Skip to main content

The Eye of Ayurveda

The old building of the hospital - Supercool

Most people are metaphorically blind. The world would have been a far better place if people could really see. See. See the folly of hatred and that too in the name of gods. See the little child dying in the hut because of starvation while the country is spending enormous wealth on advertising its GDP. See the bloodstains on the walls of temples being built by a dictator. See the monstrous ego of that dictator who hoodwinks you with a tea stall story. A tall story and a distorted history.

When everybody around you turns blind, you begin to suspect your own sight. That’s how I visited an eye hospital and discovered that I was afflicted with cataract. “Nothing but a surgery can restore normal sight to your right eye,” I was told. I nodded assent to the prescription instantly because I wanted a proper vision in a country of apparently blind people. I longed to see. See clearly.

The surgery was done and my right eye got back its pristine 6/6 vision. But I continued to see waves of poison lashing against the shores of my oceans. My country’s oceans, rather. I continued to see fancy dresses masquerading as nationalist fervours.

And I decided to visit an Ayurvedic eye hospital. A colleague of mine recommended it, in fact. Her mother who is older than me got her cataract healed without surgery, she said. I was interested. One can always give it a try – that’s what I thought. And that’s how I landed at Sreedhareeyam, the “Eye of Ayurveda.”

After the prescribed 45 days of medication, I visited the hospital yesterday.

“How do you feel about your vision now?” The doctor asked.

“I think there’s some improvement,” I said.

He checked up my eye. “Not some improvement,” he said. “It’s a remarkable improvement. A kind of improvement that we don’t see normally.”

That was very reassuring. I recalled the news I had read just the other day about a Kenyan woman whose blindness was treated successfully at Sreedhareeyam.

Having bought the prescribed medicines for the next two months and feeling confident that my left eye will have a clear vision soon without a surgery, I decided to have a look at the hospital’s enchanting environment. Here are some pictures Maggie and I took from there.

One of the many wooden pillars of the old building

The entrance to the hospital


Rich families had their own deities in those days

A selfie that I love


 

Comments

  1. Hari OM
    As a retired medic who specialised in homoeopathics and other ancillary treatments, I heartily approve! My own experiene of Ayurveda is limited, but know many who benefitted greatly from treatments - and actually know two folk who have direct connection to this very institution with positive results. I wish you well for this!

    The building looks very traditional - and a wonderful backdrop to that lovely selfie! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The hospital is a modern building with all modern facilities. This old building has been retained because of its historical value.

      Delete
  2. A person having
    Im-born connection with Ayurveda, the daughter of an Aurvedic medical practioner who pulled hundreds of people from the danger of death in our village, needless to say, how much I respect the Ayurveda tradition. I am happy you found relief at Shreesgariyam, about the place I have heard.

    However, I have no trust in the way, it's practiced presently in many centers priding on some ancient veteran names in the field, and manufacturing medicines and filling the shelf showing any honest info about the ingredients used, that has resulted in me throwing them into the waste bin that I collected from India under prescription and brought over here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I went there more out of curiosity than anything else. When i saw the clientele - including foreigners - I was rather amazed.

      Delete
  3. I recently read 'The Secret' by Rhonda Byrne and realised that you can cure any illness and that it's all in the mind. All it takes is a strong beleif. Ask, believe, receive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The mind does have tremendous powers. But also certain limits.

      Delete
  4. Loved the post, Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice blog post ,thank you for sharing this valuable information. Maitri Ayurveda in Madhapur please provide some more updates.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for sharing this info! If anyone is searching for a Ayurvedic doctor in Ludhiana then you should consult Dr. Jawahar of Sanjiwani Health Centre. He is Best in the field of Ayurveda.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Nice Blog!!! Thank you for sharing information. Wonderful blog & good post.Its really helpful for me, waiting for a more new post. Keep Blogging!!!
    Best Eye care Clinic in Lucknow
    Cataract surgery in lucknow

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your blog is a gem! The simplicity in your writing is a breath of fresh air in the crowded blogosphere. Thank you for making learning enjoyable and straightforward.
    best ayurvedic hospital in india





