TRYST WITH NATUROPATHY

TRYST WITH NATUROPATHY

Naturopathy is synonymous with old age,  "Gandhian lifestyle" so naturally people are perplexed at our act of joining a naturopathy camp for two weeks.  The first reactions are incredulous "Don't tell me! " "Are you sick or something ?""You have no weight issues!" then why on earth would someone embark on this path. Well to be honest it was out of plain and simple curiosity just to go through this experience of detox. May be we will be rejuvenated, recharged for the years ahead. If it works we could make it an yearly feature, else I was sure it would be an experience worth remembering. So here we are at a place called Urulikanchan about 20 mins from Pune at Nisargopchar ashram. "Nisarg" incidentally means "natural" and "upchar" is "treatment" literally; ashram I presume is part of lexicon by now.

Our arrival here itself commenced with a state transport bus journey from Hadapsar Pune India's BPO hub. It must have been ages, since we had taken a bus ride like this;  it was nostalgic bringing back memories of our escapades from NDA when we looked forward to the Sunday liberties boarding these very gigantic smoke belching diesel vehicles to Pune from Khadakwasla. The buses have weathered these three decades and haven't changed one bit, even the system to stop the buses continues to be the bell strung with a rope which the conductor tugs to signal the driver to stop or to move. The graffiti too remains the same, the conductor still screams "pudhe sarkat raha" Marathi for "keep moving ahead" to the passengers standing. The seats were the same, rexine coated coir ones with no comfort provided to the derriere whatsoever, you would rather stand. Even the passengers, the same kurta pyjamas  topi clad villagers and ladies attired in their nine yards,  the only discernible change was the presence of ubiquitous mobile phone. Almost everyone had one.

The journey was short, just about an hour, countryside too seems to have been overlooked by the digital age, except for the concrete jungles which have mushroomed in the immediate vicinity of the town and cities . The lush green fields and fresh air were just the tonic which we were desperate for, having lived through thre Delhi smog  nightmare, specially so after Diwali.

Urulikanchan is a typical Maharashtra small town now, rather an overgrown village akin to the rural areas else where in the country, narrow congested lanes infested with all kinds of transport simultaneously jostling for space on these roads. Pigs and the garbage strewn by the wayside only restricting the moving space but the daredevil drivers deftly manage to  manoeuvre around them. Rural Maharashtra is probably the only abode left for the proverbial Gandhi topi other than in Congress party meetings. Almost every villager adorns these with pride, wonder how come the Gujjus have forsaken them may be because actually even Gandhi ji didn't ever use it himself.

The ashram  is actually within the town itself, may be when it was conceived it would have been outside the village limits. The entry was through a gate which resembled that of an open jail. The inmates though seemed to be engaged in animated conversations as majority of them were from the fairer  but healthier sex. In fact I suddenly started feeling very fit as majority of the "sadhaks" as we were referred to, were obese some obscenely so. It appeared as though it was a weight reduction clinic primarily. The remarkable aspect about the place was the number of women employed right from reception to the doctors, physios to house keeping and kitchen. Even more interesting was the usage and familiarity with computers of the staff with a functional network connecting the doctors, reception and mess thus monitoring and controlling diets  very closely.

The rooms were spacious enough but sparsely furnished, though adequate, making us realise the futility of all the stuff that we keep accumulating all our lives. The doctor herself was  a very pleasing person and I was at pains to explain the reasons for my presence in the ashram after all I was quite fit, fortunately did not have any lingering medical issues although, have had my share of visits and admissions in the hospital having broken quite a few bones in a career spanning 30 years in uniform, nothing unusual! The only nagging issue was recurring acidity which can probably be attributed to the current sedentary lifestyle with prolonged office hours. She was amused and decided to put me on a diet regimen which comprised herbal kadha  ( magic potion with milk, jaggery and basil juice)  carrot and bottlegourd juice followed by another concoction of basil and adusa  ( a medicinal plant), lunch was boiled veg with two jowar  rotis chutney and buttermilk. Evenings commenced with the same herbal kadha and dinner with wheat rotis replacing jowar in the lunch menu. The exercise regimen was Yoga twice once in the morning at 6 am and second time at 2 pm and the treatment so to say was full body massage daily, steam bath on alternate days, Sun bath with layers of earth daily.  For spiritual pursuits evening prayers followed by yog nidra/  meditation. All in all an interesting week ahead. Food was practically salt free but palatable, served between 5.30 and 6.30 pm, rather early by most standards but that gave us adequate time for the evening walk post dinner and naturally we hit the bed and slept like logs.

The next day treatment commenced with the massage which lasted 45 blissful minutes... The masseur a young lad made all my creaking bones and the not so toned muscles come alive followed by a steam bath for about 15 minutes. The contraption used for the steam was a relic of Gandhiji's days but quite effective. Sun bath and all the concoctions made a heady cocktail and after lunch it had to be siesta with eyepatches only facilitating it further. The massage and the steam bath provided us with an interesting visual where apart from tummies of all shapes and sizes which were at display it was the humble underwear which displayed the kaleidoscope  right from the age old striped string bound ones to the jockeys in all shapes and sizes in varying states of use and misuse some barely managing to cover the vitals some failing despite their valiant efforts. I was left speechless by many a tummies one in particular could give any sumo wrestler a run for his money. He had been there three times already in the last decade,  not a very good advertisement for naturopathy I must say. He admitted he was here for detox rather than attempting to lose weight which he invariably lost but made up for it soon on his return.

Surrounded by old fat ladies and a few retired old men made one suddenly feel old a rather unnerving feeling,  frankly I don't even feel my age of  half a century notwithstanding my grey hair and the balding pate .

I decided to switch to raw diet which comprised sprouts fresh diced veg and buttermilk for lunch and fruits for dinner with the rider that these should not be mixed i.e. if it is papaya then no apples or figs can go with it just papaya, difficult proposition by any chance. But I loved the concept and enjoyed these meals more than the cooked ones.

The good part was that I had my better half and father in law for company.He has been an old hand here having been here thrice earlier and has benefited each time relieved from his chronic back aches. They normally recommend a stay of minimum two weeks there but I was happy with my week's stint in these precincts.