karpedayam

[karpedayam]

Day 55: July 15

Another beautiful day!!! 

Kuann and Laura stayed in our room last night, we had a cute little sleepover it was nice. We finally got going around noon or something, so us and Shavano went to find a smoothie place. We got some delicious juice which was probably a little sketch but oh well, it’s like my last day and they did it last week so I just popped an immodium and hoped for the best LOL. 

We all piled into a rickshaw after this and headed for the Devaraja market to the essential oils place! We got some sugar apples which Shavano and Kuann said are super popular in the Bahamas, and then went to Mohammad’s little shop. It was just his little brother Darshan working today which was cute, and he got us chai and we smelled a pile of oils and just relaxed for probably like 2 hours LOL. 

After that we headed to the surrounding streets because Shavano wanted some clothes, and he got some nice fabric to get pants tailored. We walked around a bit and since none of us had eaten we were pretty hungry. We were gonna eat downtown but it’s hard finding a reliable spot so I was like “let’s just go to the Barge” so we did LOL. Kuann, Laura and Shavano hadn’t been there so I mean... they had to experience it. It was fantastic. Comfy couch seats, tons of appetizers, fruity sandys, meat, good music, laughs. Such a perfect afternoon. We bonded a ton over music - Shavano has the exact same taste as Anger and I it was hilarious. 

We got back to the institute and hung out in Shavano’s room just relaxing and listening to music and making jokes. Then we went upstairs and just kinda laid in bed, I started packing. We went down for a light dinner and I caught up with Vanessa and Dustin from Cornell. I’m so glad I got more time to hang with them, they’re so funny and so my kinda people. After that, we just hung out again in Kuann and Laura’s room until like midnight having nice conversations and cracking jokes. Such a low-key day but when you’re with the right people you don’t need to do much. It was just so effortless and fun. 

[karpedayam]

Day 54: July 14

My last day in Sargur ... so bittersweet. I love it here so much. Joanna and I picked some flowers to bring to Prema. She was in the female ward recovering with her baby and her mom, it was so nice to bring her the flowers and wish her well. It’s hard with the language barrier but we wanted to at least do something since we were there with her during such an intimate moment.

Spent the afternoon hanging out with the Panchakarma students in the library. They were working on a project and we were just having fun and exchanging contact info. I’m really going to miss them they’re so sweet. The two girls in the photo, Tejo and Shreedevi are recent Ayurvedic graduates and so cool. I did my presentation about my experience in the morning and they were so excited that I was considering Ayurveda in my career. I just love the people here so much, my heart is so content.

The guy in the selfie is Dr. Manohar our director of academics, he said it was nice having me around this week and that I was always cheerful so that was really sweet. 

Anyway I said my goodbyes and packed, and Shavano and I caught the bus back to Mysore with the University of Michigan students who were visiting Hosahalli, Kenchanahalli and Sargur on a field trip for the day. Had some really fun conversations on the bus, really neat people. Mostly musicians which was cool. They’re going on an Ayurvedic retreat next weekend too, that’d be cool to include in our program I think anyway.

We arrived and Kuann, Laura (who traveled earlier) and Anger were in our room so we hung out and decided we were going to go to By The Way which is a restaurant down the road with some other students. It’s Jeremy’s last night (one of the med students) and he’s super cool. So we went and had an absolutely awesome time. Lots of amazing food, good drinks, laughs. We were there for awhile and walked home and we just bonded so much. We hung out until like 1am or something just laughing and dancing and listening to music. These people are so top notch. I’m happy I got a chance to really hang out with them all since when my MtA group was here we were mostly to-ourselves. This past week has been so wonderful, I’m just so grateful for all these people and this whole learning experience.

[karpedayam]

Day 53: July 13

Today started in a very ... interesting way. Kuann left early to go on the mobile health unit and she latched our door from this outside, so Laura and I were stuck for a bit LOL. I didn’t make it to the hospital in time for rounds, so I decided to check out the labour ward. Sandra and Riya were there and guess what: a woman named Prema just came in and was expected to deliver in an hour!! Speaking things into existence really has a way of working here. I was super excited but also wanted to let Dr. Abhignya know so she wasn’t looking for me, so I went up to the Panchakarma centre where everyone was huddled around the table where Dr. Abhignya was working on the caladium powder, just dipping the wicks in castor oil in preparation for their burning. I talked with the Panchakarma therapy students a lot and learned everyone’s names and they taught me some Kannada and I taught them some German and French and it was cute, they’re so lovely. Madhu started working on wrapping some of the wicks in gauze apparently to make a “herbal cigarette” which is traditionally used. Interesting stuff. 

I went back down to the labour room and waited with Riya and Sandra (pic #4). We talked a lot about their program - it’s 5.5 years and they get no vacation except like 5 days for Christmas. I’d been thinking about studying Ayurveda here but that’s pretty intense, plus I don’t think the BAMS degree is recognized in Canada. Then I asked Sandra about my pulse theories and turns out I was kinda right! It has to do with irregularity and stuff and what’s super cool is it’s also about where the pulse is the strongest. You use your left arm because it has a more direct route from the heart, and place 3 fingers. The one closest to your hand is Vata, then Pitta, then Kapha. So wherever the pulse is the strongest is your Prakurti constitution. So I asked her what mine was and she said Vata/Pitta which is right haha. Cool stuff. 

Nurses were in and out checking on Prema, her water broke (I think). I went upstairs as I was getting kind of impatient and Dr. Abhignya and I went for tea. She’s leaving tonight to go on a hike in the Himalayas called “Valley of Flowers” and it’s just like tons of flowers. Can you imagine? She’s amazing. I want to be her. I wish I didn’t have a plane ticket booked back I would’ve went. Also, Kuann and Laura invited me to go to Thailand in 2 weeks which is what I really wanted and had a feeling would happen which is why I didn’t wanna book a ticket home but oh well. Gotta get home and work! I’m missing home a lot less here though. I truly do love it here. My heart is in too many places. 