    ReplyDelete
  9. Best Ayurvedic eye hospital in India
    There are some ophthalmic diseases, which lead to blindness. But if treated in time, with the skill of experience, the sight can be protected; at least, minimize the deterioration. The right treatment helps preserve your existing eyesight and then make your visual organ healthy. This approach helps to protect and improve your vision.
    At Matha ayurvedic eye hospital, all treatments are customized for each patient by the treating doctor. The clinical-stage of disease, other systemic complaints, dietary regime, and habitual factors are considered before deciding on a care plan.
    Matha was the first ayurvedic eye hospital to offer a specialty in ayurvedic eye treatment (or nethra chikitsa). Due to the large volume of eye patients coming to see our chief physician, Dr P K Santhakumari, Matha is known to many as kannashupathri (Malayalam for ayurveda eye hospital).
    Target disease areas selected
    Diabetic Retinopathy
    Diabetic Retinopathy is caused due to prolonged high blood glucose levels. In diabetic eye disease, abnormal blood vessels develop that can break, bleed, and leak fluid. Sometimes tiny bulges called microaneurysms may protrude from the vessel walls. This leads to leakage or oozing of fluid and blood into the retina. This fluid causes edema in the central part of macula leading to diabetic macular edema. Regaining the lost ability to see depends on the clinical stage when a patient starts treatment.
    Macular Degeneration
    Macular degeneration is now one of the major causes of blindness. It is now in the first place among the causes of blindness in the working group of the population. It is a degenerative eye disease where patients easily miss the early stage. This is because there is no serious visual problem in this very early stage. Hence it is important to see your eye doctor regularly to find early warning signs. As the condition progresses, patients experience wavy and blurred vision. The next stage is loss of central vision.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

Dopamine

Fiction Mathai went to the kitchen and picked up a glass. The TV was screening a program called Ask the Doctor . “Dopamine is a sort of hormone that gives us a feeling of happiness or pleasure,” the doc said. “But the problem with it is that it makes us want more of the same thing. You feel happy with one drink and you obviously want more of it. More drink means more happiness…” That’s when Mathai went to pick up his glass and the brandy bottle. It was only morning still. Annamma, his wife, had gone to school as usual to teach Gen Z, an intractable generation. Mathai had retired from a cooperative bank where he was manager in the last few years of his service. Now, as a retired man, he took to watching the TV. It will be more correct to say that he took to flicking channels. He wanted entertainment, but the films and serial programs failed to make sense to him, let alone entertain. The news channels were more entertaining. Our politicians are like the clowns in a circus, he thought...

Stories from the North-East

Book Review Title: Lapbah: Stories from the North-East (2 volumes) Editors: Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih & Rimi Nath Publisher: Penguin Random House India 2025 Pages: 366 + 358   Nestled among the eastern Himalayas and some breathtakingly charming valleys, the Northeastern region of India is home to hundreds of indigenous communities, each with distinct traditions, attire, music, and festivals. Languages spoken range from Tibeto-Burman and Austroasiatic tongues to Indo-Aryan dialects, reflecting centuries of migration and interaction. Tribal matrilineal societies thrive in Meghalaya, while Nagaland and Mizoram showcase rich Christian tribal traditions. Manipur is famed for classical dance and martial arts, and Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh add further layers of ethnic plurality and ecological richness. Sikkim blends Buddhist heritage with mountainous serenity, and Assam is known for its tea gardens and vibrant Vaishnavite culture. Collectively, the Northeast is a uni...

Dine in Eden

If you want to have a typical nonvegetarian Malayali lunch or dinner in a serene village in Kerala, here is the Garden of Eden all set for you at Ramapuram [literally ‘Abode of Rama’] in central Kerala. The place has a temple each for Rama and his three brothers: Lakshmana, Bharata, and Shatrughna. It is believed that Rama meditated in this place during his exile and also that his brothers joined him for a while. Right in the heart of the small town is a Catholic church which is an imposing structure that makes an eloquent assertion of religious identity. Quite close to all these religious places is the Garden of Eden, Eden Thoppu in Malayalam, a toddy shop with a difference. Toddy is palm wine, a mild alcoholic drink collected from palm trees. In my childhood, toddy was really natural; i.e., collected from palm trees including coconut trees which are ubiquitous in Kerala. My next-door neighbours, two brothers who lived in the same house, were toddy-tappers. Toddy was a health...