Day 6 at Nisargopchar Ashram
The strains of an old Bob Dylan song play in my mind: “One more cup of coffee before I go…”. For years that has been pretty much what I say through the day, irrespective of whether I am going anywhere or not. My love for coffee is well known- at home and in the office. I simply relish that aromatic brew. I adore its tantalising aroma. I savour its flavour. So fanatic I am about my coffee that I don’t even want it with any flavours or additives. No just plain coffee for me, thank you, with maybe a spot of milk?
Addicted to coffee? No way! I can have as much or as little as I want.
So when SS told me right in the beginning that there was going to be no tea or coffee served at the ashram, I just looked sagely at her and said, “No problem. I can do without coffee!” Like I said earlier, they were famous last words.
Our first day at the Ashram went uneventfully. Especially since I had tanked up on coffee before going there. Our last stop at the Mall in Pune gave me an opportunity to have one more cup of coffee! I had it without knowing it was going to be my last… for some time at least.
The first day went off fairly well. The second morning I got up with a slight heaviness in the head. By midday that ‘heaviness’ had become several kilos heavier. It was now a throbbing headache. By late afternoon the kilos became tonne, I needed a crane to carry my head around, and I sank under the burden of an all-consuming epic headache. I knew it was lack of coffee. Funnily I was not missing the coffee. But the headache kept reminding me that I had not had it now for over 24 hours.
The second day I went back to the doctor with my headache problem. She nodded understandingly and said that it happens to most people who are used to drinking tea or coffee and it goes away in about 2 days. But she also prescribed some acupressure and foot massages as well as hot foot baths in the night before retiring to bed. I quickly jumped at all those remedies – anything to get rid of a headache in a natural manner.
Did the headache go? No way. Even after a night’s rest, I woke up with a heavy head on the third morning. I had now realised that the headache was not going to go in a hurry. And with a hurting head I did some serious thinking (believe me, it’s very difficult to even think when your head aches like this!)
As I writhed in agony with my head in my hands I cursed myself for my foolishness. My foolhardiness. My bravado. I had been warned well in advance about not getting coffee at the ashram. In retrospect I realise I should have started tapering down my coffee drinking before leaving. But no! I was so sure that I was not dependent on coffee. So foot-thumpingly positive that I could do without it at any given point of time. Strangely, even now, I did not crave a cup of coffee. Which meant, mentally I was there. This time, it was my body that was rebelling. And how! And with a pounding head I came to the conclusion that, sure enough, I had become quite habituated to my favourite brew and could not do without it.
There was a time when NF and SS really looked concerned. My whole head was so tender there was never a time, I think, when I did not have an oppressed expression on my face. More than that, any sound that was half a decibel above a whisper seemed to grate on my nerves. On one particular morning while I was getting a massage, the cantankerous maalishwali bais decided to get into an argument. Their shrill voices, their pointless arguments and their infighting got to a point where I could hear no voices but just pounding in my head. I really suffered that day.
But after two days the headaches relented a bit. On the third day, even though I woke up with a headache, the headache finally disappeared by evening. On the fourth day, I had a headache only in the afternoon. And on the fifth day it was barely there. It was the sixth day on which (much to SS’s and NF’s relief) I declared myself headache-free! Read that as caffeine-free. But my head was tender with so much pounding and I verged on the brink of a headache all day carefully mentally tiptoeing around loud noises, maalishwali bais, or anything that could set off my headache again!
Phew! Six days of coffee withdrawal. If my head was not hurting so much I would have done more introspection on coffee-drinking. And on various forms of withdrawal that I would never have to go through, thank God! Drugs. Smoking, But finally, with the painful realisation that the body had been habituated to the caffeine consumption, I decided that this was one of the best things that I had gained out of our trip.