Anyway, I went back to the labour room and she was just starting to push! Juliana and Joanna were also there. It was incredible and horrifying. Like I’m still kind of cringing honestly thinking about the procedure, so I guess you could say my OB/GYN pipe dream is going to remain just that. After about a half hour she delivered, and the baby was so limp and not crying when she came out I was so nervous. They hit her on the back a bit and then she started to cry a bit and then I started crying LOL. God I’m emotional. It was AMAZING. It was especially special since it was Joanna’s birthday. We just had so many feelings about the experience I truly don’t have words. I’m glad I did it because now I know it’s not for me. It’s amazing, truly, but I don’t want to be the one behind the mask for the short procedure I want to be the person who supports people along in their lives holistically. I’ve known this since I was like 12 I don’t know why I keep doubting myself. 

 After this we ate lunch (Puri!!!! Yay!!) and we just were on such a high. What an absolutely beautiful day. We talked about music, and Simran joined us and we all played music in school which was neat and talked about how much we love playing in a group. I suggested we start a band LOL. 2 violins, a cello and a clarinet is a good mix right? Haha. 

After lunch, I went back to Panchakarma centre and Dr. Abhignya was there tending to the burning caladium wicks. The setup is really neat, the wicks burn in the oil under a supported clay tile, the ash falls to the ground and then the black material that sticks to the tile is scraped off and used as Caladium for the eyes. So interesting. It was nice just doing that with Dr. Abhignya, the Panchakarma centre is much more my speed, I feel so at home there. I really don’t want to leave. The Panchakarma students came back after their lunch and they sat with me and we talked for awhile. They’re mostly around my age, and they were testing me to see if I remembered names and I remembered Madhu’s and he put his hand on his heart and like “fake fainted” it was funny. He’s always being silly, and he said he’s a yoga teacher and could teach me some and some tricks to be happy which was cute. They left for class and I talked with some of the certified therapists for a bit telling them about Canada and stuff. I had my final facial procedure done by Hassina and we talked a lot during it. She went to university in Bangalore and did a 1-year program afterward about Panchakarma. The students here are in a 6 month program. Honestly, I’d consider doing that if Naturopathy falls through. It’s mostly in English, and I love being in Sargur and the people are so funny and welcoming. So many beautiful things keep happening to me here, it’s incredible like why wouldn’t I want to stay? Hassina is Muslim too which is interesting because I’ve associated Ayurveda so much with Hinduism, but I really don’t think that link is as close as I thought, especially now. 

I found Laura after my procedure as she was waiting for a consultation with Dr. Abhignya and so we had the consultation in the Panchakarma centre. We then talked for the last bit of Dr. Abhignya’s time at the hospital before leaving which was nice. I got to ask most of my questions and she agreed with me about many things but had a lot of new perspective to add too. The combinations of medicines used in Ayurveda, it’s not known why these combinations work butit’s just known that they work together. We talked about the commodifying of alternative medicine as just about herbs (which I’ve seen in research) and how this isn’t fair as it doesn’t take into account the combinations necessary to make everything work and that just because it’s herbal doesn’t mean it’s good - herbs can be toxic too. It’s kind of like that complementary farming idea I learned about from Dr. Vombatkere a few weeks ago - plants growing together support each other and where one fails the other makes up for it; where one herb is toxic an interaction with another one neutralizes it. What’s super interesting is that Dr. Abhignya said practices such as yoga and ayurveda became more popular in India after “the West” became interested in them. She said Indians are very easily influenced as we’ve seen in history, and that even in schools it’s only Western biomedical sciences that are taught - no one learns about Ayurvedic theory and concepts. She talked about how it’s not just about being a doctor, and the broader you start thinking, the better. It’s a hard concept to grasp. 

I asked some more specific questions about the prayer that was said before procedures, and about the idol in the centre that’s always adorned with flowers and candles. It’s Lord Dhanwantari, the lord of medicines. I’ve never heard about this so I’d love to research it more! I told her about wanting to do the Panchakarma program and she said it’d be a good idea to get my naturopathic degree in Canada, and if I think it’s necessary or there are gaps, to then fill it in with Ayurvedic practices. I talked a lot too about not wanting to appropriate and what’s at stake in transferring the tradition to the West in that I feel like a lot of the practice is informed by a specific worldview that we generally might not have in the West. Maybe it’s not that complicated, Dr. Abhignya understood where I was coming from though but said it’s just important to keep the concept in mind - when you ignore that, problems arise. 

Anyways, after this I had some cake for Joanna’s birthday and Laura and I went downtown. I got a nice nose ring and some packaged stuff to make Jamun and Sambar. We came back and I finished my presentation, went to dinner with Ana and Joanna and the power went out during dinner. It was a scary walk back so dark but it was the first time I could see more than 2 stars so that was AWESOME. We got back and had more gourmet dorm room banana splits, and talked a lot about colonialism (surprise) and language. Really cool conversations about the Caribbean specifically in that colonizers adapted specific words from Indigenous languages and they got adopted into Spanish. Also apparently the Bahamas was originally called “Bahamar” which if you think about it, that translates to shallow sea. 

[karpedayam]

Day 52: July 12

First pic is the view outside the door to my hostel, it was looking rather picturesque this morning. 

Rounds were interesting this morning. The doctor in charge, Dr. Prakash, spent a lot more time on the patients and discussed more of their social backgrounds which was interesting. The majority of the men have diabetes related infections in the limbs, and don’t come to the doctor unless it’s really, really bad. Also, family dynamics are hard as many of them are very poor and alcoholics. Dr. Prakash said that family dynamics need to be taken care of, and that without family support there is nothing that can really be done. I would argue that it goes deeper than that. Given what I’ve learned in my courses here, I think it’s definitely a patriarchal and colonial issue. Dr. Abhignya’s research shows that. Tribal, often poor populations are highly affected by alcoholism and we see this in Canada too. Dr. Prakash was very quick to say that all of the health issues relate back to alcoholism - it’s the common thread, but like I said I think it goes deeper. Nobody just decides to be an alcoholic for fun. It’s a very deep-seated issue often rooted in trauma, depression, disenfranchisement etc. Blaming alcohol and alcoholics does nothing productive, but I can understand the families’ frustrations at the same time. It’s a patriarchal issue because men are socialized to not show pain, to not show weakness, to work tirelessly. This combined with poverty is a really tough space to be in and to heal in. 

Anyway, we had a few cases in the special wards which was interesting. One kid has tuberculosis so I didn’t go in the room, I’m pretty sure I’m vaccinated for that but I didn’t want to risk it. I met a really lovely patient who was doing some laps of the ward. She introduced me to her husband and her two-month-old baby named Nithya which was so sweet. 

