Since previous 1 year, I have a perfect breakfast every morning. It is a shake I have self discovered. The recipe is as follows –

1. 50gm – Homemade Peanut Butter
2. 150gm – Banana (3 medium size banana approx)
3. 300gm – Homemade Low Fat Greek Yogurt

The peanut butter gives you all the necessary morning fats which helps in resetting your daily hormones. Banana gives you all the carbohydrates which helps you restore your glycogen and provide all the energy for the day.
The Greek Yogurt gives you all the protein you require for healthy muscles.
The macros are insane – 718 Calories & 41g of protein. For a normal person that is 70% of the daily protein requirement.

I never use packaged peanut butter and Greek yogurt because they have unnecessary preservatives. The recipes are easy. All peanut butter needs is roasted peanut and a grinder. The greek yogurt is just your plain yogurt strained overnight. I make 7 days worth of peanut butter in a single batch and I same with greek yogurt. 5kg of milk will make 5 kg of yogurt, and that strained overnight will give you 2.1 kg of greek yogurt which you can refrigerate for 7 days as well.

One more thing – there is no sugar.

Why do we get captivated by animals? Why Tigers are magnificent? Because their life is hard. Their life is tough. Yet, they defy the adversity.

Having a round tummy is cute and easy. But having hard rock muscles need efforts. Efforts whose results you don’t see everyday, yet you accept the pain everyday, you die everyday. Defy the adversity. And if your life is gifted easy, seek tough life. Seek Hard Times. Jump into a Volcano and Rise as a Phoenix.

I do an exercise daily. It is called Morning Pages. It is a wonderful exercise I found in Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way. The idea is that you write 3 pages every morning as soon as you wake up to let your subconscious flow into it. You can write whatever comes to your mind. To-do lists, your worries, your anxieties, your goals, your dreams, philosophical musings, anything. Whatever comes in those 3 pages, you write. Morning pages help me de-clutter most of my subconscious chatter. If not written, The chatter would go on for the whole day hindering my productivity. As a byproduct of writing morning pages, I get to use my fountain pens, inks, and papers. Morning Pages is a zen activity. It takes me 45 minutes to get those 3 pages written on paper. I write them as soon as I get up, even before brushing my teeth.

I was writing my morning pages, and I caught a thought. What is my idea of relaxing? For some people, it is coffee, for some it is lounging on a beach, or for some, it is freshness and music. The ways are many. My idea of relaxing is this – Driving on a low traffic road, for a whole day, morning to evening, with no destination in mind, with no plans in hand, all the worries and life – forgotten at home. I feel at peace. I have enjoyed so many trips like these. Like the new Samruddhi Highway, barren, deserted, boring, me at 100-110, not speeding, super slow. Truly, I feel at peace. The same taste I had when I was on the ECR from Chennai to Rameswaram. Same when we were traveling through Gujarat and Rajasthan.

So my idea of peace is not books, or workouts, or trivial things. It is driving on a barren deserted road. It may taste like a dark bitter espresso, but it has the most wonderful after-taste.

Peace.

I left coffee. It has been my 12th day. Day 4 & day 5 were extreme. Life is way better now.

I left coffee for 2 reasons. First, I was addicted. From 1 cup a day 5 years ago, I shot up to 6-7 cups a day. Coffee is a chemical. Living on chemicals is not life. Second reason, I was always jittery. Panics attacks were worst.

This time, I am never going back. Because only in 11 days, life is better.

I will have occasional coffee here and there, but not a single cup for the next 10 months. Science says that it will take 10 months to sober up.

Finally, no chemical enters my body.

So long…

This…!

And if you want an unplugged version of the above which I like as well…

Life is pretty busy these days. Rather than publishing long form essays, let me begin publishing short snippets.

2006, some 17 years ago, I was in Pune for my HSC. In my hostel, there was a guy from Kerala – Fawwas Nassar. He must be a son of some rich man. iPod in his ears, handsome pocket money, well read from his childhood (he had already read The Godfather, all the Harry Potters, this-that and whatnot). A fully sophisticated and a standard guy. Rich guy – he used to wear a 10k watch on his wrist. Every Sunday he used to eat at a place where a single meal would cost more than my whole month’s pocket money.

One weekend, his father came to visit him to Pune. He came by a flight, in some german taxi cab. Wow. He brought so many things for him. Out of which was Cheese. It was the first time I saw cheese in real. I had seen cheese only in Tom & Jerry cartoons. He shared that pyramid shaped cheese with everyone – 3 cubes each – except me. He did not share even a single cube with me. He used to loathe me. He used to see me as a poor. There is a word known as humanity – he did not know it.

This previous year, my saint bernard – Coco, has had more than 1500 cheese cubes. She is so picky that she doesn’t even give a glance at normal food. Her food comes from Switzerland. My spoiled loving Coco. End of the story.

Moral of the story –
1. I never forget disrespect.
2. Every dog has his day – 2006, that guy had his day. 2023, My Dog has her day.
3. My Coco knows humanity. It is disrespectful towards my Coco to call that guy the dog. I should call him the dirt.

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Yes I am arrogant. At least my arrogance is justified.

I must be a Hero from Ayn Rand Novel.

A Giant Saint Bernard sitting in a Black 4×4 Jeep with 0007 on its number plate, me driving.
People taking videos and photographs… … …

They see a Hero, (or do they see the Volcano…)

You are knowing. The knower knows everything.
There is no past and there is no future – Time is just a concept.

Revelation in Meditation