I had had my last cup of coffee on the morning of 18th September. It’s the 8th of October as I write this. I am proud to say that I have not had coffee since then! The current goal is to stay off it for a month. I’ve replaced it with kaadha at home and herbal tea in the office. And you know what? It’s just fine. Does that mean I will never have coffee? Not necessarily. I still love that drink. But the word is “occasionally”!
And till the ‘occasion’ demands I will continue to enjoy Bob Dylan’s ‘One more cup of coffee…”
Showing posts with label nature cure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature cure. Show all posts
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Return to Our Nature
DAYS 3, 4 & 5 – 20th September - 22nd September 2009
By the third day at the Ashram, we had all slipped into a routine – we knew what do when, what to pack for the various treatments, when to fix our massage appointments - before or after mud therapy, when to have our various juices and when to reconvene for lunch.
Our mornings, once we had our kaadha, went in a blur. Each of us did our own little individual routine and our paths crossed at frequent intervals. The treatment centre was a few yards away from the dining hall and we took every chance between treatments to go back there and have the juice of the hour. By the time we finished we were rushing to have lunch or fruit or fruit juice – whatever our choice and we then co-ordinated and met up for lunch.
Over these few days, we discovered that whatever we did our juices were important.
We knew how to time our visits to the doctor so that we could minimise waiting time to the least.
We figured out how to buy our fruit and even get it peeled, cut or shelled (in case of pomegranates) by the fruit sellers.
We explored and found a larger, greener circuit for our morning walks.
And last but not the least, austerity drive notwithstanding, we figured out how to make the most of our evenings! But more about that later.
Over the second and third days, each of us made an individual visit to the doctor. The doctors here are of the firm belief that a fruit diet would be good. On the third day, I agreed. The next 2 and half days I would have only fruit. NF had already started it the evening before. SS decided to do fruit once a day. We’d plot and plan our fruit meals – the main meals and the in-between ones! What Naturopathy recommends is that you eat only one fruit at a time. So we would decide our fruit array for the day, make a trip to the fruit sellers at the gate and pick the choicest of what we wanted. The good thing was that all three of us loved fruit. So we’d make plans at lunch about what fruit we’d have for dinner only to go there and discover that only that particular fruit was not available. We’d quickly revise our plans and continue. No musk melon? Ok… papaya will do. We managed to make quite a feast of our fruit meals: going through the whole gamut of fruit options: papayas, pineapples, pears, guavas, chikoos, custard apples, pomegranates – all these hit our dining lists!
The evenings became the high point of our day. Having finished virtually every activity by about 6:30 pm, we had an evening stretching out before us. We’d go back, shower and change, pack our stuff for the next morning’s hectic activity and then regroup in my room for “the evening entertainment”! With a handy laptop, some DVDs, and some downloaded videos, we were all set to have one memorable evening after another! After all, seeking entertainment was in our nature!
To top that SS had carried a pack of UNO – the fun playing card game. Thanks SS. While I had played UNO earlier, we did one trial run before we actually started playing. Once we did that, I got extra smart and decided to teach SS and NF some clever strategies on winning the game. I must modestly admit, although my innate humility does not allow me, that both my students were quick on the uptake. It is entirely to my credit that, by the next day I could not win a single game. So much did this combination of pride in successful teaching and humiliation of getting defeated rankle, that one evening I told them that we would not stop playing till I won. I think out of sheer respect for my L’Oreal-ed white hair, NF and SS sportingly gave in and we played bleary-eyed late into the night. When I won, I am not sure which one of us was the happiest. I sure was.
The cottages and room complexes in the Ashram had thematic names. Where we stayed the theme was seasons. So there was Vasant and Shishir and Hemant. We were in Sharad 4 and 5. In the Ashram we were identified by our rooms. Sharad Char (four) was mine. Later on, it was to get a higher title: Sharad Char – the Entertainment Centre! By the third or fourth day we had made this pretty much one. Except for Dolby Surround Sound, I think we had everything! Well, sound was an issue on a laptop and we could barely hear the movies. Also because laptops have an LCD screen we had to position it just so, for all three of us to see the video without any dark shadows. Which meant the laptop had to be pretty close for us to hear well, but far enough for us to see clearly. Over three days, NF had it mastered to theatre perfection. For rest of our stay there, that was the hi-fi arrangement that we stayed with. And enjoyed. Thanks NF!