After this, Dr. Abhignya and I went to see a patient in the special ward. She had a long consultation with her. She was very, very thin only 30kg and said she has a lot of weakness and doesn’t feel like eating. It started when after the birth of her children and her husband left for the military. Dr. Abhignya said it’s likely an issue of depression and anxiety but people don’t generally admit that. I think tomorrow she will be getting some Ayurvedic therapies. 

After this Dr. Abhignya showed me the special project she’s been working on. She showed me a tray of a bunch of rolled up tubes that looked like brown cigarettes. It comes from a plant called Caladium and cotton is dipped in that along with juice made from Bringaraja leaves and nandyavarta flower. It’s then dried in the shade, rolled in milk, dried again, dipped in castor oil, burnt and collected over clay tiles and made hard by adding ghee. It’s a long process but its purpose is really cool. This substance is used in very, very small amounts to brighten the eyes. Dr. Abhignya said she’s had a contained of it the size of her fingertip for about 6 years! Anyway, it’s especially important with newborn babies as they use this substance to dot the cheeks, in between the eyebrows, and over the eyes to take bad omens away, to make the eyes bright and beautiful, and they rub it on the eyebrows so they grow thick. Many bring this powder from the outside, and cheap outside sources of it are  often artificial and not good for newborns. She wanted to start making it so it can be included in the newborn baby care kits. I asked her if patients were asking for it, and she said no because they probably don’t think to ask, but she thinks it’ll be very popular once it’s already included. Anyway I thought it was really cool that she’s doing this. Definitely a huge example of the integrative Ayurvedic-Allopathic medical care here. 

We went for tea after this and had some nice conversations, she’s so easy to talk to. We talked a lot about religion,and I told her about the paper I wrote comparing colonial situations in Canada and India and the impact of the textuality of the traditions in preserving them and she thought that was interesting. She said Hindus have faced so many invasions and conversation efforts, and it truly is amazing how strongly it has endured these thousands of years. She asked about baptism and thanksgiving celebrations too and I told her that most Christians now don’t really practice daily, but mainly just on holidays and things like that, and that the next generation really isn’t religious and many people our age are rejecting institutionalized religion. 

After this, I had my second facial treatment done. Some of the students administered it this time which was really cool, this time it was Shashi and Shivu. It was nice talking with them as we were doing the procedure. I tried to think of some more questions to ask Dr. Abhignya, I was wondering the impact of inhaling the turmeric-rose water, like if that has any effect on the respiratory system and balancing doshas that might contribute to skin conditions. 

After this I went to lunch, and then tried to find Dr. Abhignya but I couldn't, so I went to the library and tried to figure out what I want to do with my life. After getting stuck with that, I looked for some of the Ayurvedic books and decided to read the Charaka Samhita which is kind of like the “canon” of Ayurveda. It was really, really interesting I took a LOT of notes. 

I took a break and went to the labour ward to see if they had any deliveries, and they had just finished a twins delivery so I was really bummed about that. I still have 2 days so fingers crossed! I went to see Dr. Yumna and she said Dr. Abhignya was teaching counselling sessions upstairs, so I just hung out in Dr. Abhignya’s office and tried to consolidate all my questions and observations I wanted to discuss with her. I finally saw her at 5, when it was time to go home, and she said we’ll discuss tomorrow which is good. 

I relaxed most of the evening since I was kind of in a bad mood. I felt like I didn’t really do much, and my pipe-dream-career-plans I don’t think will realistically work as well as I’d imagined so that kind of sucks. Apparently it’s very difficult to transfer doctor licenses from USA to Canada, and OB/GYN residencies are of the most brutal you can do, and you only have like a 5-10% chance of getting a residency in Canada if you have an international medical school degree. Also I can’t be an osteopath trained in Canada because it requires a Kinesiology degree or to be already be employed healthcare system. Maybe I could do it after naturopathy? Idk. Also Joti told me I have to do a presentation on Saturday about my experience so I’m not overly thrilled about that, but at the same time it’ll be good to reflect on everything and to share my gratitude to everyone here for the experience. On the plus side, I get to go back to Mysore on Saturday instead of on Monday so I can spend the weekend with Anger, and Laura and Kuann are going to come too! So exciting. 

I met up with Joanna and went to dinner, and it seems like everyone kinda had a bad day. She’s also super confused about what she wants to do with her life, and we relate a lot about not wanting to be in tertiary care but that we want to really work with patients and treat people holistically. Anyway, I’ve got 2 more days and lots more conversations to have, and things to observe!

PS most of after-supper time was spent in our room making the ~gourmet~ banana splits pictured above and playing Trivia Crack lol. I got the question pictured above! It relates to a religious studies course I took this spring which I thought was funny. John if you’re reading this I hope you’re proud, it was Gandhi right? hahaha. 

[karpedayam]

Day 51: July 11

Woke up and didn’t feel so great so just decided to stay in bed and catch up on these posts. Also I wasn’t super gung-ho to do rounds, and there was some talk about me going to Hosahalli for the school medical check ups and I didn’t really want to do that LOL. 

I went to the hospital around 10 because Laura was getting an Ayurvedic facial and I wanted to observe it. I went up to the Ayurvedic PanchaKarma centre and they weren’t busy with patients so I decided to get one done as well since my mentor Dr. Abhignya was in Kenchanahalli, so I couldn’t do anything with her anyway. Ayurvedic facials are a form of experiential learning right? Laura’s consultation was first and Dr. Yumna was our doctor. She asked about our appetite, sleep, skin, and she took our pulses. She also asked to see our tongues. What’s really cool is how much she can gauge from our pulses. Seconds after she put her hand on my wrist she said “you have a short temper don’t you” and I laughed and I was like ….. yup LOL. She said I was hyperactive, had a heated body, emotional, short-tempered and prone to mood swings. Wow. Like this is way too accurate LOL. From Laura’s pulse she said she kept a lot of things to herself, was patient and strong but sometimes irritable. Laura said that was really accurate to herself. Anyway I told her all about my skin issues and so she prescribed a certain set of procedures that I’ll do the next 3 days to help my skin.

