World Alzheimer’s Month: At the special screening of “Life flow on” at the International Centre Goa on September 23, 2024…Astri Ghosh and Dr Amit Dias stand by a poster put up at the venue. Elsewhere: interaction with director Vishaal Nityanand and others; also a group photo for all present! “Life Flows On” is a film in English with a star cast of Tom Alter, Astri Ghosh, Allegra Dunn, Gajendra Verma, it is produced by Sanjeev Saroha, Vikas Batra and Vishaal Nityanand with music composed by Pete Wildman. A heart-wrenching film about what happens to seniors as they lose touch with reality against the setting of the old mountain settlement of Landour…the film is very contemporary though for our times.

FUNNY or not funny. Until now I was never worried about our so-called dementia diseases of which Alzheimer’s is just the most famous one, but now the subject is haunting me! What if one day soon I don’t even recognize myself…and I’ve already seen Alzheimer’s mildly and severely taking over the mind of at least two family members, my mother and an aunt I was very fond of in Bombay that is Mumbai today…plus, an uncle in Ahmedabad too suffered off and on from memory loss — we laughed at him through uneducated although the good-humored perception of things. Life is always about through whose eyes we see it as we grow older and older and situations so often go for a toss and we don’t even realize what’s happening…
This is to say until the Alzheimer’s disease film “Life Flows On” happened to me last month I was hardly conscious about how life flows on and on and soon one may be looking back at oneself in the mirror of the mind into empty spaces, struggling to remember names, experiences, birthdays, anniversaries of dear ones…the brain dies infinitesimally slowly or does it and why? At first, we don’t even realize it and then one day it dawns that the evidence is glaring enough to warrant we take it seriously, it’s no joking matter taking care of a family member whose memory is fading.
INCREASINGLY we’re living in a rubbish world which has lost its way down paths of perdition; for example, we talk about religion incessantly but don’t even practice much of what all the religions prescribe to live a rewarding life. Instead, we keep conning our gods and begging forgiveness every now and again after the usual story of “sau chooe khaa ke haj pe chal” adage. You agree or not?
The Vishaal Nityanand directed film “Life Flows On” was having a screening at the International Center Goa on a Monday, September 23, 2024 and September was World Alzheimer’s Month)…the film is dedicated to the global dementia challenge. Alas, as we live longer the dementia cache of diseases including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s catch up with many of us in India too where there is little meaningful cognizance of it (only recently some positive things have started to happen for dementia patients in Goa, by and large in India we think ignorance is bliss or something like that.
Never mind that in most of our homes, we are seeing our grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and other family members near or extended fading away into memory lapses mild or not so mildly. Come to think of it help! In my 70th decade on earth now I think I’m losing my memory in bits and pieces, although I’m not worried yet…or maybe just a little – after all, both my mother and an aunt of mine suffered various stages of Alzheimer’s and I’ve seen how sad situations arise because of this.
I know I’m repeating myself here but to stay with the film, I’m glad the affable poet and actor Astrid Ghosh encouraged me in a message not to miss the screening of “Life flows on” — with its star cast comprising of that wonderful actor Tom Alter (this is his last film incidentally), along with Allegra Dunn, Satyabrat Rout, Gajendra Verma and Astri Ghosh herself plays the role of a daughter sensitive to her mother’s growing loss of memory in the film … as memory fails her more and more difficult situation arises and loved ones look frantically for solutions both medical as well as that of caretaking.
“Life Flows On” is set against the lovely backdrop of the Landour hills in Himachal Pradesh and fills us with nostalgia as the film rolls with its poignant script of how a parental generation is left behind, with grown-up children settled in London, New York, Singapore, wherever…while their ageing parents try to make the best of their loneliness in ancestral family homes, living from phone call to phone call from abroad as they became few and far between. Locals are more sympathetic but newer migrating settlers taking over the town give a damn about the eccentricities of the older generation trying to live with dignity settled in this lovely British time hill settlement at Landour.