When NF and SS trooped into my room in the evening, they brought with them their own pillows as backrests. The evening entertainment began with a few games of UNO. Then came movie time. SS managed the lighting. NF the rest. On my part I artfully pressed the ‘Enter’ button on the laptop. The laptop itself was placed on a plastic chair thoughtfully provided by the Ashram for that purpose (or so we thought).
If someone were to chance into our room, their reaction would have been appropriately dramatic. There we were, three of us, comfortably cushioned, sitting in a single row, on two single beds joined together, watching a movie on a laptop – the laptop placed on a chair – the chair perched on the bed!
Well, entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega!
By the third day at the Ashram, we had all slipped into a routine – we knew what do when, what to pack for the various treatments, when to fix our massage appointments - before or after mud therapy, when to have our various juices and when to reconvene for lunch.
Our mornings, once we had our kaadha, went in a blur. Each of us did our own little individual routine and our paths crossed at frequent intervals. The treatment centre was a few yards away from the dining hall and we took every chance between treatments to go back there and have the juice of the hour. By the time we finished we were rushing to have lunch or fruit or fruit juice – whatever our choice and we then co-ordinated and met up for lunch.
Over these few days, we discovered that whatever we did our juices were important.
We knew how to time our visits to the doctor so that we could minimise waiting time to the least.
We figured out how to buy our fruit and even get it peeled, cut or shelled (in case of pomegranates) by the fruit sellers.
We explored and found a larger, greener circuit for our morning walks.
And last but not the least, austerity drive notwithstanding, we figured out how to make the most of our evenings! But more about that later.
Over the second and third days, each of us made an individual visit to the doctor. The doctors here are of the firm belief that a fruit diet would be good. On the third day, I agreed. The next 2 and half days I would have only fruit. NF had already started it the evening before. SS decided to do fruit once a day. We’d plot and plan our fruit meals – the main meals and the in-between ones! What Naturopathy recommends is that you eat only one fruit at a time. So we would decide our fruit array for the day, make a trip to the fruit sellers at the gate and pick the choicest of what we wanted. The good thing was that all three of us loved fruit. So we’d make plans at lunch about what fruit we’d have for dinner only to go there and discover that only that particular fruit was not available. We’d quickly revise our plans and continue. No musk melon? Ok… papaya will do. We managed to make quite a feast of our fruit meals: going through the whole gamut of fruit options: papayas, pineapples, pears, guavas, chikoos, custard apples, pomegranates – all these hit our dining lists!
The evenings became the high point of our day. Having finished virtually every activity by about 6:30 pm, we had an evening stretching out before us. We’d go back, shower and change, pack our stuff for the next morning’s hectic activity and then regroup in my room for “the evening entertainment”! With a handy laptop, some DVDs, and some downloaded videos, we were all set to have one memorable evening after another! After all, seeking entertainment was in our nature!
To top that SS had carried a pack of UNO – the fun playing card game. Thanks SS. While I had played UNO earlier, we did one trial run before we actually started playing. Once we did that, I got extra smart and decided to teach SS and NF some clever strategies on winning the game. I must modestly admit, although my innate humility does not allow me, that both my students were quick on the uptake. It is entirely to my credit that, by the next day I could not win a single game. So much did this combination of pride in successful teaching and humiliation of getting defeated rankle, that one evening I told them that we would not stop playing till I won. I think out of sheer respect for my L’Oreal-ed white hair, NF and SS sportingly gave in and we played bleary-eyed late into the night. When I won, I am not sure which one of us was the happiest. I sure was.