Hasina was the Ayurvedic therapist who administered my treatment. A bunch of the Ayurvedic therapy students were also in the room as they were yesterday to observe which was really cool, and interesting to experience from the other side. You do kinda feel like a subject of study but they’re all really nice and I’m glad they can learn through observing it. It started with a face massage with medicated oils and it was honestly incredible. She followed the lines of my face and I could feel how the energy moves around, and even at certain points (like under my ear and jaw) I could feel it down my spine. Then I steamed my face with water with turmeric and freshly picked rose petals (pictured above). Like imagine just being able to prepare fresh natural medicines for people, what a concept. It was pretty claustrophobic under the towel but afterward I felt AMAZING. Like. I’m definitely gonna do that at home. I dried off after this and they applied various face-packs, just a paste mixture of various herbs which ended in a facial mask. They left me alone for ten minutes for it to dry, I was hoping someone would stay with me to talk since they had something over my eyes to keep them closed. It was really interesting not knowing what was going on, not even knowing the colour of what they were putting on my face. Then I got to thinking that maybe this quiet time was an intentional part of the practice since we rarely get time like that completely to ourselves. Usually when our eyes are closed we’re trying to sleep. Our yoga instructor always said to close our eyes as it conserves energy and allows you to focus. I’ll have to ask Dr. Abhignya about this. So anyway, I thought a lot in the quiet time trying to hypothesize how she figured things out about our pulses so accurately. I think it has to do with how much our pulse is influenced as we’re talking and interacting with people around us. As she was taking them we were talking and stuff, so maybe if mine was irregular and this coincided with when people were talking it might indicate that I’m influenced by this and thus might be more likely to be emotional/responsive/angry etc. Maybe if Laura’s stayed more steady, this means she doesn’t let stuff affect her as much. Again, something I’ll have to ask my mentor. After a bit, Laura came in and sat with me as her procedure ended sooner. That was nice. After what felt like forever, I washed everything off and it honestly felt amazing. Both Laura and I felt like at another level, it wasn’t just about our facials but our whole headspace and body felt lighter, like my brain was levitating above my head or something LOL. Anyway, evidently going through this procedure actually allowed me to think of new questions pertaining to the practice of Ayurveda so it was definitely worthwhile. Plus my three days of treatments only came to $10 total. Absolutely wild.

I ate lunch with Riya and Sandra and they told me they witnessed a C-Section birth this morning. Definitely having some regrets about not getting up for rounds, but I also learned cool stuff with what I did today so I’ll just hope I see some kind of birth this week. After lunch I saw Sindhu which was really nice, and Dr. Abighnya was back so I talked to her for a bit. She told me a special procedure would be going on tomorrow that I will get to observe so that’s super exciting. I spent some time in the library going over some of my research about Ayurveda to ask more questions, and then the Allegheny students arrived and so I caught up with them as they were doing their presentations about their two-month internships and projects with SVYM. They’ve really done some incredible work, I wish I could have stayed longer and really finessed a cool project but I’m happy to just be here and enjoying the knowledge-sharing experience. I already did three courses, so I can’t do everything.

After this we went with some of the local medical students and Cornell students to play some badminton and volleyball as it’s Mythri and Kirthana’s last day here. We played music and had fun it was really nice, and I tried to teach Laura to braid my hair but it just wasn’t happening LOL. I had dinner with Ana and Joanna, and Ana was talking about her experience in medical school and Joanna was talking about how she’s considering being a DO now too which is cool. I hung out with Ana and Shavano in our study room for a bit and we talked about all the projects everyone was doing. I feel kinda bad since I don’t have a project that’s really helping anyone but I get in my own way a lot with that narrative because I hate the idea of foreigners coming to a country and “helping”, but evidently the Allegheny students were able to do some cool stuff so idk. Those politics are hard to navigate. Tonight, I’ve just been hanging with Kuann and Laura. We were on the phone with Anger for a bit which was nice. We’re just playing Trivia Crack LOL.

[karpedayam]

July 10: Day 50

Today started with breakfast with a family originally from Bangalore but who now live in England. Dr. Amar is a surgeon, and he’s here with his wife Joti and daughter Naranya (I think). They’re really sweet.

I joined in on morning rounds with the medical students and Cornell students. I don’t really like rounds. It feels very dehumanizing and I just can’t get on board with that. After we visited each patient I tried to smile and say “Namaskara” which is the traditional greeting here; I know I can’t do much here not speaking the language and not being a medical professional but I can at least act like a compassionate human being. There is so much going on in these people’s lives and I know how awful it can be in a hospital setting where you’re treated as a case and not a person. I think it’s important to bridge that “us vs. them” gap, otherwise it just looks like foreigners using people to gain medical knowledge. I never want that to be what I do.

After this, I spent some time with Dr. Abhignya. She brought me upstairs to the Ayurvedic wing where there was a procedure going on for pain relief. Frying Datura leaves in oil and applying them to the skin, and heating a metal coin in this oil as well and wrapping it in a Datura leaf and placing it on the muscle pain. This heating is meant to encourage blood circulation and thus decrease pain. I then spent some time with the Ayurvedic therapy students who were practicing procedures on each other. Dr. Yumna was leading this, she’s really cool. The first pictures shows Shiro-Basti which is when you tie gauze around the head and cover with a paste, then paste a wall-like “tiara” structure around the head which is meant to hold warm oil and help with insomnia, anxiety and neurological disorders. The next one they did was Shiro-Lapana where a paste is applied to the scalp, then a small circular wall is created where the crown chakra would be on top of the head to hold warm oil, and a Datura leaf is placed over top. This is meant to endure sound sleep, and help with any scalp issues such as dandruff. She also said that keeping this part of the body warm will keep the rest of the body warm as it’s where the chakras all originate and go into the body. It’s all about stimulating nerves and blood circulation. I talked to Dr. Abhignya about chakras and she said it’s all kind of interconnected with Ayurveda.

While I was observing I met two girls who are students in the neighbouring state Kerala at the Ayurvedic college named Riya and Sandra. They’re super nice. We talked a lot about what their college is like and they had to take sanskrit classes and everything is taught in English so like man... I could technically do that. They said the only foreign student they had was a guy from Italy named Leo lol but they were excited to meet me it was great. They’re also interested in observing births so they said they’d let me know if they know of one going on!      

