A man of Science who loved Ayurveda

There is a lot of discussions , no not discussion, mostly derision, on Ayurveda as an alternative medicine. 

Looking back, personally I have relied more on Ayurveda , though I am not against allopathy when the situation demands. Each system has its strengths and weaknesses and I am sure they can complement each other.

It’s a moot point which of these systems should be called the ‘main’ and which one the alternative. But then, where English is the main language and our own languages, however rich, are classified as vernaculars, anything can happen.

I am reminded of a project I was part of, in the early nineties.

I was posted at Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand , a place that had the personal attention of the then Army Chief Gen BC Joshi. Pithoragarh is a military station close to the Chinese borders where huge chunks of land,over 2000 acres, had been acquired by the Ministry of Defence post 1962, for army units.

Pithoragarh .Photo courtesy (https://www.euttaranchal.com/)

 

Later , a good part of that land became surplus to the establishment . Gen BC Joshi had great ideas of utilizing these pieces of land for various projects. One such project was Herbal Farms.

The basic idea was to cultivate various herbal plants , with focus on Himalayan flora with guidance from a Defence Agricultural Research laboratory located there. It was part of DRDO  manned and equipped  fot researching on high altitude agriculture and related subjects . The herbal products were to be supplied  to various pharma companies like Humdard and Dabur.

During a visit by the Chief, besides army commander and other senior officers, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister had also been invited. It was none other than our missile man Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

man of science , who never forgot his roots

During an informal meeting over breakfast at the DRDO guest house, I had an opportunity to listen to a part of the discussions.

Dr Kalam was quite fascinated with the whole idea. I remember , him talking  excitedly about a herbal cure for cancer based on a plant called taxus buccata. The drug developed by Dabur had recently been cleared by US, (in circa 1993). The name dropped casually by the great man, had got stuck to my memory since then. It’s a different matter that we haven’t heard about it since then.

The discussions meandered along over various native herbs used at various parts of the country. There was also some talk by Dr Kalam of some herbs being used for family planning in the rural areas. 

After Gen BC Joshi’s untimely death the projects he had initiated had also died gradually.

If only we had had the will and a budget to support the idea of a Herbal Farm of that magnitude, it would have resulted in preservation and propagation of many rare medicinal herbs. Just as modern medicines suppress the immunity system of the body, the craze over allopathy has suppressed the native systems of medicine . Indians have simply forgotten to heal themselves.

In a broad sense, allopathy is a means to study and combat diseases ,while ayur veda or Yogasan deals with study of and preservation of health.  

As case of self fulfilling prophecy , the higher budgets world over has led to more research and more advancement in allopathic system. Lack of support has reduced ayurveda to a dubious, alternative system of medicine.

Today, for diagnosis , emergencies, and trauma care , allopathy is definitely  far ahead of any other system. In preventive health care and  non intrusive therapy, Ayurveda scores. Unfortunately , only people who cannot afford the high cost of western system of therapy opt for the native one. 

A point that is very much debatable is the ethical side of the western system. It encourages people to break every rule of healthy living as they believe health can be bought from Hospitals and to a great extent, it is true. Health is bought and sold by Hospitals though the rates are driven by  insurance and pharma companies .

In the next post, I shall write about my own experiences in facing a serious health challenge. 

Why Modi is hated by some?

On Social Media , all most all controversies just boil down to pro modi / anti modi discussions. It could be about the national plan for vaccinations or it could simply be choosing samosa over pizza. Strangely, a wide spectrum of people with totally different ideologies or cultural backgrounds are united in their hatred for Prime Minister Modi.

What is common between Farhan Akhtar and Mamata banerjee; between Swara Bhaskar and Asauddin Owaisi ; between Sashi Tharoor and Thol Tirumavalavan ? They all harbour visceral hatred for our Prime Minister. There is hardly anything else common. You may say they are all Indians. Add Greta Thunberg ,Rihaana Who or Mia Khalipha and you find that the hatred has gone international.

Another point to note is that as long as BJP was not winning too many elections and was no threat to the power at the centre, they were just considered by the elite as untouchable , worthy of contempt but not hatred . Now, BJP under Modi is steadily winning elections at the centre , state and local bodies and the hatred is palpable.

BJP being elected to power something that the haters cannot stomach. The irony is that different people hate Modi for different reasons.

First let us take our MSM , the main stream media. The media personalities considered themselves gods under UPA. The infamous radia tapes , well suppressed by the media , brought out the clout media had on political happenings including cabinet formation. The issue is not if the script is real or fake , but the unethical influence of media on formation of govt. Nobody seems to deny that people like Barkha Dutt , Rajdeep Sardesai or Pranob Roy were close to the seat of power. Padma awards were routinely awarded to these journalists and so were other perks. When PM went abroad, he took along this entire lot at govts cost.

Under the present regime, all these perks dried up. PM is often accused of avoiding press conferences. Why should he speak to these elite lords and ladies of the press when they neither understand nor care for the vast majority of non-English speaking Indians? Our PM is particularly articulate when he addresses the common man; why risk his words being twisted by these knaves to meet their own agenda ?