The cottages and room complexes in the Ashram had thematic names. Where we stayed the theme was seasons. So there was Vasant and Shishir and Hemant. We were in Sharad 4 and 5. In the Ashram we were identified by our rooms. Sharad Char (four) was mine. Later on, it was to get a higher title: Sharad Char – the Entertainment Centre! By the third or fourth day we had made this pretty much one. Except for Dolby Surround Sound, I think we had everything! Well, sound was an issue on a laptop and we could barely hear the movies. Also because laptops have an LCD screen we had to position it just so, for all three of us to see the video without any dark shadows. Which meant the laptop had to be pretty close for us to hear well, but far enough for us to see clearly. Over three days, NF had it mastered to theatre perfection. For rest of our stay there, that was the hi-fi arrangement that we stayed with. And enjoyed. Thanks NF!
When NF and SS trooped into my room in the evening, they brought with them their own pillows as backrests. The evening entertainment began with a few games of UNO. Then came movie time. SS managed the lighting. NF the rest. On my part I artfully pressed the ‘Enter’ button on the laptop. The laptop itself was placed on a plastic chair thoughtfully provided by the Ashram for that purpose (or so we thought).
If someone were to chance into our room, their reaction would have been appropriately dramatic. There we were, three of us, comfortably cushioned, sitting in a single row, on two single beds joined together, watching a movie on a laptop – the laptop placed on a chair – the chair perched on the bed!
Well, entertainment ke liye kuch bhi karega!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Return to Nature
DAY 2 – 19th September 2009
Our treatments prescribed the previous day, we were all set for the next morning to get them underway. Much of the previous evening went in figuring out how one would go about drinking the various juices and brews advised and manage to squeeze in the number of different treatments. We were laden with terminology alien to us but excited all the same. We were finally here and we were going to go ahead with the predefined 7 days, salt free food notwithstanding.
So what is Naturopathy?
A leaflet provided to us while we checked in describes it as thus: Nature cure is a drugless approach for the management of diseases. It does not advocate use of medicine.
This particular ashram in Uruli Kanchan, Nisargopchar Ashram, was actually set up by Mahatma Gandhi. His belief was that if you are in tune with the elements of nature then there is no cause for illness or disorder to set into your body. Nature cure takes its cures from the five elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. Each of these is used in therapies to bring back the balance in the body.
Our day at the Ashram began at 5 am. 5:15 we started the first yoga class. Over 2 days, NF figured out that we could do the 6:15 am class as well. So within 2 days we had started doing 90 minutes of yoga, the first class more of stretching and breathing exercises, the second one more energetic and challenging.
We got out of the class, all ready for our morning refresher. No no, no tea or coffee. It was kaadha – a herbal tea brewed from lemon grass, tulsi (basil) leaves and ginger with a bit of jaggery added to it. Post that, we went to a terrace to get our dose of the sun and the earth. A mud pack (mittilep) was applied to the stomach and we had to lie in the sun with it. The mud is supposed to be therapeutic and helps relieves many ailments like constipation, digestive disorders and urinary tract ailments. For people with skin disorders a complete mud bath is recommended. Sun bathing in the early hours gives you your dose of Vitamin D and also brings in the elements of air and fire into your therapy.
After the mud pack, we returned to a series of hydrotherapy treatments. Of the common ones prescribed were tub bath, hip bath, steam bath and spinal bath – each depending on your problems and indications.
This was followed by an (optional) massage. But you kind of waited for this. The maalishwali bais (masseuses) were each very good and characters unto themselves. The code of conduct here was that you got a masseuse assigned to you on the very first day, who then was your ‘bai’ till you left the country, figuratively speaking. So strong is this unwritten code of conduct that if you wish to change your assigned maalishwali to another one, no other woman will agree to do her job. However, if your assignee is busy and she is free to send you a substitute and you are to accept that unquestioningly, almost gratefully. Well, with their kneading and pummelling skills, you better go by what they say.