We then spent some time seeing patients and she explained to me afterward what she was prescribing and about the patient’s history. A really interesting patient came in who was 14 years old, and he had had viral hepatitis and jaundice. Dr. Abhignya explained that Ayurveda is especially beneficial for the liver as liver diuretics increase Agni. Pitta is mainly generated in the liver, and therefore this boy was given tablets to reduce Pitta in the liver. Liver enzymes went from 130 and 220 to 66 and 146 respectively. Also, in a scan the liver was significantly reduced in size. He was on a strict diet that contributes to reducing Pitta as well so it was really interesting to see how this treatment actually worked.

I went back upstairs to observe one of the patients we saw getting a procedure called “Pastya” which is to help migraines. It started with what I think was a prayer, then a face massage with medicated oil, then inhaling steam from boiling turmeric and other things in water under a towel, then dropping ghee in the nostrils and inhaling and spitting it out. After this I had lunch and talked with Kuann and Laura for a bit, then went back to see Dr. Abhignya as she was working on the abstract for her research. She was supposed to present it at 3 and I was actually able to help her write it and make some conclusions about the data that was collected which was really cool!

I went upstairs as Anger was visiting with her professor from Iowa and a friend of theirs from their program named Gina who’s been studying in Bangalore for the summer. We had a lot of nice conversations together. I was talking to Dr. Mina, their professor from Iowa, and turns out I know her daughter’s best friend as she went to Mount Allison for 2 years! Small world!

We all went to tea in the afternoon and had this dessert called Mangalore Bonda which was DELICIOUS. We got invited to the Doctor’s potluck being held at the next-door school that evening so after touring the school again I went back home to get ready.

Laura was hanging out with 2 doctors, Mythri and Kirthana so I went to their room to hang with them too as we got ready. We had snacks (Kodubale and Milk Peda) and laughs it was fun.

The potluck was also (mostly) fun. We played pictionary and sharades and had a really awesome meal. As we were eating, one of the Cornell girls was talking about how Ellen Degeneres was an example of a “non-problematic white woman” and I said that wasn’t true because she’s very supportive of PETA and the Anti-Sealing propaganda which is really hurting Inuit communities. The argument really escalated and apparently I was being “a bit aggressive” but she really was not getting what I was saying and was claiming that “sometimes people lose their jobs for the betterment of the environment like when we stopped coal mining”. She didn’t get that it actually isn’t an environmental issue, seal populations are higher than ever it’s just the mainstream media that makes it seem like an environmental issue. She advocated for an intersectional middle ground where we protect the environment and Inuit populations but she didn’t get that that wasn’t the point at all. 80% of commercial seal hunting is done by Indigenous populations. This isn’t an environmental issue we need to be concerned about. Anyway it fizzled but I was still mad and she looked upset so I went and talked to her and apologized if I “invalidated her degree” or whatever and we had a better discussion about how there are SO MANY MORE THINGS AT STAKE IN THIS than the coal mining industry. I think she finally got it.

Anyway Laura and I left because I was still kind of mad honestly. It sucks how devalued anything outside the mainstream media and knowledge system is, and it sucks being labeled as “aggressive” simply for defending my opinion. Like I was literally telling her my source is from my best friend who is Inuit and a documentary that was made from an Inuit perspective, and that’s not something that will ever be taught in America or prioritized by American media. Anyway, Laura, Kuann and I talked about this a lot when I got back home since they actually understood what I was trying to say and we talked for hours about a million different things. We talked about religion, and identity and knowledge systems and what we all believed it was SO cool. I could never summarize everything but Kuann did say something which I thought was really neat: “the concept of God is to tangibilize the energy that exists between us”. I really think that’s cool because she just believes in the energy in things and that God is everything around us and thus we should treat everything with respect and I really like that. God is the cycle of the ecosystem. Laura also mentioned something so cool about Indigenous knowledge in Mexico (Aztec). Coatlicue is the original goddess who represented female sexuality, birth, fertility etc. and she’s known as “the one with the skirt of serpents”. This is really interesting when you think about Adam and Eve and how Christianity demonizes the snake. Also, Laura mentioned that the Mexican flag has an eagle with a snake in its mouth and like that is an insanely powerful image: colonial Mexico represents the death of Indigenous spirituality. I’ve definitely questioned my Christianity a lot given all of this stuff I’ve been learning here, I definitely know there is something though and I know Christians do good work and it’ll always be important to me. We talked about death too and how much it’s dreaded in our culture, and Kuann talked about how she wanted her funeral to be a celeration. I told them about Uncle Cameron’s celebration of life and piping down the streets of Toronto and I just love that kind of energy to celebrate a life. That’s what it should be about. Like it’s going to be sad no matter what, might as well not make it sadder. Anyway I’m so happy I’m here with people like Kuann and Laura, and that we get to learn so much from each other and have these kinds of discussions so often and so easily.

[karpedayam]

July 9: Day 49

Today was the most incredible day. It didn’t start so incredible as I slept through Dr. Rehka’s phone-calls telling me that we were leaving for Sargur early, but the medical students slept in too LOL. We got on the road around 9 which was good. The drive was so beautiful, I’m excited to be in a more rural place with fresh air and less noise. I was also feeling so excited and in disbelief that I’m lucky enough to have an opportunity to shadow Ayurvedic doctors. I still remember when Aunt Mary gave me the book about Ayurveda when I was like 12 years old, and now here I am almost 10 years later getting to fulfill this passion of mine it’s so humbling. I thought a lot today about the people who’ve supported me over the years, and my incredible professors at Mount Allison who have done the absolute most to help. I’m truly blessed. I have so much love for the Religious Studies department and everything this degree and my professors have given me. I’ve talked about coming to India and doing this kind of thing forever and I just can’t believe it’s really happening.

Anyway, we got to Sargur to our hostel and luckily my friend Laura from Iowa requested that I room with her and Kuann (they’re best friends with Anger so this works PERFECTLY). After resting and unpacking, Kuann and I went to lunch and then I met with Dr. Monhar who’s in charge of us and our academics to talk about what I wanted to do. I’ll mostly be shadowing Dr. Abhingya, an Ayurvedic doctor in patient consultations, procedures, and talking with her about specific questions and learning about the theory and history of Ayurveda. Dr. Monahar said I could also observe in the OB/GYN ward and maybe even some live births which would be AMAZING.

