Let me body shame you !

Now that I caught your attention with that offensive subject line, let me tell you this article is not about humiliating or poking fun of anybody's weight or appearance. Whatever I'm writing shall not be applicable to those suffering from any medical condition or those who are facing weight issues despite trying hard. I wish you the best in your journey and let's hope you progress well.

This is for all those 'woke' and 'body-positivity' clique who wear their obesity on their sleeve and believe that is normal, something to be proud of and to those who say they aren't ashamed of their over weight. And this is also for those naïve people who do not understand the gravity of what their bulging tummy can pose for them. 

For those who have seen me personally and felt I looked fit, actually my body fat percentage is close to 20%. Anybody with body-fat more than 25% are considered obese and I am not too far from that. So it goes without saying that if I do not care about my lifestyle and eating habits for sometime, I end up in obesity category and my risk of dying through heart diseases, cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure increases by 30% over other fit people. 

Time for you to retrospect if you fall over 25% body-fat and if yes that means your bulging tummy is a ticking time bomb and no body positivity would come to your rescue. By the way do you have a family to support and kids to raise ?

Everybody knows that the two major ways of cutting down body fat is by lifting weights and by reducing intake of bad foods (white salt, white sugar, white rice, white flour - all white witches). Should we avoid all these foods for good ? Our life is all about biryanis, sweets, deep-fried savories and hence we can't get rid of those completely. But the bigger question is...should we have all these thrice a day or even better question, should we have any food thrice a day, everyday ?

Did you wonder how to handle hunger because you feel hungry every few hours ? The joke is on you because hunger is a feeling triggered not by lack of food but by your brain which tricks you to eat. If you fast for long, brain would divert itself to tap your belly fat for energy but we usually don't let that happen and keep satisfying our hunger pangs.

I made a one hour video about bio-chemistry and what happens within the cells of your body when we eat and what happens when we do not eat. But my wife reprimanded from sharing that online as it was a bit too preachy and I gave up. 

Anyway, if you thought body fat only castes heart diseases, let me give you more possibly consequences: Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, blindness. Cancer is aggravated by presence of high body sugars. We wonder why our grandparents suffered from health related diseases as they grew old. Unfortunately, they were not told how to lead a healthy lifestyle as their entire diet was full of white witches.

But at least they had an active lifestyle. And lets compare theirs with our sedentary lifestyles sitting in front of computers for 8 hours, another 4 hours in front of TVs. We could die much earlier and I won't make it politically correct. Do you hear about those young men in 30's and 40's dying of cardiac arrests or are you in your own dangerous bubble ?

'Breakfast is the most important meal of the day' is the shit advertised by cereal companies. Do they care about your well-being ? Hahaha. To my surprise, doctors told my diabetic family members that they should not fast because the diabetic medicines would reduce body sugar levels and hence they should eat 'well' to increase their body sugars so that medicines can do their job. They do not want the sugar levels to be reduced naturally by fasting. 

If you lose your weight and get healthy, the corporates lose their money, healthcare industry crumbles, pharma companies lose and none of them encourage limited eating. We live in a world of consumerism and hence we need to back one another. Read about 'autophagy', 'ketones' and how prolonged fasting before lifting weights will make you stronger, sharper and how eating diminishes the results. But we were conventionally told that eating makes us stronger and healthier. Nothing can be a bigger scam. 

I personally follow 'one meal a day' on all weekdays and my detractors ask me if that's healthy and nutritious at all ? I am amused at that question because I do not understand if we need to eat thrice a day to get those milligrams of vitamins, minerals, carbs and protein our body needs (assuming they all eat only nutritious food every time). Won't I get that nutrition from one healthy lunch ? Weren't early humans made to hunt and eat once in two or three days ? Don't lions and tigers eat once in three days now ? None of the animal species eat thrice a day and humans are made the same way too. We just eat way more than what our bodies need and hence all the extra food would be stored as belly fat for future energy spending which we don't spend anyway. 

