🌈 1287 – Wednesday, 2 October 2024 23:45
London
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you dear Gandhi.. Happy Birthday to you!! you old fossil!
For as long as I can remember, growing up, I always heard the name “Gandhi Tata,” which means grandfather.
He was a man who believed in simplicity and solidarity, if you want to know what his inner thoughts and feelings were, read his biography, written by himself, “My Experiment with Truth” and you’ll read how he felt in his lifetime.
The world today is in dire need of a figure like Gandhi to stand up against the chaos unfolding around us. It feels as though the global stage is set, and the battles have already begun, pushing us toward an even greater catastrophe—the sorrowful, tragic failure of humanity that would mark the beginning of the Third World War.
What can I possibly say or do to stop this? Is there anyone out there? Any human left who truly cares about the world and the people who are being forced to endure this?
Russia and Ukraine remain locked in conflict. Russia, already the largest country on the planet, could have been content with its vast resources, but instead, greed drove it to invade Ukraine. Ukraine, in turn, has been fighting back fiercely for the past two years, enduring countless losses along the way.
After more than 50 years of conflict, the Palestinian-Israeli situation has reached a critical point, leading to airstrikes, ground invasions, and a broader escalation involving the Arab world. Israel’s targeted killings of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders, along with its strikes on Lebanon, have resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives, further intensifying the conflict.
Few could have foreseen how far the violence would expand when Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 from its base in Gaza, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 others, followed a day later by Hezbollah firing rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon.
Israel’s response, reducing the Palestinian enclave to rubble and the lives of more than 40,000 people, ignited global protests and spurred allegations of war crimes, which Israel denies. Iran fired about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on 1st October.
Anyway, I can’t keep up to this, I have to wake up early and get to work.
I woke up early today at 6 AM sharp with the alarm and wondered why I set the alarm on while I was going to work from home, couldn’t go back to bed, stayed in bed for a while on the phone, went to the loo and came back straight to the, it was very very cold, grey, raining, foggy and wet outside. I couldn’t stay up and went back into the duvet, the boiler had been playing up.
I set my alarm for 7 am and tried to go back to sleep, but my mind kept drifting to the 2:00 pm meeting I was dreading. I sat on the edge of the bed and meditated for a few minutes, then got ready for the gym. Just then, Dad called early in the morning. I told him I had just woken up, and we had a quick chat. He and Mom had breakfast—idly—and were relaxing at home. Mom had a biopsy yesterday and was still feeling a bit low. The whole family could use a little cheering up.
Around 07:30 got to the gym, and surprisingly had a really really really really really good workout, did upper back, 4 sets of 11 reps of pull-ups, then V grip lat pull-downs, seated cable rows, lateral raises.. had a shower, walked straight back home in the drizzling rain and logged in work at the desk., feeling cold and cold.
I called my dear mother to see how she was feeling and enjoyed a brief catch-up; my brother had already called her earlier. I settled at my desk, tackling my inbox while preparing for the 2 PM meeting. Around midday, I spoke to her again, and then had lunch. I remained at my desk until the meeting ended at 3:30 PM, after which I finally made myself a hot drink. I continued working until 6:30 PM sharp, then took a 20-minute nap when the alarm rang.
I got up and went for a run, which wasn’t long but took me from Piccadilly to Lambeth Bridge. I passed by the Horse Guards Parade and Westminster Cathedral, crossed the bridge, and kept the COVID wall on my right. I took the stairs up to Westminster Bridge and made my way back along the same route, home showered and offered Ishan Salah.. After dinner watched some real estate series and had a catch-up with a mate about how our day was, then brother texted and had a quick catch-up with him..
Almost ready for tomorrow’s work, I sit down to write.. and feel heavy while I look at the news or scroll my email, all I see is the war.. war.. war.. World please do something! Let’s not have this war! let’s give up on this.. If only a huge rain or a strome or another covid could come and lock us all in, then there would be no war! Stop Stop Stop!
3 things I felt grateful for today
Grateful mother is feeling okay.
Grateful my workmate was on the call, guiding me while I figured out how to turn the central heating on to this year of winter.
Grateful I bought these candles online and they last really long.
What would it take for me and for you to wake up 10 x times muscular, stronger, bigger, leaner, energetic, confident, happy, healthy, wealthy, make it workout in the morning, have a good workout, then get to work on time, everything to be okay with family, friends and everyone around, then have a relaxing, relaxing, relaxing yet a productive day tomorrow?
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Goodnight, good luck!
Ash Khaleem
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