I met with Dr. Abhignya in the afternoon and we ended up having several hours of conversation; it was incredible. She asked me what I knew about Ayurveda and how I got interested in it, and then we talked about its history. Apparently Buddhism has a really violent history and tried to wipe out the traditional Vedic knowledge through burning libraries and things like that. Knowledge was stolen to China/Tibet which is why they’re so similar to Ayurveda (I’ve written about this in classes before but this violence was never emphasized. The narrative is very much “this knowledge traveled along the Silk Road” and I can’t believe I never questioned the passivity of that statement. It’s interesting because this same kind of non-violent narrative is what we see in museums/textbooks about colonial Canada when we know in reality it certainly wasn’t non-violent i.e. at the Museum of History in Ottawa there was this narrative of “Indigenous peoples faced issues such as smallpox” and it’s like ... yeah because it was intentionally and violently done to wipe them out!).

ANYWAY, I’ve read some scholarly debates about Ayurveda’s Vedic origins. Some scholars say it didn’t necessarily exist in Vedic times as we know it today: that reaching for roots in the Vedas (i.e. in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda) isn’t necessarily accurate nor does it mean that Ayurveda as a practice is that old. Some scholars then claim that it was finessed much later as “Ayurveda” but claimed Vedic origins to validate itself and thus these were later Brahmanical additions. I think the latter is partially true but it goes a bit deeper in light of what Dr. Abhignya told me. If the tradition was being threatened people would necessarily try to preserve it through writing etc. This got us on the topic of different knowledge systems. We know lots of traditional indigenous cultures were oral-based, so why would you write something down if it’s not being threatened? Why would you try to categorize the practice Ayurveda if it’s just part of the natural harmonious way of life you live? So perhaps it was finessed and categorized as “Ayurveda” at the time when it was threatened by Buddhists etc. but that doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t Ayurveda before that, it was just different priorities in different knowledge systems. It would make sense that the tradition became more distinct and efforts would be made to connect it to its Vedic history if the tradition was being threatened in order to safeguard, validate, and preserve it. But just because these Vedic ties might be later additions doesn’t mean they’re false, it could just mean that in a non-threatened knowledge system validating the tradition might not have been a priority. Textual authority is always so necessary to validate things in our dominant knowledge system and it clashes so much with Indigenous knowledge systems.

This also relates to research Dr. Abhignya has been doing in tribal communities nearby at Kenchanahalli (the place with the Ayurvedic garden - they’ve been holding alcohol-abstinence camps for tribal members). They have implemented an integrated approach to healing alcohol addiction through Ayurvedic and allopathic therapies but she’s been frustrated as it’s hard to accurately represent the work being done through statistics. Statistics are about generalizations and they are part of the scientific Western knowledge system and therefore they won’t accurately represent a knowledge system which is founded on treating people as individuals and not making generalizations. The whole point of Ayurveda is that it doesn’t fit within this knowledge system. This reminded me a lot of efforts in Canada in Indigenous communities reviving spirituality and traditional medical practices to address these issues, so we talked about that for awhile. She was very interested in this and she really wants our experience this week to be about knowledge sharing which I think is really cool. She’s interested about not only Indigenous history and practices in Canada, but also about how the West perceives Ayurveda so I think it’ll be a really interesting week learning from each other. I also told her about the Ayurvedic cookbook I made for my Hinduism course this spring and she was really excited about it! She said it might be useful to her and her patients to provide more food suggestions.

Anyway, I went back to my room and Kuann, Laura and I had some interesting conversations as usual. We did this exercise where in a minute you complete the sentence “I am ___” with as many descriptors as you can think about yourself. It was an exercise that has shown the impact of identity in that most of the time, white/heterosexual/cisgender etc. people don’t write those labels, but if you’re from a community that has been disenfranchised/oppressed, you’re more likely to write those descriptors as your race/ethnicity/sexuality etc. has been called into question and made political more often. I thought this was really interesting. It has a lot to do with identity as well because this applies if you come from a distinct place, for example I put “Cape Bretoner” because that is a very distinct identity. Shavano also joined us so that was nice, we all talked for a long time about political stuff. Shavano and Kuann are from the Bahamas, Laura’s parents are Mexican immigrants, and my dad is an immigrant so it’s cool to be able to talk about this kind of stuff together since we all have such unique backgrounds.  

Really enjoying the food here, it’s more simple than in Mysore but really tasty.

[karpedayam]

Day 47 & 48: Goodbyes and Spontaneous Shopping Fun: July 7&8

Saturday was a hard day as we said goodbye to the rest of the Mount Allison group as they’re headed to Delhi for a few days before flying home. Everyone came out to send them off and it was sad, but I couldn’t help but feel so grateful to have shared this whole experience with them. It’s so rare that you can bring together a group of people who don’t know each other and have us all get along so well and truly grow to be best friends. (In the first pic that’s Annie, me, Mary, Julia and Saku).

I think I spent most of the day relaxing and napping. I talked to Dr. Rehka and we organized my trip to Sargur on Monday to shadow at the hospital which is exciting! I’ll be traveling there with 2 medical students from the University of Florida, Shavano and Ana.

That evening, Jevon, Rachel, Reghan, Anger, Jeremy, Alaina and I went to the Barge one last time (or so I thought LOL). We had lots of tasty food: nachos, carbonara, and chocolate mousse (our waiter said it was international chocolate day so how could we say no??). And of course maybe some beer haha. We had a really nice night together; lots of laughs and stories. Everyone is so top notch I never expected to make such good friends here.

On Sunday, Anger and I went to the Barge for lunch since we missed breakfast and didn’t want to wait for the late hostel lunch. They’re getting pretty used to seeing us at this point LOL. We sat on the patio and there was jazz music playing and a nice breeze and it was honestly just perfect. We had fries in a nice chili sauce. Then Reghan joined us for some shopping in the afternoon!

We first went to the Cauvery Emporium which is a really awesome gift shop with really nice local products. Then we walked down the street to the Devaraja market which is like the inner city open air market and it was AMAZING. Fruits piled so high, spices, colors, it was so cool. We went in to this guy Mohammed’s shop (the guy in the selfie pic) who’s family has made essential oils for like 70 years. We sat down and we were totally pampered we got to try all them and he got us Chai and it was so awesome. I also got to try out these cool powdered paints that when you add water they become watercolour and body paints. After this we walked around the city for a bit trying to find Sapna book store. We ran into this guy who had this HUGE thing full of balloons and we asked to take his picture, and then I think his dad came outside and said it was for a naming ceremony and he got this fruit juice from in his house and asked us if we wanted some to participate in the celebration so we joined in it was so cute. I mean probably not the best idea to take juice from random people but idk, it seemed like a nice gesture. Anyway we found the bookstore and spent a lot of time in there looking at medical books especially. I love that place.

