Saluting the Brave hearts of Porosh - Battling COVID-19

Ever since the country-wide lock down was imposed on March 25th for 21 days, Porosh realized the time for it has come to up its ante and reach-out to as many number of senior citizens who were puzzled and confused with the sudden announcement. The concern uppermost in their minds was getting regular supply of essential household items.More than anything else they needed medicine and grocery items to be delivered at their doorsteps. Their domestic helps had stopped coming. Thus, we chalked-out an action plan and immediately posted a flyer in the Facebook signalling our availability to stand by them in the hour of crisis.

No sooner children of the aged parents who are either settled abroad, or living in different parts of the country started calling us up. What started as a trickle soon turned into a deluge. So, Team Porosh focused on the supply chain process to ensure delivery of products within 24 hours of receiving calls. This implies the team members being on their toes, braving the heat & humidity of April and working tirelessly to collect medicine & grocery items which are usually running short on supply from different kirana/departmental stores. The effort of our brave hearts was taken note of by the Kolkata Police (Lalbazar) who in turn informed its members (from Pronam) to connect with us.

However, this is not all. What has indeed been most heart-warming is the smile and sense of relief on the faces of elderly persons when they receive the essential items requisitioned for. We owe a lot to the commitment of our foot soldiers as till now none of them have complained about the quality of products being delivered. On the contrary,they are politely requesting if their friends and/or family members residing in other parts of the city can also be helped. Our response is always in the affirmative.

All said and done, kudos to Team Porosh who even without battling an eyelid, in the face of themselves contracting the highly contagious COVID-19, is working round-the-clock with a missionary zeal. One cannot help but hum the immortal Hindi film song sung by Mohd. Rafi – Har fikr ko dhuen mein uda ta chala gaya.

Looking Within – Being with Oneself

Regular readers of Porosh’s blogs are aware that we always keep on innovating insofar as our services are concerned. No wonder very recently we have added yet another component in our long list of services for serving the senior citizens. It is a breathing technique – Quality Mind Process (QMP) – which combines mind-tilling techniques adapted from Patanjali’s Yogasutras and Sri Aurobindo’s writings. QMP comprises five steps which are as follows:

a) Alternate nostril deep mindful breathing – 6/8 cycles b) Mindful breathing through both the nostrils c) Brain-stilling d) Opening-up upwards and e) Contemplating on bright luminous blue light in the cave of the heart (i.e. hridyaguha) QMP should be practised twice a day (morning & evening) for approximately 20 min respectively.

There are a number psycho-physical benefits one can gain from. Only a few of those are shared below: a) Improved concentration b) Calmness of mind c) Reduced blood pressure d) Increased alertness of mind e) A feeling of happiness

A Whiff of Fresh Air

In one of Porosh’s earlier blogs we had highlighted the importance of family members and/ or attendants in creating stress-free and positive environment within the confines of a home for sustaining positive impact of counselling sessions. Taking cue from it, in today’s blog we shall highlight yet another important facet of dementia counselling which we successfully explored in our quest for rendering value-added services.

For quite some time one of our clients had been recollecting his occasional visits to a Club nearby and the fun-filled sporting activities he used to indulge in. However, with a touch of remorse, he added how due to deteriorating health reasons he is unable to frequent the Club any more. This struck a chord with us. “How if we organize visits to the Club once in a while?”, we wondered, “In addition to therapy sessions, which are mostly indoors, a whiff of fresh air may work wonders for him.”

Thus, armed with conviction, we started taking him to the Club by hailing Ola/Uber and spent 1/2 hours. His joy knew no bound when he came across old acquaintances and fondly remembered the swimming pool. He even ordered a few of his favourite items for evening snacks from the menu card. All the while he was accompanied by his wife and us. Needless to add, after a view visits we observed sustained cheerfulness in him. He was more responsive to other therapies as well.

We are convinced that if visits can be organized to such places, if they happen to be nearby, about which a client has pleasant memories then it works wonder for him/ her.