Work on the go

We’re in 2023. At least I am. Not sure you are. Not sure if the world is.

In the age of ultra-, mega-, super-connectivity, I’m sitting in a local train trying to latch on to a cloud-hosted work document to finish something that I couldn’t finish at work. Yeah, unlike so many other days, I had a tight workday.

A tight workday basically means working through your shift with high levels of concentration. Also means giving yourself and your personal life not much importance during the workday. I suppose the corporate world would want more people to have more tight workdays, but I’m pretty darned sure that few people would want themselves to work tighter than they already are, which, in my opinion, is too tight.

Tangent: just realized that the word used for defining when you work seems to suggest that there would be variability, but in reality, it implies that there shouldn’t be variability. Ah, the irony of borrowed words for other purposes.

So I couldn’t find time to finish what I thought I should finish. Which is something that I feel perennially. And to make myself feel a little bit better, I try to extend my workdays at either end by making myself do more personal things during the work days. That is, a looser work day. Yeah, that does make me a loser because I’m someone who not only knows that what I’m doing is unhealthy, hell I even teach people at work to not do such stuff.

So, here I am, the loser, at the end of the tight workday, trying to make things looser by working beyond my shift. Because I feel better when I do this. A trait of losers, evidently.

The point that I’m trying to make, however, is that I’m on the go. Since the time I frustratingly stopped refreshing my browser, trying in vain load my cloud work document, and started typing this, I must have traveled about 15 kilometers. North to South on the Mumbai Suburban rail network. Flew (figuratively) from around the airport to the north of the original island. From the ‘burb to the ‘bay.

My reverse-faucet for accessing the internet is my phone, and Airtel, which promises a bunch of stuff including unparalleled connectivity across the nation, failed at a very basic 2023 task. Connectivity to the internet. That’s basic even in 2003 I would argue.

So the question is—are we really in 2023? Or is 2023 different for different people. Is my 2023 not the 2023 that was allocated to the place that I find myself in? And how is that fair? How is anything fair?

Tangent: Why the hell is fair, a racist word at best, used for implying that things are non biased toward anyone?

A COVID-appropriate "forward-able" message

I would like to share a message on the COVID-19 situation in India (Scroll). I wrote this for my work colleagues and I thought I should share it with my friends' circles. Someone in one such circle recommended that I publish this and share the link so that people will heed my (why should you care)* advice.

We are all struggling with lockdown fatigue (APA) but the fight is far from over. The mutant strains will continue to develop and spread because of the sheer nature of the mechanics of viral replication (BBC)! 

The only sensible way to halt the spread is by ensuring all COVID-appropriate measures (MOHFW) (and giving the virus less chance to mutate). This means avoiding unnecessary socialization, mask-wearing, washing hands, physical/social distancing, etc. But that's not the end of this story. All of this has to be done ~100% of the time by ~100% of the population to prevent the virus. 

India is in its second gargantuan COVID wave, the vaccination numbers are looking despairingly inadequate. Just when things seemed to have become as bad as they could be, multiple sources of evidence indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne pathogen (Lancet). This makes things even worse. 

These are unprecedented times. Any hope for a semblance of a post-pandemic "normalcy" is being quashed every day. There is an incredible information overload, with a high prevalence of inaccurate/incorrect information being spread.

Here are the main evidence-based takeaways I would like everyone to know:

1. All the above COVID-appropriate behaviors (mask-wearing, physical/social distancing, avoiding physical/social meetings/gatherings, washing hands) do work (The Hindu)!
   
2. Surface spread is far less risky (CDC) compared to aerosol/airborne spread. Surface sanitization is not nearly as important as the above measures. Hand washing and avoiding touching faces will eliminate the unlikely likelihood of anyone contracting the disease because of surface spread.
3. Constant ventilation (open windows, ceiling fans, elevator fans, exhaust fans) and air purifiers decrease the risk (El Pais) in orders of magnitude. Air-conditioned, closed shared spaces are risky (Nature)! Try to avoid these (e.g., office spaces, banks, and supermarkets)
4. The risk of post-vaccination side-effects is much lower than the risk of COVID-19 itself (NY Times). Whichever way you look at it, vaccination gives you the best overall chance to survive.
   

Finally, one simple message. Science works; conspiracy theories don't (New Scientist)!

Please don't buy into or spread conspiracy theories about COVID-19. I have received bizarre forwards about microchips in vaccines (Reuters) and worms in masks (FullFact.org, Misbar.com), all of which are absolutely untrue (Neurologica Blog). They just leech into the human tendency of fearing the unknown and putting ourselves under stress. They also dent the ability of the health infrastructure to fight the pandemic (JAMA, ScienceDirect). 

If you get such forwards, fact-check them and let others know about the truth.  Educate the people who forwarded the messages and request them to stop sharing these. I urge all of us to take the responsibility to spread the right information to our near and dear ones (PLOS).

*I'm a trained orthopedic surgeon and I have been in the field of medicine and related research for 25 years.

Gym at last

For the last year or so, I have had the desire to start going to a gym again - again, because, during a brief stint of 3 months or so two years back, when all of us from Shor Bazaar were deluded enough to believe that we could all quit our livelihoods to chase our musical dream, we had all joined a gym and gone there for a month or so, and I had lingered on for a couple of more months. All through out this “plump” phase of my life, I had longed to re-start something healthy, something that would get rid of my ever-growing love handles and paunch.

One of the three reasons that I was intimidated was – two reasons are based on the lack of adequate dispensable income – is that I thought I could not stick to a diet that you are expected to follow once you start working out in a gym. The other reason, of course, was the expenses associated with joining the gym. The third of course was the doubt as to whether I could find enough time and motivation to go there regularly – as regular are almost daily.

So, last month, a lot of money came in – guess what, through music! Yes, both Shor Bazaar and Cirkles are increasing my dispensable income enough for me to think about gym, a new phone, iPod etc – and I decided that enough was enough. Impulsively, almost instantly, I decided to join a gym. On the first day of deciding, I was supposed to check out a couple of gym in the locality. This, of course, barring the one which is right next to my apartment building, on top of the supermarket, which happens to be the biggest (and apparently the most expensive) gym in Asia.

After work, I went to check out the first gym, which is about 10 minutes from my apartment. My budget was around 10 K for an annual membership. In less than 10 minutes, I signed up for the gym after a guided tour and a fantastic package deal offer. I signed up on fourth of April and I have had a really wonderful time at least until now. If anything, I am sticking to the diet in the most practicable way – that should help me restore some health to my ageing body.

It is ironic that I started this new “health” trip almost as soon as I started to have my own mini-bar, the pleasures of which are less available to me now, by choice. But then, this is all of longevity and health, and being a doctor I think I need to portray an image of health and wellness. Yes, here’s to a year of physical activity and healthy eating, the after effect of which will hopefully be a less flabby, more muscular body!