I also had some really interesting discussions with Anger and Reghan about what we want to do with our lives this weekend. Everyone and their dog knows I want to be a Naturopath and I’ve wanted to for literally forever. EXCEPT apparently there’s this thing called a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine that’s really popular in the states and it’s like a mix of naturopathic medicine and regular medicine. You get paid the same as a medical doctor and are recognized as such, and still write the MCAT, but it addresses a lot more the various social determinants that affect health and is a much more holistic model. Anyway there’s a program for it at the University of Arizona and you can do placements in Hawaii which work with tribal medicine and allopathic medicine and that sounds INCREDIBLE. Also, it’s always kind of been a pipe dream of mine to be an OB/GYN but I knew I didn’t wanna be confined by the conventional medical institution so I let it go but now like .... it could happen. I feel like I limit myself a lot, like I could do it, and I’m really thinking about it. The salary is damn nice too and DO degrees are recognized in many countries which is neat. Anyway.... something to think about I guess. I can’t write the MCAT this year anyway since the latest date I could write is September 19 and that’s definitely not enough time to study, so I have some time to think. Exciting stuff! 

[karpedayam]

Days 42-46: Paper Writing and Dancing! - July 2-6

This week was filled with a lot of writing for my three courses. I had 3 research papers to write, 1 take-home exam and an in-class exam. I think everything went quite well, but it was definitely a tiring week! 

We had our last cooking class on Wednesday the 4th, we made 2 types of Gobi Manchurian. It’s kind of like that new trend of Cauliflower Wings but more flavourful. We made a batch which you deep-fry, then fry in a sauce, and a batch where you coat them in the seasonings and then fry. Both were fantastic. 

On Friday, everything was submitted by 1:30 so I spent the afternoon relaxing. We had a meeting with Dr. Rehka and she gave us these beautiful mugs with a picture from our Orientation on them, so so sweet. That evening we had our final cultural event which was traditional dancing and it was so cool. Normally the dance lasts about 4 hours as it tells the story of the entire epic called the “Ramayana” which is one of the great Hindu epics. They condensed their performance to 1 hour for us. There was a live band and they were so in sync with the dancers it was really amazing. Their facial expressions were coordinated too and there were short bursts where they would dance kind of similarly to step-dancing which was really cool. 

That evening, many of us were packing as the rest of the Mount Allison students leave Saturday morning for Delhi, but Rachel, Reghan, Annie, Saku, Jevon, and I went to the Barge for a final hurrah. We had some Fruity Sandy’s and lots of laughs. I’m really going to miss these moments together.

[karpedayam]

July 1: Palaces & Zoo - Day 41 

 Our faculty advisor organized an excursion for us today to Tipu Sultan’s summer palace, the Mysore Zoo, and for the Mysore Palace illumination. The illumination happens every Sunday with 50,000+ bulbs! On the way back to the hostel we sang O Canada LOL. It was really cute but I always feel conflicted about it since our national pride is necessarily colonial so it’s hard to be proud of a nation that has been built on cultural genocide. At the same time, I was looking at my photos of Cape Breton and feeling really grateful to live in such a beautiful part of the world. My heart is really longing for the ocean at this point! Anyway, Canada’s great for a lot of reasons and people have done wonderful things but there’s still lots more we need to do. It’s good to be grateful but not ignorantly so. It’s one thing to celebrate our “diversity” and “inclusivity” but another to actually ensure that that inclusivity is active. 

[karpedayam]

July 5

Hi guys! Busy week this week with exams and writing papers I of course saved for the last minute LOL. Will update on the weekend! 

[karpedayam]

Day 40: Back in Mysore & First Goodbyes - June 30

At around 8am, we got back to our hostel in Mysore. It felt really great to be back. I unpacked and got myself settled in the morning and just relaxed for a bit. We had lunch together, and then napped in the afternoon LOL. Was feeling very tired from the whole week and all the excitement. Woke up in time to watch the sunset with Anger which was nice. 

In the evening we hung out with some of the MDM students, Nitu was leaving in the morning and so was Aishwarya (in white). We became good friends, she’s really great, so we had fun having snacks and girl talk all together for her last night. It sucks having to say goodbye. From the left that’s Reghan (from Utah), Julia (MtA), Aishwarya, me (duh), Rachel (Allegheny College), Annie (Dal) and Mary.

Had trouble sleeping that night since I napped so long LOL. 

[karpedayam]

Day 39: Last Day of our Week-Long Trip! - June 29

We woke up feeling quite well! We had breakfast and packed up our stuff as today is our last day. We visited a few more sites in the morning including the Queen’s Bath and a large excavation site called the King’s Audience Hall (pics to come - my friends took nice pictures on their cameras). There were tons of beautiful butterflies on the grounds. We also visited another temple which depicts many scenes really vividly from the Ramayana and Mahabarata, the two main epics in Hinduism. As we got back to the hotel around noon, the wedding procession was just starting. There were drums and trumpets and tons of music and dancing it was AMAZING. We mingled and danced and had a great time enjoying the celebration. Unfortunately, despite being invited many times, we couldn’t attend the ceremony and the meal as we had to eat quickly and depart for Hubli Train Station. 

On the way to Hubli we stopped at a beautiful dam. We went on a bus up the mountain with a beautiful view and a lighthouse-looking structure. It was really nice to be by a body of water and listen to waves (even if it was brown and garbage-filled lol). I could listen to that all day. Really missing being oceanside in Cape Breton. 

I was kind of cranky most of this day honestly LOL. Was just exhausted from the week and looking forward to being settled on the train. We eventually got there after saying goodbye to our incredible tour guide. We were so lucky to have him with us, he’s an incredible scholar and had such a great sense of humour. 

We finally got on the train - we had to run as Dharmesha was having trouble finding our car, but we got on and got settled and it was nice. Didn’t sleep as well this time but it was still good. 

