Aug 25, 2009

Of Naturopathy, Swine Flu, and the couple who got married thrice.





I don’t think I have blogged so much about myself in a long time. But experiences make it hard to hold back. Sometimes we concentrate so hard on what we want that we tend to look over what we have. Other times we expect so much out of people/situations that we forget to accept the reality. But at all times, all we need is a state of calmness and composition in our mind. The balance is hard to strike, but once you got it, every other thing is just a cakewalk.

Before I drift off anymore, let me get to the point. I visited the ‘Nisargopchar Gramsudhar Trust’ located in a small Taluka called Uruli Kanchan, some 40 km east of Pune. This Ashram was founded by Mr. M K Gandhi, and they follow his principles at the ashram till date. I went to this place to get myself some change. Life was getting too monotonous. Besides, there is this constant quest of weight loss with people like me, so I could actually use this change for my benefit instead of getting wasted and putting on a few extra pounds. I had high hopes, since this was my second visit and I had managed to lose 7 good kilos in 15 days flat, the first time I had been there. And this time I had planned to stay for a month.

So what this place is basically about is to live as simply as you can, and spend some time with yourself. It is a very good place for people who are looking for a spa/detox treatment within a budget. It is like the mecca for people who want to lose weight. A normal day at the ashram begins at 5 AM in the morning, where you wake up and after your morning chores they hold classes for yoga as per the age group of people. Usually people below 50 years of age get to go to the 6:15 AM batch, so they can sleep for some more time :P After yoga, everyone is given a special herbal concoction which consists of herbs like Tulsi, Neem, Mulethi etc etc. mixed with jaggery and hot milk [It tastes exactly like Bournvita], after which the treatments follow.

The treatment starts with an Enema, where they cleanse your stomach by putting a small pipe in your ‘behind’ and adding saline water. It completely cleans your intestines and digestive system and makes you feel light. This is done twice a week. Then follows a massage, the masseurs/masseuses’ are specially trained to give you a nice body toning massage. Then there is steam treatment and Kati treatment, where you have to immerse half of your body in hot/cold water. This is a great way to increase circulation of blood in the lower body and it is a great way to cure all the diseases/disorders of the lower body. They also provide a mud pack for the body every day. After all this, we need to take a bath and then follows lunch [without masala/salt] in fixed quantity at 10:30 AM. After lunch, they provide a mud eye pack, which we need to keep on our eyes and have a nap of about 3 hours.

At 3 PM they repeat the herbal tea again, after which people go out for walks/exercises, and dinner follows at 5:30PM. Mostly people are asked to stay on fruits for dinner. After a few hours of recreation, there is silence after 9:30 PM when you’re required to sleep.

Life is not an airplane, where you have to plan everything ahead of time and be prepared for any kind of malfunction/mishap. Even airplanes fail to follow this principle when life decides to show its importance, just like the recent AF447 incident where even the latest new gen aircraft could not withstand saving the lives of all the people aboard. And I made this huge mistake of planning things ahead of time. I was unwell. Please don’t ask me what happened, but I was really very weak. Of the whole routine I mentioned above, all I did was to take the mud eye pack every day for a month. My health was so bad that I was advised complete bed rest and I could not even walk. I ate well, twice a day, and I lost some kilos, but still, I was next to immobile. I would feel very weak if I even walked.

As a result of all this, I had a lot of time to kill. I had promised myself that I would remain off internet, so I made some new acquaintances [Even though I am a very reserved person. I have very few friends and I hardly talk]. Some of them turned into friends, others into foes. I feel very proud to say that my friend circle consists of people from all age groups. From 15 to 78. I met my eldest friends here at the Ashram. I got to learn a lot from people here. The main thing was, how could such a simple thing called ‘being overweight’ affect people adversely in ways we can never even imagine. I met overweight people who were so troubled inside, and I also met people who knew that overweight people feel somewhat deprived inside and therefore they are easy to take advantage of. It’s very sad. I met people from different cultures, different professions, right from students to people right at the top. And I must admit that somewhere I grew wiser than I was before. Atleast something good came out of my one month at the ashram :P

