LEARN FROM OTHERS

 

 

It was when I travelled from Chennai to Coimbatore by AC chair car, I noticed a young gentleman, elegantly dressed in a tee and jeans. He was using a laptop. He did not make a 'small talk' with his co-passenger sitting by his side. I was observing him curiously. Mostly I do observe people when I travel by train or air. It is an interesting hobby. Some of these people are worth watching and others are not. We can learn many things from such men and women.

 

Their behaviour, attitude and way of conversation, movement etc., are worth watching. It's a time pass for me, at the same time learning something new. Yes, the gentleman I was watching pulled out some eatables from a polythene bag which produced a crack noise. The eatables were not the ones I expected. But, they were a bar of chocolate, some nuts and an orange fruit. He started eating them one by one not in a haste; while others were ordering for masal dosa, vada, somosa, palampuri etc., What a contrast in food habit? Without messing up he completed his eating neatly and took out a bottle of water and drank half the bottle and went back to his laptop.

 

I tried to learn something from this gentleman, although I was a 70-year old man (at that time). One thing I could understand was that do not get your eatables from railway canteens which are generally not hygienic. He did not disturb his co-passenger. The most important thing was his eatables. He ate chocolate, nuts and orange fruit! I was thinking about these three items. 

Generally, I do find very few people who eat such sophisticated food. I was thinking about it even when I arrived home. I used to read for an hour before going to bed. I took one of the reports which I received on that day by post. The report was on food nutrition. There was a chapter on 'Chocolate is good for your brain' I got more interested in going through this chapter first.

 

The opening sentence of the chapter was: "Scientists, speaking at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco, presented results from early studies testing the effects on the brain of flavanols, an ingredient found in cocoa from which chocolates are made."

 

So chocolate has benefits for the brain. The report also said that the flavanol content of chocolate helps the health of the heart. Similarly, the nuts are supposed to bring down the cholesterols and they are a good source of manganese, a trace element required for human nutrition. Orange is a rich source of vitamin C which is considered to be one of the best nutrients for health. Now I could fully understand the advantages of the food habit of the gentleman whom I saw on the train.

By that time my wife brought a cup of hot drink which happened to be chocolate instead of tea or coffee. - NARA