We just can't stop ourselves from eating 'tasty food' because we let our brain and hormones like dopamine control us. Not controlling intake of food is as addictive as smoking, drinking or doing drugs. More dangerous actually as we do it thrice a day.

Few people eat healthy and few others who can't control their mouth burn the calories in gym through weight training. If you don't do either or if you talk about body-positivity to hide your insecurities, let me touch your raw nerve by saying you lack discipline of controlled-eating, and you are lazy enough to hit the gym. 

If you are fat and if your clothes don't fit it, if you are not motivated to groom well, yet you lack self-discipline, you are a bad example and influence on your kids because they learn this very lazy lifestyle and habits from you. You are not only ruining your life but also people around you. And you don't need anybody else to body shame you, because you are your own enemy and you will see your life crumbling in front of your own eyes. I repeat - your fat body is a ticking timebomb and it will catch you up sooner or later. Deal with it.

Travel Diaries 7: British Isles & Central Europe - 2022

After consciously refraining myself from posting public blog posts for over 2 years, it feels a bit wistful penning down my thoughts again but I wanted to write this note before the post-vacation steam fizzes off. I needed such exciting context to write something without appearing redundant. 

2017 was memorable with our 7-continent Odyssey to commemorate our 10th anniversary but we had to remain travel-dormant for the next 5 years marked with our house construction commitments followed by a certain pandemic. Yes, there were a couple of all-inclusive resort or cruise trips in the grind but I don't qualify them as travel as they were more like indulgence without the perks of travel experiences.

For us, traveling had always been liberating that unshackled us from the mundane routine but this particular trip would remain etched into our minds and hearts forever for more reasons than one. Before talking about merits of the places, this trip was also different because we did not have strollers to push kids around and this was also the first major trip without diapers and the associated paraphernalia.

In my past blog article, I wrote how important it was for us to travel with kids as that always resulted in our spending undivided attention and forge stronger bond with them. This time it only grew tenfold stronger thanks to the kind of places we visited. As cliched as it might sound, we kind of rediscovered ourselves through the experiences we had in our 3 week whirlwind tour of 9 countries and 18 cities /towns of British Isles and Central Europe. Yes, you may say Whoa !

For those who care, here is the list of places we visited

1. London and vicinity in England (Oxford, Windsor, Stonehenge, Cotswold)
2. Edinburgh, Scotland
3. Glasgow, Scotland
4. Dublin, Ireland
5. Belfast, Northern Ireland
6. Prague, Czech Republic 
7. Zagreb, Croatia 
8. Ljubljana, Slovenia
9. Lake Bled, Slovenia
10. Budapest, Hungary
11. Bratislava, Slovakia
12. Krakow, Poland
13. Auschwitz, Poland 
14. Vienna, Austria

The experiences

Since we were fresh from Banff & Jasper trip at home, we were clear we did not want to visit another scenic canvas anymore because very few places are more beautiful than Banff (may be with an exception of towns and hamlets around Swiss and Austrian Alps). So this time, we were longing to be at historical places with 1000 year old cobbled old town squares, palaces and castles as I never get tired of such magnificence. But we were surprised in more ways than one.

England

Our first stop was London. We wanted to spend my mother's birthday in the megapolis. London tower bridge was mind-blowing as expected along with the Westminster, Buckingham patch. But the rest of the city fell a bit flat or may be I had unreal expectations. Or may be I developed a grudge because security guards denied our earnest plea to enter Buckingham palace when we were late to the entrance by 3 minutes, thanks to the indifferent hop on hop off bus dudes. I must say that was the low point of our tour. We went to London but did not see the Queen's palace. Alas.

Oxford university was awe-inspiring. The feeling that I was at the place I grew up learning about as one of the best places of education in the world was surreal. Despite being a Harvard alumnus, I was starstruck with the sight of Oxford and it's distinguished Bodleian Library. 

Change of guard ceremony at Windsor castle was fun for kids to watch. The march, costumes and ostentatiously upholding legacy of the monarchy was worth watching. Stonehenge was better than expected but Cotswold touted to be the most beautiful village of the country was a let-down at least for me. Perhaps, it takes more romanticism to appreciate the quaintness of the ville that's a cool 3 hours away from London.