After a taste of the good and bad, I moved to Pune to experience the ugly. I had some simulator flying to do, and I was so much into the ashram zone that I was in some la la land. I needed a reality check. I needed to get back to my cockpit thinking. I kept telling myself, ‘come on, think fast, faster.. You got to be ahead of that plane!’ After a week of bombarding from my tutor, I finally got back to my cockpit zone, but sadly my classes got over. Every day when I went to my classes from my apartment, a couple on this hoarding mocked at me. They were sitting in front of agni in the picture. All decked up and getting married. The hoarding was of Mayfair Banquets, and it said, ‘Believe it or not, now a wedding package including everything for 200 people in 2.99 lakhs only! No conditions apply’ And I don’t know why but that couple would keep mocking at me every single day with the most plastic smile on this planet.

Pune is a good city, but when something goes wrong, it has to go wrong all the way for me. Which means, if I have a bad time at my simulator, I cannot even go out shopping, coz’ there’s a Swine Flu outbreak in the city! Arrghh.. “Oh, so now I have to wear an overpriced mask and look all mysterious to everyone else around me, take medicines for precaution, and stay away from restaurants [after a month of salt-less and masala-less food] and away from malls [after a month of seclusion and a daily dose of ‘Beta, you’re doping again, come on, pay attention!!!’]” That was it, I was going crazy. And when I go crazy, I start looking at the upside of every ‘shituation’. So the upside here was that due to high alerts in Pune city to stay away from crowd, every one stayed at home so all malls were empty. Even better was the happiness sale on all brands in Central Mall. 51% off. It was a steal! I went to the mall with my friend, and we had such an amazing time shopping… It lifted our spirits completely! Thanks to Swine Flu no one went shopping, and I got lucky!

Just when I started to have fun in Pune, I had to return to Mumbai, and we decided to come by road. And just when we reached Bandra, there stood the same couple, in the same pose, mocking at me again, asking me to be prepared for another bombarding, but this time the hoarding said ‘”Life Insurance Corporation of India”. I started preparing mentally for something bad to happen. And then followed all the comments and complaints of me not losing weight at all in a month.. ‘Oh my, you still look the same!’…’You are useless, what’s the use of spending so much on you?’…’ Oh you look like you have put on some more weight’… ‘So did you actually go to the ashram or you went out to meet someone else?’…. ‘You lost weight? How much? It’s not visible at all!’… were some of the most common comments I had to bear. Everyone at my house had flu. I was the only one who was perfectly in the mint of my health. Not for long…

Just a couple of days in Mumbai, and now I am in Goa, spending time with my family. After we landed in Goa, we had to take a 3 hour drive down south to reach my place. And no points for guessing whom I met on the way – The same couple! Another warning… This time the hoarding read ‘Tanishq, we make memories’. Now what?... Well, the flu has struck me too! Sore throat, fever, cold, cough, weakness, and swelling. So while everyone else is out there enjoying themselves, I am sitting in a room and blogging about my bad health at a speed half of my normal speed since I am busy coughing every minute. I hope I get well soon! I know this was long, but I am glad I spat it all out!


12 comments:

mysterious gal said...

Wow this was some good real outburst!
U taught me to Scribble some rants myself and i did and i used to feel better and i m sure now u will do too!
Sometimes writing about oneself helps us to release !
Well what should i start by saying but just that Quite an Experience!
You know my funda of unplanned things already! Because Life has its own plan and if that plan has to work that plan had to fail and that's what happened to you!
i know how bad it is to nurse a bad health.....but then it was a way to tell....girl u taking too much on urself and high time u become selfish and take care of urself before all rumbles down.....and that was a warning and i m sure u did learn and u better start taking care of urself and ur body!

Such peaceful life in Ashram must be something.....i can't even remember when was last i got at 5 and slept at 9.30 ....must be just back in school......so we do gain a lot of peace.....and i m glad u made some friends and had some good experiences and i m sure it helped!

and then the reality was good too when it had so much shopping :D...so u gained somewhere :D

and those hoardings were cool...happens with me too :P

Dont worry abt folk opinions :P....they r perpetual they r never satisfied...i have given up convincing long back :P ...they care and thats the key!

