JANUARY 2

" You were right!" I murmured at midnight when my heart pounded quickly. I remember my better half saying" avoid packaged food and junk food, and drink more water". However, I didn't heed these words. I then realised that she was absolutely right. It was her concern about my health.

When we are busy with the household chores or our hectic and arduous office-home routine, we usually forget about the self. We just focus on what we are doing and how to make others happy. At this juncture, we damn care about our health and usually forget to drink water, take an evening walk or eat fruits.

I used to wonder why people go for a morning or evening walk on a frigid day, or why people avoid canteen food, street food, junk food and various other outside items. In the past, I took this as a "publicity stunt". Now I realise that it is not so. In fact, it is a way of leading and living a healthy lifestyle.

I have heard some elderly people saying, "When I was young, I yearned to eat in a restaurant, however, I didn't have the money to go there. Now, I have the money, but I can't eat." It means everything around you is worthy if you are in good health, otherwise they are worthless.

There is a universal proverb "Health is Wealth". In childhood, I took it as a mere slogan. I used to wonder, "How could health and wealth be interconnected?" Now I understand that health is not tantamount to wealth but is worth much more. If wealth is lost or stolen, then it can be recovered somehow, however, once health is lost, it is hard to recover.

I often watch interviews of people suffering from cancer, and when they say they have just a year left, I feel sorry for them. Many questions strike my mind: Don't they love their life? Don't they want to enjoy their life to the fullest? Or don't they get blessed for longevity? See, they lost their health. What is the meaning of material things around them if they are not healthy? People these days are seeing a worsening of their health conditions. People take daily medicines for hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, asthma, eye irritation, constipation and heart diseases. For them life and medicines have become synonymous.

Daily exercises, drinking water, eating fruits and green vegetables, reducing oil and fats in our diet, saying no to tobacco and alcohol, practise yoga, staying away from pollution are the dots that join to maintain a healthy life. If we follow this mantra, then our life would run seamless.

Most of the diseases can be cured, controlled or avoided merely by changing our lifestyle and eating habits. A healthy life is a patchwork of these daily life activities and the food we eat.

A version of this article appears in the print on January 3, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.