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Secrets of Eternal Youth from a Pediatrician – Dr. Shilpa Aroskar

As a renowned and distinguished pediatrician with more than 25 years of experience, Dr. Shilpa Aroskar has seen it all—sudden unexpected deaths, pain and sufferings. Being a frontline warrior battling the pandemic, this versatile doctor had every reason to lose out on hope, on laughter, on the little joys of life over the last few months. But with an ever-jubilant attitude and calling herself a SEENAGER (senior teenager), she lays down some “secrets” on how to stay eternally young—at mind, body and soul.

Starting With an Anecdote

Shilpa was in her consulting room, seeing patients. “Monsoon Maladies” was in full swing like a seasonal sale for physicians. Her clinic was flooded with ailing and wailing children. It was taking a toll on her beauty sleep, meal timings, exercise routine and she looked haggard. Under eye dark circles, puffy eyes, crow lines at corner, laugh lines mocking at her and 50 shades of grey in her hair postponed to “dye” another day.

She was examining a 1-year-old patient, the father whom she had treated as a child. Suddenly, he unexpectedly said, “Doc, you look just the same like you did 20 years back, except some greys in your hair! What is your secret for looking young and maintaining yourself?” This was a melody to Shilpa’s ears amidst the maladies. Her heart leapt like that of a teenager and the colour of her cheeks returned. It was her “Santoor” moment! (We all remember the Santoor soap advertisement where a daughter suddenly comes and the visitor is taken aback that the youthful lady is a mother).

Like a Bollywood celebrity, she almost flaunted a long list of youth elixirs—papaya, walnuts, coconut water, yoga, meditation, eight hours of sleep and more and more—none of which she actually inculcated in her life. Monkey glands, goats testicles, fermented donkey milk all have been investigated over the centuries by those pursuing the elusive elixir of eternal youth. Some of the world’s finest scientific minds are devoted to exploring every gene and cell in our bodies to pause ageing. Silicon Valley billionaires like Amazon Jeff Bezos are funding in “rejuvenation science”.

Age Is Just a Number

When a person hits half century in age, common questions they are bombarded with are how they feel, what their plan is, whether they have any resolution for the second half.. Questions like these from colleagues and relatives reverberated like a gunshots to Shilpa’s ears as well and tugged at her heart. To top it up, she heavily felt the pressure to “perform” after 50 (perform in career and life) as others usually expect. She truly didn’t understand all these interrogations, because she still felt like an 18-year-old, whose which still fluttered at the sight of hunks. Also her brain had a childlike curiosity towards things, always wanting to learn and absorb like a sponge. Inside every old person is a young person, probably wondering what the hell happened!

What people often fail to realise is that it is not about how old you are, but how young you feel. It is also about how much exuberance you have for life and the zest to do things. If you are living like a dead person, carrying on your daily ratatouille without joy or passion then even at 30, you are like a 60-year-old.

So how do we stay young? Being a paediatrician, she spends her maximum time with children and that helps to keep the child in her alive. As we grow older, we lose our ability to enjoy small things in life. We run on life’s treadmill, chasing materialistic pleasures; we judge more trust less; we worry and hurry, frown more laugh less. All these are scientifically proven to add more wrinkles to our face and age us early. Our face is a reflection of our inner state of mind. Blissful heart and a peaceful mind add glow to one’s face.

Health is Wealth Indeed

A healthy lifestyle definitely improves our longevity. These are few of Shilpa’s beauty secrets which are affordable and available easily.

  • Health: You are what you eat. One can grow from “flabulous” to fabulous with maintaining a balanced diet and not giving in to cravings. The three whites you should use miserly are salt, sugar and maida. Let your plate be colourful with greens, orange, and red. Use farm (fruits and vegetables) not pharma (pills). More feelings and fewer fillings in samosas, before it’s too late and tummy returns.
  • Hydrate yourself throughout the day. And not with any liquid of your choice, but just water.
  • Exercise daily. Our joints get stiffer and muscles taut so needs to be lubricated well by regular stretches, brisk walk or yoga. Any form of exercise is good, but be mindful of building it as a daily routine, just like brushing your teeth.
  • Mental health is very important: Our body is so beautifully designed that the waste and toxins are regularly flushed by the kidneys. But what can you do about the emotional toxins that get accumulated, like anger, jealousy, hatred, insecurity? Inculcate in yourself the sense of gratitude and forgiveness and practice some simple daily rituals to keep flushing out all negativities.