Scotland

But the next destination was a super surprise that stumped us out of our ground. That's Edinburgh, Scotland. It was unbelievably breathtaking. A series of blackened spires of hundreds of buildings that are thousands of years old show mirror to some authentic and flamboyant Scottish history. At that point, I felt Edinburgh was the best place among all the places I had been to by then toppling Madrid, Barcelona, Queenstown, Lucerne from my list. The ubiquitous bagpiper aura of Edinburgh, with their traditional Scottish music (called Capercaillie) was soul stirring. All of us in our family felt, Royal Mile of the city was dreamlike. 

Glasgow while good at it's own right was more of a regular city without that small old town charm. Our Scotland experience was worthwhile.

Ireland

Next was Dublin, Ireland. While not quite an eye-candy kind of city, Dublin surprised me in some way. Every part of the city talked about its struggle with British and the omnipresent hatred towards their more flashy or powerful neighbor across the sea. Tour guides, cab drivers all talked about how their nation was oppressed by the British. It felt different listening to white guys being victims of colonialism and imperialism. Ireland was a kind of white man's India. But traditional Irish music was addictive to ears all through. I would see the shamrock and St. Patrick's celebration in a different way going forward. 

My parents ended their journey here with a week of historical indulgence. After seeing them off to a flight to Washington DC, our odyssey continued to the next city which again surprised us with it's mere existence. 

Northern Ireland

That's Belfast, Northern Ireland, the most politically charged and polarizing city I had ever been to. Past troubles between pro British Protestants and pro Ireland Catholics is still visible today with two flags staring at each other in neighborhoods. Some nationalist cab drivers said they were still a part of Ireland and some loyalist guides said they were strongly British. Touted to be the most violent city in Europe (or the world), the uneasiness was palpable. My kids and I having a long conversation about the historical context, IRA was my winning moment. They were interested in geopolitics and history. I was happy. Time to bid adieu to British Isles with that euphoria. And the next destination was...Prague, Czech Republic.

Czech Republic

During my school days, I read about a country called Czechoslovakia, thanks to Martina Navratilova. I knew the capital city was Prague but then it got buried in the annals of my memory until Ranbir Kapoor's Rockstar released. I was awestruck with the way they showcased Prague and Charles bridge that I wanted to visit the place someday. And I was not a bit disappointed. 

With compact old town, millennium old squares which screamed of history, the Vtlava river witnessing all the glory, Prague is straight out of postcard backdrop. I did not believe my senses for a while. But incessant crowds marred the otherwise ethereal experience. Any picture in Prague would look like a group picture with random strangers. Then is the turn to a place very few brown guys like me would usually destine to. Zagreb, Croatia.

Croatia

We were officially in the Balkans. Today, most people would know Croatia for their football team but my school day memory was to learn about a country called Yugoslavia (capital Belgrade) of Monica Seles, another superstar tennis player stabbed by Steffi Graf's maniac fan. Then the country was clearly in my memory of being disintegrating into several small countries in early 1990's. Croatia was one of them. Slovenia was another. Both countries happened to be in my itinerary now. It is like me revisiting my school time general knowledge lessons.

I did not find any brown guys in Zagreb except an Indian restaurant owner (by the way any corner of the world has an Indian restaurant where you’re greeted in Hindi). Zagreb was more of a transit city for us to begin a 5 country drive but the city pleasantly surprised us with its charm. It was more or less comparable to Prague sans publicity and crowds. Narrow alleys, makeshift restaurant filled cobbled streets reminded me of Rome. People were nice but they clearly haven't seen many Indian looking guys since long. It's evident in their stares.

