Published in CanadaBdNews.com
Aristotle, a great philosopher of ancient Greece, wrote that knowledge sought for its own sake is better than that pursued for its practical benefit. He said that knowledge of medicine is good because it cures diseases, but knowledge of philosophy is better because it does not serve any practical purpose. I studied philosophy and taught that subject in the University of Dhaka for five years in late 1950’s and early 1960’s. I am however a man with a practical bent of mind. Those reading my articles may notice that somehow or other I always make it a point to discuss matters that are useful for the people of Bangladesh now living in Canada. Today I shall write on what I consider is useful to the elderly people of our communities.
If Allah wills, I shall be 76 on December 25, 2011. Allah has kept me in reasonably good health. People often ask me what I do with my time in my retired life. I keep moving, drive, and work 10 to 12 hours a day. I take care of my family including my grandchildren, look after the rental properties that I own, perform miladun nabi, deliver lectures to community gatherings and mosques, write articles for publication, do community work in Montreal, and run charitable projects in Bangladesh.
I read the Quran and its tafsirs (interpretations), Sufi literature, and biographies of those who dedicated their lives to the service of mankind. I watch news and documentaries on regular TV channels. Bangla TV has actually changed our life. I do not live on the lap of my Bangla Ma, but I enjoy seeing her face on the TV screen a few hours a day. I watch Bangladeshi news several times every day. I love to listen to and watch Bangla songs and music, especially Baul songs, murshidi songs, patriotic songs, and folk songs. Whenever I have some free time I visit the Bangladeshi areas of Montreal where I can see the beautiful faces of my people on the streets and stores.
I also have two important hobbies. First, fishing is my passion. I go fishing in many places of the world—Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and ponds in Bangladesh. From May to October I remain very busy fishing in the lakes and rivers of the Montreal area. My motorised pontoon (flat house boat) is always ready in a marina for my relatives and friends to go fishing in Lake Champlain with me. I find fishing for hilsha (shad) fish with fishing line in late May and early June very exciting. The time of ice fishing is coming soon too. I drive my automobile to the middle of the frozen lakes and rivers and fish in the holes made through two-to-three feet deep ice. A few carfuls of friends come from Boston to go ice fishing with us every winter. Second, I love photography. I have a library full of pictures as slides made during the last 48 years. I am now the self-appointed and unofficial photographer of the Bangladeshi community of the greater Montreal area. Bangladeshis love to be photographed. I carry my camera wherever I go and take pictures to make our people happy.
I am also the self-appointed guardian of about 100 foreign students of McGill University from Bangladesh. Since they are away from their relatives and friends in Bangladesh, I try to make their life a little easier in a foreign land. In the past, we have travelled to many countries. Now we travel only to places where we have relatives and friends: the US, Bangladesh and India. We visit the US a number of times every year to see our son and his family in Maryland. We also try to visit Bangladesh every year to see the face of our beloved Bangla Ma and her children. During our visit to Bangladesh we fly to Calcutta for a few days to see our Hindu friends from the early years of my life. However, I shall go to Alaska near the North Pole, Mauritius Island in the Indian Ocean or any other place in the world if you can assure me that there is good fishing there. As I mentioned previously, I love Bengali songs and music. Although I lived with my uncle Shilpi Abdul Latif, I never got a chance to learn to sing. Now at the ripe old age of 75, I have started to learn to sing. I am learning to sing spiritual and patriotic songs of Bangladesh, especially those written, composed and sung by my uncle Abdul Latif. I sing these songs in gatherings of friends and relatives not only for pleasure but also to inspire the noble ideas of these songs in their minds. I am very lucky to have had a great teacher of music and songs in Montreal, Mr. Shafiul Islam.
My message to my elderly compatriots from Bangladesh is that we need to remain active physically, mentally and spiritually. Death is inevitable. It will surely come. It is however very important that we live a good and healthy life until we face the inevitable end. I am sure that you heard of people who did not survive too long after their retirements. It is possible that many of these people, after years of hard work, suddenly became inactive with the result that they met disastrous consequences.
First, let us talk about physical health. It is absolutely important that we do not become couch potatoes spending most of the time before the television set. We must move. Walking at least for one hour a day is the best exercise at our age. Sometimes we have very bad weather. Yet, if our will is strong, we should be able to go out for a walk. In Montreal one can buy a bus pass, go to the underground Metro system in the downtown area or large shopping centers, and walk for long periods in warm temperature. One could also buy a treadmill that can be used in the house especially when it is difficult to go out.