[karpedayam]

Day 38: Getting the dance party started!😂 - June 28

[karpedayam]

Day 38: Probably the Best Day EVER - June 28

This day was absolutely incredible. It started with a beautiful buffet breakfast and fried potatoes!!!! Then we set off to a temple in Hampi called Virupaksha Temple (dedicated to Shiva) which had really beautiful ceilings. Lots of monkeys and baby monkeys, one even stole flowers from a woman’s hair. I would’ve been so horrified. The best part about this temple was that we walked a bit past it to the river and there was AN ELEPHANT IN THE RIVER. There was a small group of men bathing him and giving him a nice scrub, so we went down to the river to get a good look at him. SO SWEET. What’s even better was that as we were leaving the elephant stood up and he started bathing the men with his trunk. That was probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Apparently he’s the temple elephant named Lakshmi. God we’re blessed. 

The next destination was to a big monument to Ganesha. This was so special, I was so in awe of the size and how much this must mean to people. It’s amazing how much effort has gone into creating these extravagant monuments. It really makes me believe there is more going on in this world, obviously people at this time believed so and have for thousands of years. So significant. This Ganesha is called the Kadalekalu Ganesha temple, and the other Sasikevala (Mustard Seed) Ganesha temple from around 1500AD. 

After this we went to the Vittala Temple complex which has pillars which produce musical sounds, and is well known for its chariot structure in the front.  This is a prominent symbol of Karnataka tourism. It was fun, to get to this we took a bus-golf cart. There was also a man out front carving from rocks who was selling gorgeous carvings, I got a few nice gifts here. 

Finally, we went to the Lotus Mahal, which was the queen’s summer palace. 

After this long day, you’d think we’d be tired, and we were. We did this all from 8-2. During the afternoon, we went to lunch. We had Singapore style noodles which were incredible, they do something really neat with the onions, I don’t know what but they were crazy good. After this we went out to the town to explore and shop a bit. We laughed a lot and found some nice little trinket stores. As we got back to the hotel, we visited the shops in the hotel and found an incredible jewelry store. I asked if he had peridot, my birthstone, and he finally found a beautiful silver ring with a bunch of small peridot stones. I got that with some beautiful Kashmir Pashmina’s he had on clearance which I thought would make nice gifts. Apparently they’re expensive to get in Canada so SCORE on finding this sale. We also went to a tapestry store in which the man’s grandmother had hand stitched all of them, they are super old and absolutely stunning. I’ve been looking for a not-mass-produced tapestry like this to bring home and brighten up my apartment so I was absolutely in love. The one I got is pictured in my next post. 

As if that’s not enough for this day, we had a beautiful dinner with beer and shots in preparation for the wedding reception we were invited to! We were feeling pretty good as we walked in LOL and we were met with lots of welcomes and invitations to eat the plethora of food. Had some amazing desserts called Jamun (like a top notch timbit in sauce) and this diamond shaped dessert that had literal silver leaf on it. Apparently this wedding cost $600,000CAD - can you imagine!!! Anyways we kept meeting people and having fun conversations and we met the bride and groom who were sitting on a throne type thing watching the amazing Bollywood singers perform. We met some people who we were showing Canadian money too and a bunch of kids, and they were just buying our cash off of us which was really funny. No need for an ATM! 

Somehow we got invited to dance on the stage, I felt kind of bad because we were kind of being the centre of attention and if I was the bride I’d be PISSED but also everyone was super reassuring that we weren’t ruining anything and that everyone was happy to meet us so to hell with it, we just focused on having fun. Annie, who’s super into Bollywood stuff, agreed with us to dance on the stage and hooked up her phone with one of her favourite songs. Mary and I followed her moves on the stage LOL we had no idea what we were doing, I wasn’t going to do it since I hate performing so much but I mean like, when in India you gotta do it! Anyway, after a bit of our ridiculous dancing people started coming on stage with us dancing and as soon as we knew it it was a full on dance party. It was WILD! We literally crashed a wedding started the party LOL! Even the bride and groom left their designated place and came and danced with us. We tried leaving a few times because we noticed some wives on the sidelines who didn’t look too impressed with their husbands paying attention to us (oopsie) but also lots of women were dancing with us too so we just tried to stick with them. It was one of the best times I’ve had in my life honestly. Such beautiful people here I can’t believe I ever got this lucky. 

We finally left around midnight and got back to our hotel room. Luckily I had some rehydrating salts on me so we all took those so we wouldn’t be too tired/dehydrated from all the dancing LOL. A video of our dancing is to follow. Anyway, this was easily one of the best days I’ve had not only in India, but ever. 

[karpedayam]

Day 37: Gol Gumbaz Whisper Wall

[karpedayam]

Day 37: Gol Gumbaz & Trip to Hospet - June 27

We woke up very early to go to Gol Gumbaz, which is an ENORMOUS mausoleum dome: 18000 square feet! Even at 6am there were tons of people there, obviously a very important site. We climbed up several flights of very high spiral stairs which was crazy, and got to the top to see an incredible view of the city. We went to the inside of the dome which has the most insane acoustics I’ve ever experienced. If you whisper on one side you can hear it on the other and it echoes like crazy. It was so so so cool, it kind of felt like being in a horror movie because that’s the kind of effect they do. I’ll post a video of it after this post. 

After this we had a quick breakfast at the hotel and set off for Hospet, our final destination! Upon arriving at the hotel, we were very pleasantly surprised. Another wedding was set up! And they greeted us with watermelon/cucumber juice! So fancy. Especially in comparison to the Bijapur hotel which wasn’t exactly superb. We relaxed for a bit, then went down to have some lunch - they had pesto on the menu!!!! Had that and a really nice iced mint tea, and then we explored around and found the pool. We were going to go in but they were setting up for the wedding so we decided not to. I stayed in to relax a bit while the girls went out, and they met the father of the groom and had tea with him. Apparently he’s a very important guy from Rajasthan and they had to touch his toe to show that. Anyways WE GOT INVITED TO ANOTHER WEDDING! How crazy is that! 

We had a nice dinner at the hotel restaurant across the road, I ordered Mutton Vindaloo which apparently is one of the spiciest things you can order (oopsie). I also got a Bloody Mary because it was the closest thing I’ve had to a Caesar in weeks, and it tasted like straight clam juice which was interesting but I drank it anyway LOL. I miss seafood.