Relationships Are Key

For Shilpa, her friends are everything from a stress buster to a life support. She always ensures to make time from her busy schedule to meet with her bunch of friends every fortnight. Needless to say, it is a crazy bunch of old pals with the same mind-set, or perhaps, the same ‘mental disorder’ as they call it. They still behave like they did in college, laugh at the same old jokes till their faces hurt. They help each other navigate life’s burdens by sharing and caring. And this definitely makes them feel young. With age, some get wisdom and some wisecracks.

Building relationships are key to our happiness. Harmony at home and peace at work place keep diabetes, hypertension, and heart attacks at bay. Expectations are weeds and relationships are seeds. Water them with love and forgiveness. Fill up your emotional bank account and never be in debt.

Growing Old Happens, But Growing Up Is Optional

Live like a child; be crazy, laugh at your own stupidity, let go of ego, don’t wait for approval from others. Just be you! Walk away from situations or people who make you unhappy but don’t waste time at this age to explain or prove yourself to others. You don’t have a curfew, you have a license to drive, you own a car, can go to a bar, no acne, almost everything we all wanted as a teenager we have finally got at this age. And we are less bothered about what others think of us.

And do take your daily dose of Vitamins – Vit A-ffection, Vit B-onding, Vit C-aring, Vit D-edication and Vit E-nriching yourself with experiences.

Inject laughter not Botox.

Use fillers of positivity not Hyaluronic acid.

Plug the pores of worry and radiate with joy.

Love your “real” face, imperfect yet honest, and not the one with filters on Facebook.

Ultimately, the secret to eternal youth, for her, is an immense love for the precious gift called LIFE. If there is one important thing that the pandemic also has taught us in the last two years, it is that our health is our real wealth. For Shilpa, she is determined to stay an 18-year-old till she dies. After all, as Satchel Paige very wisely puts it, age is a question of mind over matter, if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter.

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Debashis Biswas

With more than 15 years of experience in book sales and distribution, Debashis currently oversees Leadstart’s business activities in eastern India and neighbouring countries. He has previously worked with several leading book publishers and distributors.

Walid Jalal

Walid has 7 years experience in online listing & marketing Working in SEO firm & Publishing sector. He worked in a Restaurant as a Manager in Sharjah for two years. He loves cricket & cooking.

Jayati Sarkar

Jayati has been into literature studies and has pursued her Mphil in Australian Aboriginal Poetry from the University of Calcutta. She is an avid reader and her love for books has brought her to the field of Publishing. For years she has explored the other side of the book as a reader and now she works with Leadstart as the Senior Executive in the Editorial Department. Her work profile includes working closely with Authors, managing the projects from end to end and also working with national and international publishers for management of Secondary Rights.

Ashwini Jadhav

Ashwini has about a decade’s experience in design. She is a Master of Commercial Art, who has worked in the publishing and advertising sectors as a visualiser & designer. She was judged as the third best in the state, when she finished her foundation course in applied art. She is a practicing calligrapher in Modi Lipi (a script in the Marathi language) and is a Rangoli artist who has won several accolades in those domains. During the popular Ganesh Chaturthi festival, several idols of Ganesha in varying sizes get made, one the most important finishing touches to the idol is that of painting the eyes, which Ashwini has practiced to perfection and does it for hundreds of idols every year. In addition to the above, she is also a trained classical dancer, a national level Kabaddi player and loves cooking.

Ananya Subramanian

Graduation in journalism and love for books, led Ananya to take up a career in publishing. With her experience in the field, she has come to believe more and more in the power of stories and the people who tell them. She is a vegan and an animal-lover; and loves to dance, tend to her pet plants and often find solace in solo travelling.

T. Vijay Kumar

Vijay has over a decade’s experience in supply chain management working in India and the Middle East. He heads the production, supply chain and receivables management for Leadstart. Prior to his current role at Leadstart, Vijay worked in inventory management for five years, in Abu Dhabi.