I have been doing something which I think is very useful. I joined a gymnasium near my house almost two years ago. I hired a trainer for ten sessions to train me to do the workout that is beneficial to me. I have been going to the gym at least three times a week. Each time I go to the gym I do 1 ½ hours’ of workout. I can say that workout in the gym is doing wonders for me. Now I feel much more energetic than before. If by any chance I miss a session, I feel sick. I have had arthritic problems on my knees, back and shoulder joints. Doctors tried to help me in many different ways, but nothing worked. Since I started exercising in the gym, my pain disappeared especially from my shoulder joints. My doctor is pleasantly surprised that this has happened. My message to my elderly compatriots is that you find a gym near your residence and join it as soon as possible. Please make sure that a trainer shows you the kind of exercise that is good for you. If you are in the Montreal area, I shall be willing to take you to my gym and show you some of the basic exercises that most people do.
Yoga exercises are very good for our health. I have done these exercises with a teacher for more than 25 years. Now I do these exercises on my own from time to time. You can buy a good DVD and follow the exercises in front of a TV. If you are in the Montreal area, I can arrange a yoga class for our people with an excellent yoga teacher who is a Swedish lady converted to Islam. Or, if you wish, I can send a copy of a yoga DVD to you free of cost.
To remain in good physical health, we also need to take good care of the foods we eat. We must eat and drink in the right way. I shall begin with a few general principles that I think are important.
First, smoking and drinking alcohol are an absolute No No. I am very happy that drinking alcohol is forbidden in Islam. Smoking kills. During the last few years we lost four of our senior brothers of Montreal. All of them were smokers. They did not die of old age. You may not care much about your life, but remember that your near and dear ones do care for you. If you are taken away, you will leave behind a spouse without a partner, children without a parent, and grandchildren without a grandparent. Your absence will create a vacuum in their life that will never be refilled. Do you have the right to do this to them just for YOUR PLEASURE of smoking?
Second, what the food will do to our body is more important than its taste on the tongue. One day fifty-five years ago a wise and well-respected teacher of mine Professor Kazimuddin Ahmad of the University of Dhaka said to us in the class, “I do not care about the taste of my food. What is important for me is to eat and drink what is good for my health.” At the age of twenty, I could not appreciate fully the importance of what he said. Now I fully realize the truth of what his statement. We should remember that once the food passes 1 ½ inches of the tongue; a roshmalai and charcoal have the same taste. Is it not wise then to consider the nutritional value of the food more important than mere taste?
Third, we should not eat fast foods, and dinners and lunches mass-produced in factories. We should avoid all fatty and very salty foods.
Fourth, we should eat minimum amounts of carbohydrates. Rice, bread, sugar—all these are carbohydrates. Many of our people wrongly think that bread is better than rice. If we have to use a sweetener, we should use honey or brown cane sugar rather than white sugar.
Fifth, we should avoid eating red meat such as beef and mutton.
Sixth, we should never over-eat. The Islamic instruction of keeping one quarter of the stomach empty is very useful.
Seventh, we should eat smaller quantities of foods many times a day rather than larger quantities of foods a few times. I recommend six meals instead of three.
Eighth, we should drink a glass of warm or room-temperature water 30 minutes before and/or 30 minutes after our main meals. The total liquid intake should amount to six to eight glasses a day.
Ninth, we should eat at regular times.
Tenth, prevention is better than cure. Hence we should have a healthy life style and eat and drink the right stuff so that we do not fall sick. It is much more fun eating and drinking than falling sick, swallowing pills and going under a surgeon’s knife.
We also need to keep our teeth in good condition. We have to keep our teeth clean and visit a dentist regularly. We should brush our teeth with a soft brush half an hour to one hour after every major meal. If we need to use a tooth pick, we should use a rubber-tip pick mounted on a gold colour metallic handle. If the rubber-tip pick does not work well, we may also use an ultra thin brush on a yellow handle called in-betweens made by G.U.M. Both these products are available in Canadian pharmacies. Please do not use charcoal powder to clean your teeth. Charcoal powder removes the natural glaze of our teeth. The practice of brushing teeth in the morning rather than after supper the previous evening is not good. Food particles stuck between teeth throughout the night damage the teeth.
I shall now describe how my wife and I eat our meals throughout the day.
