WHAT is good for the Prime Minister of India, is good for me. Amazed at the change in Atal Behari Vajpayee after he underwent a course of herbal massage and ayurvedic food at the Taj Ayurveda Centre in Kerala, I undertook the cure myself. I even got the same masseur who worked on Mr. Vajpayee to use his soft, podgy hands on my stressed out body. And the oil massages and vegetarian food made a new man of me, almost. Both Mr. Vajpayee and I are still pretty fizzy months after taking the cure.

Anybody who�s got a week in hand and is looking for a break, should go to the Taj Ayurveda Centre. It�s like a holistic holiday. A change of scene with a health package thrown in. And with the benefits of ayurveda. An ancient Indian system of medicine that operates in tune with nature. Its healing techniques, unlike modern medicine, believe in treating the individual rather than the disease. For which a complete understanding of the individual�s body, mind and spirit is necessary. And also his psychological, dietary, behavioural and environmental background.

Good news is that the cure is available at Calicut in Kerala, at the Taj Residency. This is a small, but luxurious, business hotel in which the Taj Ayurveda Centre is located. The Centre is managed by the Ayushman Ayurvedic Trust, one of the premier ayurveda institutions of the country; and its Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, which makes all the herbal medicines and ayurvedic oils for the rejuvenative and curative treatments. Guests come to the Taj Residency like patients to a hospital. Tired and jaded. And they leave like they have won the jackpot on Kaun Banega Crorepati!

When I was there, also taking the cure were faces I recognised. Flaked out film stars who didn�t have the time to go to spas abroad for such curative programmes. Captains of industry who were looking for a holiday and also to reprogramme their burnt out bodies and minds. Socialites who wanted to talk about the Taj Ayurveda Centre and also slyly see who else was there. Entire royal families from the sheikhdoms of the Gulf. Foreign travel writers and health experts. Victims of ailments like rheumatoid arthritis, migraine, spondylitis, sciatica, nervous disorders, paralysis and lower back pain.

I took an Indian Airlines flight to Calicut and from there, a car to the Taj Residency. The drive is 26-km, it takes 40 minutes, and is fairly spectacular. Picturesque townships of Kerala�s Moplah community flash by. They are Malabar Muslims with ethnic, Arab roots. The men wear white turbans like Arabs in a sandstorm. And the women hide behind purdah. Small mosques of Southern architecture standing beneath coconut trees. Then Calicut city. A coastal road past a quaint little lighthouse, and there was the Taj Residency on five acres of greenery, cosseted by gently bobbing palms.

The check-in was breezy. And soon I was toddling off to meet the hotel and ayurveda authorities. For the next few days, they took the management of my life out of my hands. The health programmes here are for seven, 14, 21 and 35 days. During which the hotel�s executive chef will keep you alive on a strict vegetarian, alcohol-free diet. If you want to detoxify your system then you will have to follow the dictates of the authorities here. No TV, no reading, no sleeping at any time but which you are told to do so. Plus, a prescribed diet, yoga and massage according to a timetable. It sounds terribly boarding schoolish, but can be fun. Besides, there�s not much to do outside in Calicut. So give yourself up to the cure.

There are three physicians at the Taj Ayurveda Centre: Dr. M. S. Mahadevan, Dr. C. Vinod and Dr. Reshma. Their task is to prescribe a complete rejuvenative and curative treatment for the body and mind of every guest at the hotel. Which means removing the toxins from the body and rejuvenating the cells for good health. This is done through internal herbal medicines and external medicated oils. The medicines are made of herbs cooked in water to prepare a decoction, or in oils and ghee. Then there are fermented preparations, herbal juice and jam, and powders. The herbal massage oils are made of gingelly and coconut.

And the Taj Ayurveda Centre has Vijayan Panicker, an Indian astrologer. The main treatments are started in consultation with him. He looks at planetary influences on your cure. "I recommend herbal medicines, prayers and fasting for guests� diseases," he said. "This helps in the line of treatment.� The planets are said to cause particular diseases. And he can predict these. "Ninety per cent of the guests are happy to meet me," he said. And the other 10 per cent? "They don�t believe in astrology. Or in God!"

