BrainSurged

About six years ago, I read something prosaic on CNN.com. I was so delighted that something, anything held my attention for a little while that I turned to reading news, CNN specifically, all the time. That led me into thinking I have some kind of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which was not consistent. My Compulsions were different every day. Reading CNN every time I took out the phone, reading a hundred novels by one author in a week because I could read one novel of hers one day, watching seven seasons of Game of Thrones in three days because I could watch one episode with interest,  drinking vanilla lattes each time i visited any coffee shop, just because I could taste and like it one time... One compulsion to the road to discovering my next obsession. Back then, my condition was at it's best self, and I didn't have a clue. I was sick and didn't know it and kept getting worse. My toddler was extremely active and so curious. I had not interacted exclusively with any...

Two months ago today, I had brain surgery. I always imagined Brain Surgery to be the scariest thing for a functioning human. Yet, mine was so simple. A small hole drilled on my skull, tap the cerebrospinal fluid and redirect it down to my stomach or intestines or down there somewhere. The down-there portion didn't interest me enough to make a note to where. I have an incision in my stomach. It doesn't scare me like the stitches on my head did. Now, it feels like the best surgery to have, if one must have something or the other. Our mind associates emotional context and personal association to every word the brain stores. The Brain is an organ. The Mind is what makes us ourselves. I studied Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in grad school because of that persistent fascination with the brain. Tremendous respect, ergo deep fear of a surgery to my brain was the worst I could imagine happening to myself. Which, of course did! We get what we think what we cannot handl...