Well, the bottom-line is that English speaking , Macaulay putr/putri MSM harbours a visceral hatred for PM .

Then we have our pseudo-intellectuals who often equate English speaking and phoren degrees with intellectualism. They are put off by Modi for his rural background.

About the minorities, which do not include the real minorities like Jains or Parsis , less said the better. Their unspoken hatred for Hindus surfaces when they see him wearing his religion on his sleeves. So far, it was only the privilege of the minorities. In short , they hate him for being a proud Hindu.

Then we have the Dravidians , who call themselves secular, yet look at every issue through the prism of caste ,religion and race. To them Modi represents the Hindi speaking Aryan . It does not matter that Modi is not from the parpanar caste nor that his mother tongue is not Hindi. So is it with Amit Shah where it does not not matter that he is from Non hindi speaking minority community.

Why does Bollywood hate Modi ? It’s rather difficult to figure out; except that Bollywood has its own culture of minority worship and majority bashing. With the kind of obscene amounts money that is sloshing around from narcotics and other illegal activities, the politician-police-underworld nexus is particularly strong in Mumbai and film personalities are very much part of this eco-system. It doesn’t help that there is a huge ‘gulf‘ between Bollywood and Sanathan Dharma. The last celebrity who went about as a proud practising Hindu was Gulshan Kumar . We know what happened to him . He was killed in a Mandir for refusing to pay extortion money.

Whatever, from vocal critics like Farhan Akhtar , Swara Bhaskar to an aspiring starlet, they all hate our PM.

About INC leaders, it is obvious that they would oppose the Govt, but the special hatred they reserve for that one man is too unique to be missed. In the run up to the 2014 general elections, I distinctly remember Mani Shankar Aiyar in one of the TV Debates. He could see the writing on the wall that Congress would lose, but kept maintaining that BJP would also be giving them company in the opposition benches. he was particularly happy that BJP was led by Narendra Modi. That’s when he made the chaiwala statement in his arrogance that BJP led by Modi could never win. Moreover the congress had great confidence in the ‘maut ka saudagar‘ image they had built carefully for Modi. Those days I did believe NDTV , but seeing their brazen partisan reporting these days ,I can only surmise that in 2002 they just cleverly camouflaged their bias.

Congress has still not come to terms that someone who they dismissed as chaiwala at best or maut ka saudagar at worst could be elected through popular mandate. Here their hatred for Modi also becomes hatred for the country that voted for him. How else can you explain Rahul Gandhi appealing to US for overthrowing this govt.

Last but not the least we have an elite class in the country who hate Modi. They do not come under any of the above categories but could be identified by their affinity for the West. They speak like them (faked accent) , dress like them and behave like them. Most of them have earned their money in dollars or are still doing. They live in a gated community moving from hotel lobbies to airports in Chauffeur driven cars. They dislike almost anything desi from food and drinks to TV Shows to Desi Vaccines.

Then why are they here ? It is only in India they can have a section (an infantry section has 10 soldiers) of foot soldiers waiting on them hand and foot. For healthcare , they don’t have to wait for months or years like in Canada or go to a private hospital that cost a bomb like in the US. It is in India they can walk their western dogs (anything desi they wouldn’t touch with a barge pole including flora or fauna) and yet don’t have to stoop to pick up the poop. Why , they can even hire a desi hand for walking their dogs.

This lot simply cannot forgive Modi for being a Desi. During the Pandemic they realised that they had to rub shoulders with desis for hospitals and oxygen which was just not acceptable.

A lot of people call Modi a polarizing figure. Why ? what has he said or done to polarize ? People like Asaduddin Owaisi, Bal Thackeray, or even Sonia Gandhi, Mani Shankar Aiyar and recently Mamata Banerjee have said things far more polarizing. Well, all that Modi has done is to win elections despite being an unapologetic Hindu, just being himself .

In this great Indian hatred many important issues that are lost :-

(a) For the first time we have a govt that is not involved in any corruption scam! This is a big achievement in India where Former PM Rajiv Gandhi had once said only 14 paisa from every rupee spent by the govt reaches the beneficiary.

(b) For the first time, cleanliness is an issue. I can see the visible changes in Indore, not only on the streets but in behaviour of people. I agree we have a long way to go; but even the longest journey starts with the first step.

(c) For the first time we are thinking of an universal health scheme ; Ayushman Bharat.

(d) For the first time the govt is working on of universal access for cooking gas and piped water supply.

(e) Right or wrong, we have a govt trying seriously to solve problems like J & K issue , illegal immigrants , Ramjanmabhoomi , labour reforms, agricultural reforms etc that have plagued the country for decades.

These views would definitely qualify me to be called a Sanghi in decent or not so decent terms. But then , having been through the social media for over a decade, today Sanghi would be a Title I would wear proudly on my sleeve. A Sanghi who has never been to a Shakha.