where neither power nor money worked, human being must understand that life is unpredictable and one must not underestimate his own or anybody else’s life by skipping all the basic cleanliness habits. Every human must stop spitting on the roads. While few of the fields remain unaffected, some of the fields and the daily workers have faced a lot of financial loss. As a responsible citizen of this country we must help this affected sector by extending  our very little bit in our own smaller or bigger way. One must also take a lesson that money when earned should  not only be judiciously expended for today but also be wisely saved for tomorrow. Also, post pandemic health will be/should be treated as the greatest wealth one has.

      We must be consciously aware that there have been families which are devasted due to financial crisis and also due to deaths. Post COVID, the challenges to fill in this gap of financial and emotional losses are going to increase. While few have always had a casual and careless approach, yet others will maintain the conscious practice of cleanliness and healthy nutrition. Thirst for employment is going to increase for which government may/will/should come with new developmental strategies and as citizens we must go local. We as a common man must cooperate and adapt to these new changes for a better future. Medical and Pharma field of our country will hold ground in future. The deteriorated education quality due to online commencement will gradually improve and the youth will adapt to this transformation at a faster pace.

I am in love!

        I am in love with it! What is it? Well! Google defines it as, ‘that which gives a pause, a gap and also joins thereafter’. Any guesses? Yes, I am defining a ‘comma’. Friends, passed 6 months, life has been paddling faster and my working wheel has been busier. In this spinning mode, I thought that I would hardly fish time for my creativity, friends, relatives, health and all other miscellaneous activities but I was wrong in my assumption.  In fact I realized that, ‘busier the bee, easier is the time-management-key’. These were the months when I not only achieved the work maxima but I could also give quality time to mom, friends, relatives and learn diversity of creative activities. I don’t deny that there weren’t challenges but it was all about strategically assembling the pieces to reveal the final jigsaw pattern. I not only learnt to strengthen and prioritize my duties but also my inner circle. The first step after the leap of faith was ‘acceptance’ and I believe further steps become effortless subsequently. So I accepted that I had to shed the glory of leisure time which otherwise I enjoyed lavishly earlier. The second step towards an extensive ‘things-to-do’ list was aligning it with a particular time schedule in pencil. Planning using pencil makes it flexible whereas planning using pen adds to the stress of not really being able to modify it. In the field of human-diagnostics that too in pandemic one cannot afford to have a rigid planning. The third blissful but most soothing step towards my internal harmony was the judicious use of a ‘comma’. Comma here means, a break or a gap, bigger or small, between two of my tasks. I trained my mind to use smallest of these commas in a day to relax my mind. My relaxation could be in the form of a tea with a friend, quick guided meditation, phone-a-dear one, read a chapter in a book, walk for some time or go for a drive. These little commas helped me relieve my stress and experience a total change of the world temporarily. I found myself rejuvenated for the next upcoming tasks after I lived every little comma. The best part of using a comma is that it doesn’t demand any planning or a systematic line of action. As soon as I realize that I have a comma-time, I pounce on my happiness task at that spur of moment. Whatever available around me and fits into my happiness option is my way of using my comma, it could literally mean even putting my head down on my working desk for a short nap or hearing a song using a headphone. Choice of a comma moment will definitely vary with every person but what should remain common is its ability to revive our mind, inhale few refreshing breaths and wipe the mental desk for some new work files.

Moderation in Abundance

   

    Is it possible to practice moderation whilst experiencing abundance? The likely answer is ‘yes’. The basic question is, ‘why one must practice moderation when he/she is blessed with abundance?’  Well! It’s the quality of balancing and doing something or anything within reasonable limits. Guys, to be honest with you, once upon a time I preferred flowing and sparging into somewhere just like the splashing water. The unstoppable, was me! There it came along with unlimited joy and fun, but little was known to me about when and how to apply the brakes. Consequently, the speedy river struck hard on the wall, the dancing waves fell down, couldn’t settle back with ease, for some time reverse went the flow and there was an unexpected clash for a while. For me, such events kept happening causing mental, financial, health and resource-related turbulence. It took me quite a reasonable damage and frustration to understand that at varied fronts in life one needs to balance and practice the alert-act of holding it lose. It is difficult to control extremity, at the same time, not affordable to be undoing but it is worthwhile to practice moderation.  A patient act of moderation brings with it wisdom, focus, planning and consistency. In any stream of life, viz., leading a team in your profession, judiciously using resources at home, restricting your physical work-out and balancing the other half with meditation, not overdoing in the emotional expression, being uniform with the inner circle relations, limiting the race for the funds, balancing the act of receiving with the counteract act of giving, practicing friendliness, and every other sector you name it, will ultimately call for moderation. In the beginning, so as to practice moderation, one may need to press an abrupt ‘pause’ but eventually one will learn when, how and with whom  to ‘set it lose’ (even with self). Excess of anything will eventually lead to dust. ‘Excess’ is a relative term, means that which is excess for Mr. B could be ‘limited’ for Mr. A and vice-versa. Here comes the need for pausing, holding it loose, syncing in and getting back on the track. This act of optimization for moderation can prove fruitful for long term collaborations. Just as we demonise X food and glorify another food Y, we miss all the nutritional content of X due to exclusive consumption of Y. Later when we come with medical conditions we blame Y, whereas it was missing a tap  of moderation of food X and Y.  Moderation  is challenging but once you adapt to this skill and trick, nothing can hold you back from a healthy body and a contented smile. Pausing is such a blessed option to choose over breaking it. Such frequent pauses and also not overdoing something is a foundation of implementing moderation in abundance. This is about giving your best but with  an optimised pace.

cheers,

Swati

Work-Unwind-Recover-Repeat

The literature meaning of unwinding is loosening and untangling. Every individual, whether robust or weak, at the end of the day deserves ‘unwinding’. According to me, unwinding is essentially as important as performing your work duties so as to meet the dead lines. Unwinding gives me a platform to flash back on the happenings for the day at my own pace, pin the major ones, ponder on my role played on it, extract the best possible ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’, conclude and satisfactorily either place the closed file in the mental shelf or jot down the next line of action to the best. With all the multi-tasking mesh, the unpredictability around, the on-and-off negative vibes, the time restrictions, the pressure of self-accountability, love towards perfection in work, I totally believe in the self-improvisation process using the magic of unwinding. At the same time, my friends, let me make you understand that unwinding is a verb which does include an activity over the activities done for the day and a future prospection. This one too demands a mental energy input and a thought process. The whole day exertion, hard work on the multiple tasks, physical work, mental work and finally the unwinding step at the end of the day, all-in-all deserves a RECOVERY. Yes, you read it right, even unwinding calls for a recovery. The recovery begins from closing the thought file of the work, placing it on the mental shelf and relaxing the body, the facial muscles and the mind with eyes closed, body still in a sukhasan. Yes, mediation and long breathing is the first step towards recovery which with-practice blesses us with the pleasure of getting revitalized through samadhi-awastha. Post-meditation, the second step of recovery is a sound, peaceful sleep for about 7-8 hours and lastly, wake up fresh to balance the electrolytes in our body by drinking 1 or 2 glasses of plain water, off-screen. Work, unwinding, recovery and back to work is the circle completed for an improved performance, balance and revival.

regards,

Dr. Swati Bhavsar