The treatment started with an oil head massage. All I
could think about
was how knotted my hair was getting and how hard it would be to wash out.
Then came the oil massage which was ok. Next was the extremely hot mud
pack
with special herbs being patted all over the body. He touches you with it
so fast it won't burn, but it does hurt. Then he put extremely hot mud
all
over me. With my body caked with mud and oil we took a little walk down
the
hall to the steam bath. This steam bath is a box you sit in with your
head
sticking out. Yes I took wonderful pictures. The first day was
quite
torturous, yet I woke up the next day so much more beautiful. My face had
completely broken out from some combination of heat, spicy, food, pollution,
and stress. After the first day of treatment 75% of my face had cleared
up. My skin and hair were softer, my face had a new glow to it,
and my eyes
were opened wider. By the third day of treatment, with a couple
adjustments
to suit my temperament, I was loving the treatments. Once a week he pours
this oil over your head and chants. While it is happening you slightly
feel
as if you are in a different state of mind. Afterwards you notice the
clarity of mind you have gained.
Everything this doctor teaches me is so fascinating.
He really has a holistic approach to medicine and has taught me a lot.
One of his lessons is at the end of this email.
Part of my errands in the afternoon were running around buying and getting
stitched traditional local clothing. You can buy some ready made/fits all
sizes clothes. While a lot of the women here have a little more meat
on them than me, they seem to make the pants ten times my size. Whenever
I try them on they act like it looks great. Finally I got one of them to
laugh as I was
joking I look like humpty dumpty. Although I don't think she knows who
humpty dumpty is. With all this effort I started to wear my new costume.
Yet the glamour quickly wore off when I felt like I was carrying
around ten extra pounds of clothing and sitting in the steam bath all day.
And the stares
from the men didn't stop. Instead of wondering what a white girl was
doing
in Chennai, they were probably wondering what a white girl was doing dressed
like an Indian woman.
At my final stitching stop mid afternoon I heard loud music blasting next
door. What a surprise, I happened upon a dance studio. They invited
me out
with them that night and next thing I knew I was the lead role in a couple
dances for their performance in a week. This performance happened to be
the
Miss South India Pageant which was nationally televised. After a couple
days, the dancers working with a different choreographer invited me to
do a
show on New Years. With that and my hotel having me model for their
brochure I felt like I was making it big in
India. Or they were all just
amused by the white girl wearing Indian clothes.
Now let me take you to the Miss South India Pageant. The actual pageant
was
a small part of the night. The bigger part was the entertainment and the
ploy to the stars. They gave out all sorts of awards throughout the
evening. I can't speak the language so I don't know what they were all
for. Then they had these movie/tv stars that can't dance well be the lead
roles for the other dances I wasn't in. And I guess the whole pageant was
rigged by the contestants giving the biggest bribes to the judges. I had
one small dance piece early in the show and then a huge one at the end.
With all the risky lifts, at the end of the first piece the guy next to me
accidentally slapped my hand during a simple turn and broke my finger.
Somehow nobody understood the need for ice until my dance partner for the
last piece, Ganesh, sent a friend to get ice. They don't keep emergency
medical kits in each building in
India
like we are required to in
U.S.
Me
being extra prepared payed off. I created a splint out of a tissue,
plastic
fork, and duct tape. Ganesh and I practiced the last piece holding my
wrist
instead of hand and I was ready to go. The show must go on! Yet
this show
was running on Indian time. You see they were finishing constructing the
set while we were doing our tech run. They never swept the saw dust off
the
stage. The show started an hour late. After every little bit they
added
loud confetti fireworks to the stage. And still never swept the stage.
The
MC would announce what was next. Then you would see a man backstage
motion
for her to come over. She would come back out and make a new
announcement
of what was next as if she never made the previous announcement. Good
thing
it wasn't a live recording. And they spelt "height" without the
"e". It
was already 11 pm at night and they decided to drop the last piece. So
anti-climatic!