The massage no doubt is the best part of the deal. If only it could have been less noisy. But get these women together and they are bound to talk, nay, argue. Though whether they talk or argue, with their high-pitched voices, it all sounds like one big fight.
The massage having done, you proceeded to have a bath and then, feeling cleansed and rejuvenated, wended your way to the dining hall. It’s well into 10:30 am by now and the lunch gong has rung. Lunch consists of the virtually the same things we ate for dinner the night before except that the vegetable is different this time. But yes, the food is still devoid of oil, spices and even salt!
Post lunch you hurried your room for ‘quiet time’ a.k.a. afternoon nap. At 1 pm, a mitti patti was kept outside your room. This was mud, wrapped in a piece of cloth and folded into a flat band. You were to keep this on your eyes and forehead for its cooling and soothing effect.
3 pm brought us back the dining hall for our second round of kaadha. Then back to some more treatments. Local steam was one of them. A jet of steam was aimed at ailing parts – like knees, back and so on. For some patients, this warmed part was then bandaged in a linen cloth soaked in warm water then wrung out. This was then further bandaged with a woollen cloth to retain the heat inside. This was kept on for an hour.
The early evening was reserved for a brisk walk around the Ashram premises. Which then worked up your appetite for dinner. The dinner gong went at 5:30 pm. Yes, 5:30! Dinner had most of the stuff in the morning but with the addition of khichdi. It’s funny how the simplest of food suddenly take a place of importance when there is nothing else on offer.
Time and again, as we ate our sattvik food we wondered how we did not miss all those things back home. But in the Ashram it was easy to stick to the regimen because your pat h was not strewn with temptations. A bhel puri counter round the corner. A dosawala two signals away. Pav bhaji smells wafting tantalisingly into your nostrils. The Ashram had none of these. No wonder you had people not straying from the chosen path and knocking off quite a few kilos. 5 kilos, 7 kilos lost, was considered to be the norm.
As the day ended and we went back to our rooms, we wondered how we would fare on our return to nature.
Link to website: http://www.nisargopcharashram.org
Our treatments prescribed the previous day, we were all set for the next morning to get them underway. Much of the previous evening went in figuring out how one would go about drinking the various juices and brews advised and manage to squeeze in the number of different treatments. We were laden with terminology alien to us but excited all the same. We were finally here and we were going to go ahead with the predefined 7 days, salt free food notwithstanding.
So what is Naturopathy?
A leaflet provided to us while we checked in describes it as thus: Nature cure is a drugless approach for the management of diseases. It does not advocate use of medicine.
This particular ashram in Uruli Kanchan, Nisargopchar Ashram, was actually set up by Mahatma Gandhi. His belief was that if you are in tune with the elements of nature then there is no cause for illness or disorder to set into your body. Nature cure takes its cures from the five elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. Each of these is used in therapies to bring back the balance in the body.
Our day at the Ashram began at 5 am. 5:15 we started the first yoga class. Over 2 days, NF figured out that we could do the 6:15 am class as well. So within 2 days we had started doing 90 minutes of yoga, the first class more of stretching and breathing exercises, the second one more energetic and challenging.
We got out of the class, all ready for our morning refresher. No no, no tea or coffee. It was kaadha – a herbal tea brewed from lemon grass, tulsi (basil) leaves and ginger with a bit of jaggery added to it. Post that, we went to a terrace to get our dose of the sun and the earth. A mud pack (mittilep) was applied to the stomach and we had to lie in the sun with it. The mud is supposed to be therapeutic and helps relieves many ailments like constipation, digestive disorders and urinary tract ailments. For people with skin disorders a complete mud bath is recommended. Sun bathing in the early hours gives you your dose of Vitamin D and also brings in the elements of air and fire into your therapy.
After the mud pack, we returned to a series of hydrotherapy treatments. Of the common ones prescribed were tub bath, hip bath, steam bath and spinal bath – each depending on your problems and indications.
