An alternative medicine called Ayurveda can cure many ailments

My association with Ayurveda goes back to the time when I was suffering from a disease of blocked nose. It struck me during the Kumbhmela of 1991 and made my life miserable. The doctors prescribed nasal drops and I would get relief as long as the effects of the drop remained. As a result, I had to carry the bottle of drops with me even to work.
Nashik is the venue of Kumbhmela which is held once every 12-years. I came to Nashik in 1967 and that was the first Kumbhmela I witnessed. In those days, the population of Nashik was small and I used to stay in Deolali. Our bus would not enter the limits of Nashik City but still, in order to ensure protection against epidemics and diseases, we had to get ourselves inoculated.
The next time was in 1979 and I did not feel the urge to go to Nashik to participate in the celebrations but in 1991, I decided to go – I was influenced by a couple of my friends who were keen to go to Trimbakeshwar, nearly 50-Km away, which is where all the action was. Moreover, the women were united and I had to fall in line. Therefore, we left early in the morning by bus to Nashik city and from there by a second bus to Trimbakeshwar.

We had left at 8am and when we finally got down from the bus at Trimbakeshwar, it was nearly 1pm and it was raining. There was a long queue of devotees and the line stretched from the bus stop to the specially erected bathing ghat where devotees were to take a dip in the holy waters of the River Godavari. The line was nearly 2-Km long and the umbrella could not keep away the rains – as a result, all of us got drenched and, with the water accumulated on the roads, it was a terrible experience.
When I woke up next morning, I knew that I was in trouble. The nose block had become severe and, that is when I got this beautiful advice from the wife of one of my close friends. She suggested that I begin garlic medication. Take a couple of cloves of garlic, she said, and chew them raw. Let the juice gradually seep into the body system. The pungentness would be unbearable in the beginning but, once you make it a habit and get used to it, it would be worth the trouble.
Garlic helps to maintain the consistency of blood and also to control cholesterol apart from arresting joint pains, and rheumatism apart from cough and cold.
I followed her advice and got immense relief and have continued with my two cloves of garlic every morning. It falls in the category of Ayurvedic medicine. I take it with a couple of salted biscuits and wash it down with tea. I have been doing so for the past 24-years and am loving it. (to be continued …)
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