The film is full of poignant situations about what happens to the mind when it fails the grandparents or parents’ generation; very few children make the sacrifice of caretaking for their parents. But here we have a daughter who gives up marriage and life abroad because she is more attached to her mother and runs from pillar to post seeking healthcare facilities and medications for her mother as she slips further into memory loss.
Bureaucracy and politicians of course have money for many other frivolous causes but little to take care of the many ad hoc needs which arise for its home-bound ageing population…“Life Flow On” us a most heart-wrenching film, eight years old now but I remember if it has featured at the International Film Festival of India, I hope it enters as a competition entry for this year’s IFFI if it hasn’t already.
SOMETHING about Astri Ghosh who’s half-Norwegian and half-Bengali; apart from being a poet she’s a journalist, translator and editor dividing her time between India and Norway, and clearly she has experienced firsthand the story of Alzheimer’s disease between her own loved ones, this undoubtedly helped her put in a most convincing performance in the film. The other star cast too including Tom Alter stir up conscience about what is happening to our old-timers of life past, present and future…after viewing “Life Flows on” I felt spooked for the rest of the month and it continues in fits and starts as I think about it more and more and what if it happens to me too.
Thanks to one powerful film about how dementia notes can take over the life of our family members as they begin to fade away in their 70s,80s, 90s plus …in conclusion here but not conclusively if you’re asking me nowadays, I am not worried most of the time about being poor, nor about my 80% arterial blockage coming up, nor the big C, nor my sisters and brother scattered around the world…but what if I forget them and everything else associated with them!
Never mind that some things are eminently worth forgetting, but not like this. Help, I’m finally worried about myself and what would happen to me if I start forgetting in time to come…even my own name! What if I don’t recognize my hubby? Like I noted before I too have seen Alzheimer’s patients in family situations and rarely is the disease taken seriously early enough to make a difference for the better…I’m not thinking drugs so much but the kind of dietary changes which happen as folk grow older and older and they forget to drink water, forget to eat nourishing food, and nobody to engage with.
The most difficult thing in the world is to grow old, a dear friend of mine living alone on the third floor of a lift-less building in a Mumbai suburb, tells me she is housebound most of the time; another friend is restricted to a wheelchair mostly stays alive looking after her dogs and cats…and yes, she plays cards with herself. No, she has no family, only a few friends who watch out for her, I hope! The story repeats so often nowadays that as a society we must stop living in our comfort zones and wake up to what we must do in our personal lives as well as for the larger issue of our family members and friends all, all alone in need of treatment and caretaking…what can we do?
NURSING homes there are plenty for the wealthy! Traditionally, in our homes, we manage with our seniors as they grow older with love and affection, but nowadays so much has changed with nuclear families ruling the roost and the young calling the shots instead of the seniors as once upon a time. A caring government would step in and redress this issue of taking care of India’s ageing population…as of July 1, 2022, India’s elderly population was 149 million, 10.55 of the country’s population. It is expected to double by 2050 reaching 347 million people, that is 20.8% of the population…it is growing at a rate of 41% per decade. Do read up about this and if we can preempt seniors’ needs, how much happier we’ll be as a society!
The truth is there are plenty of projects coming up for caring and nursing for the wealthier elders, but not the middle class and poorer classes. I really feel and think that in Goa and India, the government should think about putting up decent integrated living hostels for seniors with nowhere to go, and charge them a percentage of whatever provident fund or funds they may have…it would be a great boon for lonely seniors who may no longer be able to cope with life’s basics by themselves in their own or rented premises, they need appropriate sensitive, sensible and practical help to feel like life is worth living till the end…no complains, no regrets. Think about all this and don’t just think sitting on stupid fences forever!
ON that note it’s avjo, poiteverem, selamat datang, au revoir, arrivedecci, hasta la vista and vachun yeta here for now.

