How I staved off brain rot: I took care of my newborn son

Imagine a rotten tomato– all reddish and swollen. That is how I imagine a brain rot to be, if ever the snake-like innards underneath my hard skull had to rot.

I would have been a rotten tomato had I not given birth to an amusing, time consuming, energy draining baby earlier this rainy June. My little boy has wiped social media engagement from my phone and I plan to use him – by “use” read “play with” – whenever I feel like tapping on the X or Facebook icon.

In a bustling city of Mumbai where travel consumes a large chunk of people’s lives, one finds solace in the mindless wandering on social media. Scroll, and there is a funny animal video, scroll further and there are handy beauty tips, scroll some more and you will find Bollywood gossip. Nothing important, nothing you would even recollect by the end of the day. And yet, the next day as you sit in another crowded local train, you would inevitably reach for your pocket, squeeze out your gadget and begin scrolling.

I spent the last 10 years doing that.

With my baby around this year, for the first two months I had no time to even check my phone –...

Read more