This was followed by an (optional) massage. But you kind of waited for this. The maalishwali bais (masseuses) were each very good and characters unto themselves. The code of conduct here was that you got a masseuse assigned to you on the very first day, who then was your ‘bai’ till you left the country, figuratively speaking. So strong is this unwritten code of conduct that if you wish to change your assigned maalishwali to another one, no other woman will agree to do her job. However, if your assignee is busy and she is free to send you a substitute and you are to accept that unquestioningly, almost gratefully. Well, with their kneading and pummelling skills, you better go by what they say.
The massage no doubt is the best part of the deal. If only it could have been less noisy. But get these women together and they are bound to talk, nay, argue. Though whether they talk or argue, with their high-pitched voices, it all sounds like one big fight.
The massage having done, you proceeded to have a bath and then, feeling cleansed and rejuvenated, wended your way to the dining hall. It’s well into 10:30 am by now and the lunch gong has rung. Lunch consists of the virtually the same things we ate for dinner the night before except that the vegetable is different this time. But yes, the food is still devoid of oil, spices and even salt!
Post lunch you hurried your room for ‘quiet time’ a.k.a. afternoon nap. At 1 pm, a mitti patti was kept outside your room. This was mud, wrapped in a piece of cloth and folded into a flat band. You were to keep this on your eyes and forehead for its cooling and soothing effect.
3 pm brought us back the dining hall for our second round of kaadha. Then back to some more treatments. Local steam was one of them. A jet of steam was aimed at ailing parts – like knees, back and so on. For some patients, this warmed part was then bandaged in a linen cloth soaked in warm water then wrung out. This was then further bandaged with a woollen cloth to retain the heat inside. This was kept on for an hour.
The early evening was reserved for a brisk walk around the Ashram premises. Which then worked up your appetite for dinner. The dinner gong went at 5:30 pm. Yes, 5:30! Dinner had most of the stuff in the morning but with the addition of khichdi. It’s funny how the simplest of food suddenly take a place of importance when there is nothing else on offer.
Time and again, as we ate our sattvik food we wondered how we did not miss all those things back home. But in the Ashram it was easy to stick to the regimen because your pat h was not strewn with temptations. A bhel puri counter round the corner. A dosawala two signals away. Pav bhaji smells wafting tantalisingly into your nostrils. The Ashram had none of these. No wonder you had people not straying from the chosen path and knocking off quite a few kilos. 5 kilos, 7 kilos lost, was considered to be the norm.
As the day ended and we went back to our rooms, we wondered how we would fare on our return to nature.
Link to website: http://www.nisargopcharashram.org
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
In our nature
A seven day sojourn at Nisargpocharashram, Uruli Kanchan
The Plans
It started with a casual conversation.
“So what do you plan to do when you are on your sabbatical?” I asked SS. She had planned to quit and take some time off… very smart thing to do, considering the high-pressured life we lead in advertising.
SS’s eyes glazed. Right there on her desk she got a faraway look. “Oh, I want to do so many things…travel, I plan to visit my cousins and I am planning a visit to Uruli Kanchan”
My ears perked up. Uruli Kanchan I knew was a naturopathy farm near Pune – a place I would have been interested in visiting provided I had the right kind of people to go with. There’s much that goes for naturopathy – a form of alternative healing – and I had read up enough to know that there was merit in most forms of natural cures rather than drugs and therapies.
“Oh wow” I said,”I’d love to come along”. I don’t know who was more excited at this suggestion. SS or me. Our eyes lit up and suddenly we had a plan. A little while later I mention this to friend NF., another advocate of alternative healing. She too jumped at the thought and soon we were three people ready to go … only question was when.
If you try to coordinate routines – with a busy work schedule, home responsibilities and birthdays of close family members (even your own) getting three people to go somewhere together can be quite a task. We managed.
A date was set. SS was to do the booking and we were excited. Word got round and others seem to be getting excited too! We’d discuss it off and on through our busy week in the office. SS offered to call and find out more details. All of us were excited and looking forward to a “detox-destress break”. Somewhere along the line Uruli Kanchan got shortened to UK!