Interesting thought; Ganesh is some sort of elephant god that is known for
removing obstacles. The guy who hit my hand on stage accidentally hit my
other hand the next day. Luckily that was just a bruise. His name
is
Suraj, which means sunrise. Dr. Ganesh said we should change his name to
Chandra, meaning moon, and then he would stop hitting me.
Luckily I know I am not jinxed with dancing in
India because I made it
through the New Years show without any problems. Yet one of the female
dancers sprained her foot three days beforehand and another dropped out.
That left two female dancers and 7 male dancers. I think we ended up
having
an overall message of it being fun for women to have a harem of men. This
place we performed was about 9 hours away at a fancy hotel in
Coimbatore.
We went on an overnight bus which felt more like a moonbounce with a bunch
of kids jumping in it. If you recall from my last email, the traffic goes
any which way gets you there fastest and they communicate by honking. Our
bus driver had a special honk, "dum da da dum dum...dum dum."
We all had
some great nights of sleeping...after we got home.
There may be a couple more dance shows while in Chennai and still more
studies. It seems everywhere I turn someone has a story and a message for
me. The dancers have been so inspiring. With the scarcity of
amenities
they have compared to American standards, they dance harder, learn faster,
and take more risks. I like to call them careless and carefree.
They put
their whole body and everything they have in them into each moment of
dance.
Now to my interesting Ayurvedic lesson. Dr. Ganesh was invited to speak
for
the top alopathic Indian doctors. He related over 5000 year old Ayurvedic
principles to modern science on how auto-immune disorders and cancer
develop. Cancer develops when the immune system is disturbed. The
body gets confused and does not communicate to itself to stop the growth of
these
cancer cells. Besides sleep, lifestyle, mental state, and stress,
Ayurveda
says the immune system is greatly affected by food, agni, and sex.
In Ayurveda they investigate how humans differ and the make up of their
natural state. People should gauge food, lifestyle, sleep patterns...
according to their individual natural state. Thus you should eat foods
that
suit you and avoid ones that don't. You can figure this out on your own
through sheer observance.
Agni is related to digestion. Poor digestion is often where disease
starts. Things to notice are if you pass a motion every morning, how
often
you feel hungry, if you eat regularly, and how you feel after eating. A
tea
that helps all types of digestion is ginger tea with lemon or agni
tea. I have the agni tea at the doctor's office everyday and love it.
I'll be bringing home however much I can fit into my suitcase.
Now the topic you have all been waiting for me to explain: sex. The
digested food you eat travels in your plasma to nourish all tissues, organs,
and systems in your body. Next these nutrients go to your blood, muscles,
fat, bone, marrow and nerves, reproductive tissues or sexual energy, and
finally your immune system. Each stage of this process takes a day. Can
you
imagine it takes 8 days for your food to fully affect your immune system?
Now what would happen if you zapped 50% of that sexual energy with sex?
You
would have 50% less energy supporting your immune system. Now
can you
imagine if you are having sex everyday how much you could be weakening your
immune system? Thus Ayurveda recommends having sexual intercourse or
masterbating only once every two weeks.
Dr. Ganesh has already been able to prove with modern science how agni
affects the immune system. He has done this combining his center,
Pathway
Health Center
<
http://pathwayhospital.org/>, and Sri
Ventakesa Oasadalaya, a
non-profit charitable organization treating poor people through Ayurveda and
yoga. He would like to conduct modern technology research on how sex
affects cancer and auto-immune disorders, but he needs 3 or 4 million
dollars funding for that. If you would like to donate you can do it
through
Dr. Ganesh directly (
drbganesh@sify.com), or wait until I get
home and send
the money through me. He has also offered to come to
Santa Barbara to do
treatments for 21 days and donate the proceeds to cancer research. When I
return I will start Ayurvedic consultations on diet and lifestyle.
Wishing you all the best in the New Year!!
Love,
Tali
