Panchakarma diary - the ultimate Indian detox: part 2

“At last I was ready for the full treatment. This involved having 2litres of warm medicated oil poured over me continuously for 2 hours, together with very gentle massage strokes given by 4 of the therapists. I couldn’t believe how much oil was used – I felt like an oil slick. There was not one part of my body that wasn’t covered! At the same time I had a treatment called dhara – warm oil suspended from a pot above my head was slowly dribbled on to the space between my eyebrows. It tickled a bit but felt rather nice. This was then followed by a herbal face pack and a face massage.
  I was beginning to find the food difficult to eat. It was generally cold, smelt of boiled cabbage and was tasteless to the point of being unpleasant. It was particularly difficult when the other students were cooking delicious food. Luckily for me they would sometimes slip me some, otherwise I think I would have starved. Apparently, no-one liked the food and even though the students could eat at the hospital for free, they usually preferred to cook at the apartment. However, Sonam remarked; “The only person who never said anything bad about the food was Simon. Simon actually smiled when he was eating!” This saintly behaviour was embellished a couple of days later when I complained that there were quite large cockroaches in my room at night: “Oh yes, Simon mentioned that. But he didn’t mind… he joked how it was a bit of a zoo!” I pointed out that Simon has actually served in the armed forces, so probably found dodgy food, cockroaches and incarceration a doddle after active service! But I started to nickname him, ‘Saint Simon.’ And I noted that the girls all still had soppy looks on their faces whenever his name was brought up…
  I was beginning to lose a lot of weight. Dr Vesudevan or Dr Hari visited me every day to take my pulse and check my progress. Through this they could make an extraordinarily accurate diagnosis. They could tell, for example, if I had had a bad night, or what my bowel movements had been – something that they were obsessed with. (Ayurveda is very concerned with the quality of digestion.) I was beginning to get into a routine. Up at 7 to take my medicine, then make my own porridge with milk (milk being a key Ayurvedic food to ensure protein intake), followed by massage at 10.30. Then I had lunch, which I would struggle to eat. I then would struggle again – this time not to sleep. After this, I had a break until 5 o’clock when I had a Yoga lesson with Seetha...”

The article, which is written by Fiona Agombar continues to describe the rest of the treatment and the outcome.