Slovenia

Then we drove to a place we had no idea about. The capital city of Slovenia called Ljubljana. We had a mini crash course to learn pronouncing the name. The moment we crossed the border, we felt a perceivable difference in infrastructure and the mountainous scenery. Slovenia is surprisingly a super developed country amidst a plethora of medium economy Balkan states. But the biggest surprise is the highway system 'Autobahn', the name borrowed from Germany. The speed limit was advised to be 130 kmph with very few speed limit signage but nobody drives slower than 150 kmph. While I like to believe I am a fast driver (with record number of speeding tickets), I was a fish out of water among the formula one racer kind of drivers around. My fragile ego was hurt a bit but I did not afford to put my family in danger and hence relegated myself to a slower right lane with a mere 120 kmph.

Talking about Ljubljana, it’s majestic, breathtaking and felt it was Prague on steroids without crowds. We made it as a transient stop but wished we spent more time. But the next destination in Slovenia, Lake Bled was worth leaving Ljubljana. The lake with blue waters with castle amidst and alps surrounding it was purely a dream. It could not be real. While most time spent there went to take pictures and videos, the presence among Alps after a decade was refreshing and welcoming. 

Time to go back to Zagreb for a night because another day, another country was waiting. A 3 hour drive from Zagreb to Budapest, Hungary was due.

Hungary

At the outset, I felt Budapest was any other city like Prague, Zagreb or Ljubljana. Nothing came closer to Edinburgh till then though. But whoa ! Ask me the best city I had been to in my life so far, I would answer 'Budapest' in a heartbeat. 

While other cities were compact with a remarkable charm, Budapest was a megacity with the same charm or more. So there was a bigger canvas with more attractive skyline with spires across both sides of a wide and imposing river Danube, again a famous river I read in my social studies class during school days.

Another welcome change of Budapest was the ubiquitous presence of public thermal baths built a thousand years ago. Historical prominence, medicinal values, fun among hundreds of local Hungarians in scorching sun was the perfect pretext for all of us to have 3 hours of bliss. Streets, cathedrals, memorials, architecture, castles, river - everything was top notch enough to put the city on highest pedestal. Yes, Budapest is even better than Edinburgh. 

Slovakia

Then came a landmark day of our lives. The day that would not be rivalled ever after. We had been in 4 countries in one day. August 20th it was. 

Our car drive started from Budapest that morning enroute to a city called Bratislava, capital of Slovakia which is the another part of erstwhile Czechoslovakia. Bratislava reminded us of Ljubljana and Prague again with compact old towns and historical prominence but we will remember the city for something else. Lack of internet connectivity. 

Yes, the first place where mobile connectivity vanished which did not even happen in Amazon rainforest or relatively poor Peru. We connected to local wifi at a place to go to a distant historical place but getting back to the center was a herculean task ahead of us. Almost 10 stores and restaurants we pleaded for wifi, did not even bat an eyelid showing how cold anybody could be. We could have stayed back in some hotel had we not had a flight scheduled in 3 hours from neighboring country Austria to final destination in another neighboring country Poland.

With some good Samaritans directing us a walking way to the city center, we somehow panted, ran and found our car to cruise to Vienna Airport in Austria to catch our flight on time to reach Krakow, Poland by 6 pm. So technically Budapest (Hungary), Bratislava (Slovakia), Vienna (Austria) and Krakow (Poland) happened on one single day. But practically we saw only Bratislava that day.

Poland

I read somewhere that Polish people are cold and don't interact with strangers with no reason. Hence I was prepared for few uncomfortable moments. But Polish people happened to be the sweetest among many other nationalities I visited (on par with Jamaicans). Cab drivers and anybody else who I could strike a conversation with were extremely hospitable.

Krakow is the most touristy place in Poland even more than capital city Warsaw. That's because that's the only old city that was not harmed during world war 2. Polish culture, architecture and heritage were untouched for the last 1000 years or more. Again a small compact city, but there was some strange sort of comfort and 'apnaapan' in Krakow. I loved every moment I spent there. But there was also some strange anxiety looming in the city. Reason: influx of refugees from neighboring Ukraine.

Ukraine was in spirit across our trip because entire Europe was in solidarity with Ukraine and I could see derogatory slogans (in English, surprisingly) against Putin everywhere. Uber had options like Uber X, Uber XL and also Uber for Ukraine charging a few euros more so the proceedings go to war relief. Cab drivers we met were Ukrainians who had to forgo their houses and businesses back home to re-establish themselves in Poland or Hungary. 