I drink a glass of water as soon as I wake up in the morning. We eat breakfast at 7:00 a.m. I love sugar-less oatmeal with skim milk. Sometimes I have some low sugar and high fibre cereals with yogurt. My wife puts nuts and berries in the breakfast bowls—walnut, cranberry, blueberry and a few slices of almond. If we eat bread of some kind, it has to be multi-grain bread, brown bread or very nice bread made with many kinds of nuts. Once or twice a week we eat egg whites. A banana, especially a ripe one with some small brown spots on the skin, is a must every day. If we eat oranges or grape fruits at breakfast, we eat a banana later in the day. We finish our breakfast with a good cup of tea sweetened with honey. I love to eat a roast biscuit with my tea—the kind of biscuit that I ate at my mama bari (a cluster of houses with a courtyard at the middle) some 60 years ago.
Around 10 o’clock in the morning we eat a couple of small cucumbers, a few carrots or some kind of a fruit.
We eat a light lunch at noon. A bowl of dal (red lentils), a couple of small cucumbers, a few small carrots and a slice of bread are a plenty of food for lunch. Sometimes we eat only a bowl of salads with fresh lemon juice.
Around 3 o’clock again we eat a fruit.
We eat supper between 5:30 and 6:00 pm. Three quarters of our dinner plates consist of vegetables, and one quarter carbohydrate and protein combined. Our vegetables are never over-cooked. I always like to be able to see the original colours of the vegetables on my plate. My wife cooks rice with prunes, raisons and cranberry. I eat one or two tea spoonfuls of rice for supper. As for protein, at least three times a week we eat fresh salmon or trout fish cooked in the oven. At other times we eat chicken or turkey breast meat or veal. Sometimes we eat deshi fish too. We always have dal and salads on our dining table at supper time.
Around 9:30 p.m. I eat a fruit, usually an apple. Before bedtime at midnight I drink a glass of warm skim milk with a tea spoonful of isob goler bhushi, or just a glass of water.
I shall now describe the vegetables, fruits and spices that I think are very good for us. All vegetables are good, but those that are especially good are korolla, okra, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, beans, and carrots. All leafy vegetables are good. We love spinach, pui shak, beet shak, lal shak, lau shak, kumra shak, and the like. The deeper the colour of the vegetables and the fruits, the better they are. Cucumber, banana and lemon juice are miracle foods. All fruits are also good. The special ones are amloki, litchi, amara, mango, guava, kamranga, banana, kiwi, water melon, papaya, apple, tomato, strawberry, and blueberry. We are very fortunate that all the vegetables and fruits that I have mentioned are available in Montreal.
As for the spices, we are lucky that we use haldi (turmeric powder) in many of our curries. Many of the human diseases including cancer are associated with inflammation, and haldi has anti-inflammatory properties. Kali jira (black seeds) is also a miracle spice. Our Messenger, although not a medical specialist, spoke of kali jira highly for its medicinal properties. He also mentioned the usefulness of honey. We know now that darchini (cinnamon) has especial medicinal qualities. A relative of ours in Ottawa has made pills composed of haldi, kali jira and honey. She takes one of these pills every day. Onion, ginger and garlic are also very good for health.
So far I have talked about the physical health of our elderly people. As for their intellectual health, they have to keep their mind busy. An idle mind can accelerate the process of developing problems such as Alzheimer’s disease. We should think, meditate, read books and papers, give lectures, and write if possible. We may take a course in a subject that we like, learn a new language, take art lessons, start a hobby, join a discussion group, and participate in a volunteer project.
The need for doing a great deal of spiritual work at old age can hardly be over emphasised. First, we Muslims are required to do prayer, fasting, etc. We have been promised rewards in this life and hereafter if we fulfil our duties properly. Second, performance of spiritual work gives peace to our heart. Third, it also means physical movements of the body in prayer, and travel to the mosque for prayers and Makkah for hajj. Spiritual work brings the worshippers in contact with other worshippers. There are elderly people who work in the mosques and other charitable organizations as volunteers. You will find many elderly people of the mainstream Canadian society working as volunteers in hospitals and other institutions. Their work not only improves the quality of the services in these institutions, it also produces physical movements, mental activity and spiritual benefit. I met a number of these volunteers who are millionaires. They employ servants to do their work at their home, but they themselves work as servants for others free of cost.
It is true that I have written this article primarily for the elderly people of our communities. Yet I think that what I said in the article is to a large extent useful for our younger people as well.I have good articles and reports written by experts on many of the items that I have discussed above. I shall be pleased to forward these writings to those interested in reading them.
BE HEALTHY, BE HAPPY AND MAKE OTHER PEOPLE HAPPY!