Eat Tulsi, Because Ma Says It… :)
Recently I went to meet a friend of mine who has a five year old son. Unfortunately, the poor soul was suffering from bad cough. On top of this, my friend told me that he frequently gets cough and cold. I remember, that when I was a kid and whenever me or anyone else in the family use to get cough, ma used to give us a warm mixture of “sudh desi ghee, crushed pepper and some sugar”. And this always acted as the “Ram Baan” for all our cough problems! Also, after the daily puja, she use to hand over a few leaves of tulsi patta (holy basil leaves) to everyone in the family. I remember her saying that eating tulsi patta everyday increases memory power, prevents cough, cold, malaria and lots of other common dieses. And this small daily care and routine did miracles. I barely remember getting fever, cough or cold as a kid. And even if I did, drinking a hot steaming cup of tulsi, ginger and pepper chai over the cough syrups and a few leaves of tulsi took care of everything 🙂
There were days, when ma would tell me the stories of the time I was there in her womb and the lady doctor asked her to eat lots of bananas for iron instead of drinking iron tonics for the development of the kid’s strong bones. She ended up eating lots of them as everyone was concerned at that time for her and me. I remember her saying that when she went to meet the doctor in the seventh month of her pregnancy, the lady doc asked her to stop all the iron suppliments. As, the iron consistency was really high in her body and it could have caused bone stiffness in my body! But the good thing is only because my mom ate lots of iron at that time, I have got really strong bones 😀
Back at home in Jharkhand, everything is natural. Most of the families still believe in the ayurveda power more than any chemically produced medicine. You will often hear ladies sharing “the home remedies”. Applying few drops of honey or crushed marigold leaves juices on the cuts and bruishes, planting mint, tulsi and marigold flowers to ward off mosquitos, massaging a painful leg with warm mustard oil with some garlic pods, applying some haldi, dahi and besan instead of expensive face packs, using a paste of amla, reetha and shikakai instead of shampoo and the list goes on and on…
Ayurvedic medicines are really helpful. And the best part is it doesn’t give you any side effects. No wonder, lots of celebrities are getting back to mother nature. And they swear on home remedies like using besan for their skin instead of chemicals, drinking warm water with lemon and honey to keep their body in shape and skin glowing. I am so thankful to my mother and Grandmother for teaching me the importance of all these things right from my childhood. I have seen the miraculous effects they do in our lives. It is always necessary to implant these knowledge right from the beginning so that we believe in these things. We understand that lots of things which we think can be attained only by using chemicals can actually be done the “Ayurvedic Way”.
Ah, all this talks make me homesick. I am quickly gonna go and make myself a hot brewing cup of Tulsi tea. Drink and relax 😀