—Mme Butterfly

What are the dementia diseases…

WHAT are the dementia diseases? We immediately think of Alzheimer’s disease but in fact there are something like 100 dementia diseases with symptoms which interfere with daily living…seniors fall prey to these symptoms as these conditions are about damage to or loss of nerve cells and connections in the brain.
It is true that Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia (60% to 70%) in older adults. The causes of dementia whereby brain cells suffer damage are injuries, tumors, the brain also suffers damage through long term chronic addictions like alcohol abuse, changes in blood sugar, sodium and calcium levels rising due to metabolic causes.
Dementia is just a general term for loss of memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking ability is that may be severe enough to interfere with day-to-day living giving rise to incidents and accidents which further aggravate the patient’s condition leading to health crises…dementia symptoms are neglected and so patients may also go into complications with respiratory or urinary tract infections, falls are oftentimes the cause of the death of a dementia patient.
Vascular dementia is a disorder that damages brain tissue because of a lack of flood flow and at end stage or seventh stage patients need assistance walking, dressing, bathing and toileting, 24-hour care. It has been often been concluded that that poor sleep affects the body’s ability to clear the toxic amyloid protein congealing in brain cells and killing them.
University of Edinburgh studies revealed that more than three-quarters of cognitive decline is age-related changes in brain which slow down memory and speed of thinking…a lot of this is due to bad lifestyle habits like nutritional deficiencies occurring due to consumption of the industrial junk foods of our times, indulging in alcohol foolishly, smoking, lack of movement and physical exercise.
Most medical advice to preempt dementia is to prevent and treat diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, all linked to damaging the brain later on in life…there are also environmental contributions like lack of education and lack of sleep (again linked to lifestyle habits). It may be remembered that sleep is when the brain detoxes itself of waste products and this reduces risk of the neurodegenerative or dementia diseases.
Please note that many dementia patients suffer from depression and deep sadness and doctors prescribe anti-depressants like sertraline, citalopram mostly, mirtazapine, trazodone, etc, which may help reduce agitation and anxieties in the patient’s mind. One is also advices to eat an anti-inflammatory diet like the Mediterranean diet of leafy greens, nuts, berries, whole grains, beans, olive oil, in recent times pure cold-pressed coconut oil is said to be excellent nourishment. Incidentally, the polyphenol rich wild berries are said to be wonderfully antioxidant food for improving brain cell functioning, as is orange juice and other fresh fruit and their juices (but never sugary diet sodas, please note). A good diet will improve cognitive health but most of us may or may not know what makes for a good diet nowadays, and in the end most of us are vulnerable to economic factors and unable to afford a nutritious diet from organic sources.
Sometimes it’s asked if Parkinson’s a dementia disease. This disease begins with physical symptoms at first and affects cognitive function later on including forgetfulness and trouble with concentration, as Parkinson’s gets worse over time about four in five people develop dementia. Both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are types of dementia, only the latter is characterized distinctly by motor symptoms such as bradykinesia, muscle rigidity and tremors, slowness of movement. It’s said patients are advice to do movement exercises like the pleasurable dancing or workouts to improve gait, balance and function.
What are the 100 different medical conditions which can lead to dementia including Alzheimer’s? Think vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, fronto-temporal dementia, Huntington’s disease, normal pressure hydrocephalus, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, corticobasal degeneration, mild cognitive impairment, etc. There is a lot to body beautiful and what makes it tick right up to a 100 years! There is no cure for dementia diseases so it is better if we take precautions while still in our younger years to protect our nerve cells or neurons…failing which of course the next best thing to do is to support people struggling to live with some form of dementia or another so gallantly all around us. Please do not take dementia lightly for this becoming a global emergency now with more than 55 million people living with it.
Note: Some say nutritional deficiency of vitamin B1, B6, B12, copper and vitamin E and lack of sunshine contributes to the degeneration of the brain cells over time. Check it out. Increasingly, the perception in healthcare is that every disease is nothing but the result of a nutritional deficiency — you just have to find out what it is you are deficient in if you suffer! Find out if you seek happy longevity forever after.