But there is no need to put yourself in God�s hands at the Taj Ayurveda Centre. I put myself in the hands of Vijaykumar, the man who got famous by massaging the prime minister. And the physicians who tailor-made a rejuvenative programme to refresh, revitalise, and completely destress my body after understanding my lifestyle. The treatment was designed to drain away body toxins, re-establish biochemical balances and minimise stress levels. I didn�t take any of the internal cures, because I was not there for any specific ailment. But I am told that the Taj Ayurveda Centre can put people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, spondylitis, migraine, paralysis and joint problems back on their feet.

The massage is something. Vijaykumar prayed over me for a couple of minutes. Then stripped me, got me dressed in a loin cloth, and prepared me for the massage. For the next hour, hot oils were rubbed into my body in deep, rhythmic movements that first calmed my stressed out, jangling nerves, then soothed the tired-out muscles. The same was done with the head. Hot medicated oils were poured in the ears and nostrils. A paste applied in the eyes. Then I was washed down with a mixture of channa and gram flour in a hot shower. I walked out of the treatment room with a spring in my step and headed for Coral Reef, the Taj Residency�s restaurant, for my first ayurvedic meal of the cure.

Now the food! Enter Executive Chef K. V. Sudhan, a shy, genius of a man whom I first met at the Ayurveda Centre after the doctors had finished taking stock of me. They get into a huddle, discuss your case dispassionately, and Chef Sudhan is advised what sort of diet you ought to be put on. He fixes your daily menus after finding out what kind of food you like. Indian or foreign. And his repertoire of foreign is amazing. It includes Continental and Chinese. "The guests exhaust the ayurvedic menu in three or four days, so I make changes for them after that," he said. "Whatever they eat, the food is guaranteed to make them lose weight in one week.�

Ayurvedic food is completely and purely vegetarian. However, five or six vegetables are ruled out. No potato, brinjal, pumpkin, mushrooms and tomatoes. They create gas, they are difficult to digest, or they are acidic. Likewise fruits like pineapple and mango. Ayurvedic food also does not use any fermented batter, nor any bottled or canned sauces, nothing refrigerated, no artificial preserves, no corn and refined flour. Which means no bread! The cuisine has little use for salt, spices and oil. Though unlike satvik vegetarian cuisine, onion and garlic are not forbidden by ayurveda.

Chef Sudhan makes each guest�s meal to specification. "Every order is tricky, so it is carefully prepared," he said. The orders are taken in advance and the meals made in the morning. He tags them with the guests� names and room numbers. Then at lunch and dinner, when the guests come starving for their rations, their meals are heated and served to them. However, guests are also welcome to order from the regular ayurvedic a la carte menu. Or the table d�hote menu of the day. The food is natural and fresh.

"Cooking ayurvedic meals take extra time," said Chef Sudhan. "I have to make food that is not tasty but looks nice and appetising. I have to bring out its flavours with whatever little spices and herbs that are used. Little jeera, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, garlic, spring onions. And everything is cooked in olive oil. The menu pattern is the same. Two vegetables, one dry and one wet, different dals, rice, roti, phulkas, no naan, but wholewheat chapatis, rice noodles, and dessert." Curiously I asked what he had served Mr. Vajpayee. Chef Sudhan replied, "Kerala seafood! He was not on the ayurvedic diet."

The diet is the main thing at the Taj Ayurveda Centre. "Foreigners who are confirmed meat eaters become full-time vegetarians here. They concentrate on the variety of food that is used to compensate for the non-vegetarian food. There have been no complaints," said Chef Sudhan. And there shouldn�t be. Not when�s he�s cooking such gourmet fare as wholewheat lasagne, semolina gnocchi, coconut pancakes in jaggery sauce and custard apple mousse. News of the herbal massage and ayurvedic diet is spreading. Reservations at the Taj Residency are hard to get. The hotel has only 76 rooms. And guests tend to extend their stay once they get hooked on the massages and Chef Sudhan�s cuisine.

Taj Residency, P. T. Usha Road, Calicut 673 032. Kerala.
Tel: (91 495) 765354.
Fax: (91 495) 766448.
e-mail: [email protected]

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