… health hints for the unwise, dodgy western medicine versus dodgy eastern
Jotting notes in Goa between swims, bike rides and belly turns. Looks like I’ve got my second serious case of wierdness in the stomach, and yes … it was almost certainly the water. After being offered dodgily filtered corporation water by Narasim with no ill effects, I took a few risks with water from coolers during the heat wave that had hit Bangalore early April. Oooops. But this time, I’m going straight for the silver bullet.
The earlier bout of flu that I’d picked up in Bangalore proved that things are a bit different here health-wise. For a start, it proved to be a killer, and had me flattened in bed for the first two days … with lingering effects for more than a week … it saw a bit of a trial between dodgy local medicine and dodgy western medicine.
Warning. No real doctors (or natural healers) were used in the making of this medical drama! In India it is quite easy to get pretty much anything over the counter of a druggist … from antibiotics to medical morphine … also toothbrushes, under the counter condoms, soap, and the latest hair care products. I described my symptoms to him … fever, weakness, pain in kidneys, runny nose etc … and he gave me a three day course of antibiotics plus a mild paracetomol. No problems.
The antibiotics did the trick. I was still a bit frail for the duration, … the last couple of lessons with Narasimhalu were a bit disjointed, though the flu was receding, it was still a bit gnarly, and I was quite distracted. Canceled the last one … and they are always a pickup. But towards the end of the course, and the end of my stay in Bangalore, I was starting to feel on the up. But not quite ready for a big journey, so I opted for relatively nearby Mysore, a 2 and a half hour bus journey in the morning.
Secure and comfortable in room 404 of the Hotel Govardhan, and the anibiotics run out. Okay, I hope I have this licked. Maybe the druggist didn’t quite know what he was on about. Am feeling much better, but still quite tired, and I’m getting morning headaches.
Wandering the streets of Mysore, it is hard not to run into one of the young touts of ‘doctor’ Aram. After wandering the pleasant streets of Mysore for a few days with my health plateu’d, I’m ready for anything that promises a boost to full fitness. I’m coughing up very ugly phlegm and just … not right! I habitually flick off touts these days, but I’ll talk with anybody. The boys of doctor Aram are picking up tourists, mainly younger backpacker who might pick up a bit of bhang. I’m told that he can get ‘anything’. But that he’s also an ‘ayurvedic’ doctor, and they’re training in traditional medicine (Mysore is a bit of a center for Ayurvedics). And also that it’s an insence house (Mysore abounds in one house insence factories with the wife and kids handrolling sandalwood sticks … tourists cannot avoid invitations to these factories where they’ll be sold sticks in abundance). A bit of a lapse in cynicism, and I’m following the kid to the green house.
The green house is at the top end of inner Mysore, near the cathedral. You could easily mistake it for … an insence factory. In fact, the ground floor is … and also the doctor’s surgery. The ‘cafe’ is the second floor, and it looks like it migh have been a hippie amsterdam style grass cafe at some more enlightened and liberal moment. Paintings on the wall … dragons fairies rainbows shivas and oms in a few different hands, maybe within 5 or so years. But now, insence storage, a few chairs and crap from around the house. I’m taken to the top story and chillout talking with the unlikely lads who brough me here … comparing phones mainly. They have medium good phones, by Indian standards. For these teenagers, business is doing ok.
‘Doctor’ Aram arrives eventually. He’s an interesting oddball character but a definite snake oil salesman. He gives me a eucalyptus dipped cigarette. I smoke it have a bit of a rough massage of oils. He reccomends that I smoke grass. I don’t take him up on this at the moment, but walk out with a package of oils, and a secret ayurvedic tonic. Sandalwood, Lotus, and Eucalyptus … at least I was pretty certain that they’re pure oils. But I had to haggle hard to get a price, and even then I presume he came off better. But I’m feeling a touch better, anyway.
I get a few warnings the next day about Aram and his boys. That he’d done a turn in jail for dealing and that many of his boys play both sides … scoring grass for tourists and then springing them to the cops. Not nice. I’d got a very sleazy vibe from most of them and certainly wouldn’t have trusted them, but this puts me out. I fade off the herbal remedy in a fit of embarassment. At least I have some reasonable essential oils. Later in my stay, I meet ‘more ethical’ dealers working ‘legitimate’ cafes … though I’m still up in the air about the real status of grass in Mysore.