If this wasn’t disturbing enough, something else was in store. Our day-tour to a neighboring city called Auschwitz. For beginners, it was a place where Adolf Hitler built concentration camps to prison over a million people and got them killed in gas chambers and extermination centers. The place was a dark testimony of how anybody could be inhumanly evil. Being a history connoisseur, I read about Hitler, World War, Holocaust from umpteen number of sources, but witnessing a place where millions of shoes and tonnes of human hair stored as exhibits was heart wrenching and stomach churning. One of the last places of the tour happened to be a grim, poignant and macabre sight but always left us realizing how fortunate we are to live a life on our own terms when millions were killed just because they were born in a certain religion or place. How devastating.

Austria

With a heavy heart, we left Poland to reach the final destination, Vienna, the city which has been on the top of all lists for best cities or most livable cities in the world. At first sight, Vienna was like any other city and we felt had we visited Vienna before visiting Budapest, Prague or Edinburgh we could have blown our minds. So it felt a bit underwhelming on day 1. That was because we had not seen the splendor yet.

The next day was our last day of the trip and hence wished we ended it on a high note so prayed hard that Vienna old town is worth it all. And we went there...and we had our mouths agape. The words magnificence, grandeur, flamboyance all suddenly felt very small. The old city was out of the world, the way we did not even dream about. We felt like being in a period film set, but that was real with horse buggies amidst imposing buildings, immaculate sculpture and breathtaking visuals. We literally had to remember to breathe.

Added to that, Vienna was a city synonymous to classical music scene. Mozart belonged there (yes, the same Mozart on whom AR Rahman is titled Mozart of Madras). If that was not enough Beethoven also lived there. For those of you who haven't heard their names, I'm sure you would have listened to their symphonies as door bell tunes, advertising jingles somewhere. Youtube "Turkish March' or 'Serenade No. 13' of Mozart or Beethoven's Für Elise or 5th symphony. We happened to be in the apartments where both these legendary artists once lived and roamed. Surreal-max. My boy is into music and piano renditions so we were glad we happened to be at Mecca of music. I'm sure he would appreciate this visit when he realizes how fortunate he was. My girl is into arts and hence we took her to an art museum to show Picasso's first hand work. Vienna is a heaven for connoisseurs of art, music, architecture, history or quality of life alike. The last day of the trip was memorable.

Conclusion

And thus, the final day of departure arrived. After 9 countries, 18 cities, 154 kilometers of walking (yes, including my kids), it was time to bid goodbye to Central Europe. As a tradition, we don't visit same place twice so our farewell to those cities was a bit overwhelming.

The tour costed us considerable money but I am not a bit repentant because we returned home with richer experiences. Being in the palaces, castles, houses, squares which witnessed history, aristocracy, art and music and then discussing and teaching kids about the history, answering their inquisitive questions, capturing lifetime of memories was worth it. 

Being in places where Mozart, Picasso, Beethoven, Kings, Queens, Commanders once walked, listening to Scottish, Irish music from the traditionalists, roaming in their streets, eating their kind of food is priceless. 

Listening to local people about how their lives changed after shedding communism / socialism post Cold War era, understanding their historical struggles, present day politics, prejudices was thought provoking.

Grandeur of Budapest, Vienna, Edinburgh, Prague, Zagreb, Ljubljana will be with us forever. 

Witnessing Hitler's gas chambers, Belfast troubles' era prisons, talking to Ukrainian refugees were disturbing but those sad experiences brought a new dimension into our personality as we have more gratitude for our current lives. 

We left a part of us in every place we visited and we gained a bit from those places. So much that every night’s dream since we returned featured some kind of tourist spot. And we are not complaining. Now looking forward for another trip to lesser traveled countries sometime this year end.

Country count so far: 

My boy and I - 43 countries 

Wifey - 45 countries 

My little girl - 29

Parents - 19 

As we always believe, to travel is to live.