Iftikar Shaikh

Iftikar has a decade & half years of experience across publishing and the banking sectors in the finance domain. He enjoys working on numbers and loves uncovering stories that the numbers tell. A fitness enthusiast, he loves trekking and travelling.

Maneesha Arun

Maneesha has an experience of over two decades in the content industry spanning over publishing, media and secondary rights business domains. She has a deep interest in psychology.

Mahendra Rawat

With more than a decade’s experience in book sales and distribution, Mahendra comes from a family immersed in the book trade. He worked with several book distributors and publishers before his current assignment with Leadstart.

RAJESH KRISHNAN

With more than 15 years of experience in book sales and distribution, Debashis currently oversees Leadstart’s business activities in eastern India and neighbouring countries. He has previously worked with several leading book publishers and distributors.

Rajesh Krishnan

Rajesh comes with over 3 decades of experience spread over various business domains. He oversees Leadstart’s business development & sales across southern & western India, Sri Lanka and Middle-East. His hobbies include dancing, trekking and travelling

Pooja Dutt

Pooja has over a decade’s experience in operations, sales and people management in various business domains. She loves to interact with authors and helps them meet their publishing goals. She is fond of travelling & cooking.

Bhavika Bharambe

After completing her MBA in marketing, Bhavika has focused on roles that helped her to become an experienced marketing professional today. She has worked for brands from various industries; Educational, Tourism, Retail, Entertainment, Airlines, Banking and more. She loves to spend her time by reading books and listening to music.

Naina Solanki

Naina leads the project management and author support functions at Leadstart Publishing. She is fond of being abreast of the latest developments in technology and is a keen learner of the six sigma methodology. She loves reading and travelling.

Preeti Chib

Preeti has a decade’s experience in brand and communication management with most influential and innovative media companies. She is passionate about building brands by translating consumer insights into product innovations and campaigns. She is a compulsive reader and considers a day gone without some bit of reading a day wasted. She loves reading stories to her children every night. A lover of visual art, to delve a bit deeper into the same, she took up formal training for design as well.

Malini Nair

Malini is passionate about Literature and Business Management. After her MBA (Marketing) from St. Xavier’s, she took up roles that involved sales, marketing, costing, MIS etc. in multiple sectors like Banking, Insurance, E-broking, and even the Steel industry. Eventually, her passion for languages and books compelled her to re-route her career to literature. This led to a career break and a Masters Degree in English Literature; post which she took up a role at Wordit CDE & Leadstart, enabling her to work towards both her passions.

Chandralekha Maitra

With two decades of experience as a book publishing professional, Chandralekha began her career as a features writer and columnist, working with publications across India, before moving into book publishing full time, with India Book House. She received her training in editorial title management from Book House, London. Over the years she has worked with some of the finest publishing houses in India and overseas, and across genres and markets. She has also worked with Osian’s-Connoisseurs of Art, India’s first auction house, gaining in-depth exposure to research and publishing in the fine arts-antiquities-cultural heritage genres. Additionally she has had a parallel, specialist career in Human Resources, working at Group HR, Tata Group, among others. She continues to write, train and mentor in this domain as her publishing commitments allow.

Raj Supe

Aka Kinkar Vishwashreyananda, Raj Supe is a poet, storyteller and novelist, as well as a seeker and devotee of Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath. An MBA by education, his career spanned advertising, research and creative consulting, before devoting his time to literature and spirituality. His works include Three No Trumps (novel), Sagarika Anusagarika [Echoes of Nine Rivers] (poetry), Pilgrim of the Sky (spiritual memoir), and translations of religious texts such as Cloudburst of A Thousand Suns and Jai Jai Ram Krishna Hari. He has also worked on film scripts with Ram Gopal Verma and Ashutosh Gowariker, and on plays with Makarand Deshpande.

Dr. Rabindra Kumar Nanda

An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Stanford University, Dr Nanda is also a National Science Talent Search Scholar. He holds five Patents and is a published author of 50 national and 52 international research papers.

Swarup Nanda

Swarup has over a decade and half’s experience in multiple business domains related to content. Prior to his entrepreneurial ventures, he has worked with a couple of MNCs in the media space. His passion for literature and books is his motivation for building Leadstart.