I pray u get well soon and all geared up and then we will have loads of fun ....and then u will know ...watsay :P

Take care baby
Get well soon
Mwaahz

IceMaiden said...

:( Awwwwwieee Ashhhh!!!!!
First of all, Missssed u a LOT! esp at the MUmbai meet me, pri n meeli FINALLY had! it wud hav been twice thrice the fun wdi u along :( next time, no worries. :)

I SO feel lik escaping to ths ashram u mentioned. seriously. i wish (im actually racking my brains if ill be allowed such a long leave) i cud get away n cleanse my spirit a bit! :) Will tak d details from u asap. expect my call anytime now. :)

D hoardings... sigh! nw that u mention.. damnit they are everywhr aint they? :( Someday my hoarding guy will come i m sure.. so till then.. *sigh!* :)

seconding nabs on d folk opinion. Happens wid me too. Apprently happens wid everyone. Its a system error wid parents everywhr :P :) No worries, i assure u, u look awesomer than before :)

Abt the flu, take care honey! :(

I hope the ranting helped take some stuff off ur mind. Now go close ur eyes n escape to ur happy place. :) N come back wid another bang. We'll be waiting. :)

Luv u,
MWAH!
Annie.

The Unsure Ascetic said...

jibber, jabber, ramblingvs of a disturbed soul.. God Bless.

Nikhil Menon said...

Life seems great ur side..Ad ur doing things that u had craved for,inner bliss too is at stake..great ashhy.. :)

and yeah,am glad ur outta Pune,its turning into a graveyard sadly.. :( Btw,U flew the jet???woooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww.. :)))))) I AM SO FASCINATED.. :D

Take care.. :)
Love,
Nikhil

HaRy!! said...

phew...we do rant all the time...but i dont think i can put it out in such a way wher yu can enjoy reading it...anyways..god bless yu!!

H a R y

Anonymous said...

WOW!! I wish I can flew to that ashram right now if i could :)

Take care honey:)

Loved your jibber, jabbers:)

Unknown said...

gosh! I read it all... just when I was sayin' t maself 'The girl seems to have had the time of her life' you write about other things and again... that's life I guess... crests and troughs and everything in between...
my observation about weight loss - howsoever good a looser in life you may've been.. there's 1 thing you can't ever loose by choice - WEIGHT! lol

get well soon...

P.S. have been away from reading and writing for quite some time now.. feels good to be back :)

Ajai said...

Enjoyed reading about the Ashram. Didn't know there were places like this. And do they really put something in your 'behind'? Ouch!

And take care of yourself. Get well soon. :)

ktheLeo (कुश शर्मा) said...

The Labels below your post forced me to give following thought about life:
"Death is not contagious,we all are born with this condition"
_Ktheleo

Miss Sunshine said...

oh good lord! You need some happy time :) :)
and i firmly believe that after a dose of shit you do get an amazing dose of something really naice.
Just wait :)
take care!

Ashrita said...

@ Nabs

Thanks so much baby, love you too!

@ Annie

OMG I missed that meeting! But it's great to be back..! Will catch up with your posts soon too :)

@ Abstract Scientist

Thanks for the blessing, I am doing better!

@Nikhil

Trust me, flying smaller planes is much better than flying jets!

@ Hary

Like they all say, every one's sad story is someone's masala movie - I made that up :P

@Nusrath

Thanks a ton babe ;)

@Aseem

I totally agree about the weight! Welcome back to both of us :D

@Ajai

yes, they do put it right in the BEHIND! You should visit sometime :P

@ Leo

Did you just read the labels or the post too :P Nice thought though. I cannot agree more!

@ Apurva

Amen to that! I hope something good comes alone soon!

Thanks to my mouse freezing I had to reply to all in one single comment :|

Anonymous said...

angry, disturbed, pounced up!?

but liked your rage take on the issues..