And it sounded even more like a plan!
We actually made a foolproof, comprehensive packing list. Much of the essentials that we carried were bits of wisdom derived from friends, family and colleagues. “You better carry your own sheets. It’s clean but…”, said a close friend. When we called to ask for information we were curtly told to bring our own glasses, a knife and a spoon. Apparently the knife was to cut fruit in your own room if you wanted. (I, with my infinite wisdom, added a plate to the list!) Yoga mats suddenly seemed like a must-carry. Mosquito repellent was a must-use. And of course, there was important stuff like books and music. Oh! The things we need when we travel! By the time we finished the list, no one would believe we were going to an Ashram – but then in our minds we were clearly going to “UK”!
As we did our final packing, a stream of smses crossed cyberspace! And finally we were packed and ready. By the time we finished I was glad we were going in a larger car. NF had tanked up the Honda City – but more importantly the boot space was at a premium!
And thus began our journey to and sojourn at NisargopcharAshram, Uruli Kanchan. Starting 18th September 2009. After all, it was in our nature to be there!
Stay tuned to read a meal by meal account of how the three of us fared at the Nature Cure farm, set up by none other than Mahatma Gandhi himself!
The Plans
It started with a casual conversation.
“So what do you plan to do when you are on your sabbatical?” I asked SS. She had planned to quit and take some time off… very smart thing to do, considering the high-pressured life we lead in advertising.
SS’s eyes glazed. Right there on her desk she got a faraway look. “Oh, I want to do so many things…travel, I plan to visit my cousins and I am planning a visit to Uruli Kanchan”
My ears perked up. Uruli Kanchan I knew was a naturopathy farm near Pune – a place I would have been interested in visiting provided I had the right kind of people to go with. There’s much that goes for naturopathy – a form of alternative healing – and I had read up enough to know that there was merit in most forms of natural cures rather than drugs and therapies.
“Oh wow” I said,”I’d love to come along”. I don’t know who was more excited at this suggestion. SS or me. Our eyes lit up and suddenly we had a plan. A little while later I mention this to friend NF., another advocate of alternative healing. She too jumped at the thought and soon we were three people ready to go … only question was when.
If you try to coordinate routines – with a busy work schedule, home responsibilities and birthdays of close family members (even your own) getting three people to go somewhere together can be quite a task. We managed.
A date was set. SS was to do the booking and we were excited. Word got round and others seem to be getting excited too! We’d discuss it off and on through our busy week in the office. SS offered to call and find out more details. All of us were excited and looking forward to a “detox-destress break”. Somewhere along the line Uruli Kanchan got shortened to UK!
And it sounded even more like a plan!
We actually made a foolproof, comprehensive packing list. Much of the essentials that we carried were bits of wisdom derived from friends, family and colleagues. “You better carry your own sheets. It’s clean but…”, said a close friend. When we called to ask for information we were curtly told to bring our own glasses, a knife and a spoon. Apparently the knife was to cut fruit in your own room if you wanted. (I, with my infinite wisdom, added a plate to the list!) Yoga mats suddenly seemed like a must-carry. Mosquito repellent was a must-use. And of course, there was important stuff like books and music. Oh! The things we need when we travel! By the time we finished the list, no one would believe we were going to an Ashram – but then in our minds we were clearly going to “UK”!
As we did our final packing, a stream of smses crossed cyberspace! And finally we were packed and ready. By the time we finished I was glad we were going in a larger car. NF had tanked up the Honda City – but more importantly the boot space was at a premium!
And thus began our journey to and sojourn at NisargopcharAshram, Uruli Kanchan. Starting 18th September 2009. After all, it was in our nature to be there!
Stay tuned to read a meal by meal account of how the three of us fared at the Nature Cure farm, set up by none other than Mahatma Gandhi himself!
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