To the local hospital then. A major walk, feeling how I feel after two days. Week clogged, confused (I put a bottle of water in my bag without a lid), headaches. Three blocks later, and I find myself in a queue and 125Rs poorer. A cheaper cure and a longer wait. Not quite sure if I’m in the right spot waiting for the right doctor, but as a white person, I stick out, so the nurse/orderly remembers me. I’m ushered in after an hour or so. Okay. So it seems I have clogged sinuses. More paracetomol, a decongestent, and a local cough syrup.
Three days later, my sinuses are clearing, the headaches are going, and I’m just about ready for a spot of light tourism.
The antibiotics did the trick. I was still a bit frail for the duration, … the last couple of lessons with Narasimhalu were a bit disjointed, though the flu was receding, it was still a bit gnarly, and I was quite distracted. Canceled the last one … and they are always a pickup. But towards the end of the course, and the end of my stay in Bangalore, I was starting to feel on the up. But not quite ready for a big journey, so I opted for relatively nearby Mysore, a 2 and a half hour bus journey in the morning.
Secure and comfortable in room 404 of the Hotel Govardhan, and the anibiotics run out. Okay, I hope I have this licked. Maybe the druggist didn’t quite know what he was on about. Am feeling much better, but still quite tired, and I’m getting morning headaches.
Wandering the streets of Mysore, it is hard not to run into one of the young touts of ‘doctor’ Aram. After wandering the pleasant streets of Mysore for a few days with my health plateu’d, I’m ready for anything that promises a boost to full fitness. I’m coughing up very ugly phlegm and just … not right! I habitually flick off touts these days, but I’ll talk with anybody. The boys of doctor Aram are picking up tourists, mainly younger backpacker who might pick up a bit of bhang. I’m told that he can get ‘anything’. But that he’s also an ‘ayurvedic’ doctor, and they’re training in traditional medicine (Mysore is a bit of a center for Ayurvedics). And also that it’s an insence house (Mysore abounds in one house insence factories with the wife and kids handrolling sandalwood sticks … tourists cannot avoid invitations to these factories where they’ll be sold sticks in abundance). A bit of a lapse in cynicism, and I’m following the kid to the green house.
The green house is at the top end of inner Mysore, near the cathedral. You could easily mistake it for … an insence factory. In fact, the ground floor is … and also the doctor’s surgery. The ‘cafe’ is the second floor, and it looks like it migh have been a hippie amsterdam style grass cafe at some more enlightened and liberal moment. Paintings on the wall … dragons fairies rainbows shivas and oms in a few different hands, maybe within 5 or so years. But now, insence storage, a few chairs and crap from around the house. I’m taken to the top story and chillout talking with the unlikely lads who brough me here … comparing phones mainly. They have medium good phones, by Indian standards. For these teenagers, business is doing ok.
‘Doctor’ Aram arrives eventually. He’s an interesting oddball character but a definite snake oil salesman. He gives me a eucalyptus dipped cigarette. I smoke it have a bit of a rough massage of oils. He reccomends that I smoke grass. I don’t take him up on this at the moment, but walk out with a package of oils, and a secret ayurvedic tonic. Sandalwood, Lotus, and Eucalyptus … at least I was pretty certain that they’re pure oils. But I had to haggle hard to get a price, and even then I presume he came off better. But I’m feeling a touch better, anyway.
I get a few warnings the next day about Aram and his boys. That he’d done a turn in jail for dealing and that many of his boys play both sides … scoring grass for tourists and then springing them to the cops. Not nice. I’d got a very sleazy vibe from most of them and certainly wouldn’t have trusted them, but this puts me out. I fade off the herbal remedy in a fit of embarassment. At least I have some reasonable essential oils. Later in my stay, I meet ‘more ethical’ dealers working ‘legitimate’ cafes … though I’m still up in the air about the real status of grass in Mysore.
To the local hospital then. A major walk, feeling how I feel after two days. Week clogged, confused (I put a bottle of water in my bag without a lid), headaches. Three blocks later, and I find myself in a queue and 125Rs poorer. A cheaper cure and a longer wait. Not quite sure if I’m in the right spot waiting for the right doctor, but as a white person, I stick out, so the nurse/orderly remembers me. I’m ushered in after an hour or so. Okay. So it seems I have clogged sinuses. More paracetomol, a decongestent, and a local cough syrup.
Three days later, my sinuses are clearing, the headaches are going, and I’m just about ready for a spot of light tourism.
