Sadhana 2011

 

PACTO, the Private Ayurveda College Teacher’s Association, recently organized a 3 day workshop on Clinical Aspects in Ayurveda, held at the Nangelil Ayurveda College in Kothamangalam, Ernakulam.  It was a very good effort, and all the presentations had good content with good intent. The classes by Dr. L. Mahadevan, Dr. K.S. Dinesh, Dr. Prakash Mangalassery, Dr. S. Gopakumar, and Dr. Rammohan were all attender-friendly, and informative in the right dosage.  That Syam and I could interact with some of them made it all the more special.

It felt good going back to college after a long time. Even if it not my own, the guys at Nangelil made it almost feel like it. Arun, Hari, Tony, Krishnapriya, and many more… Nice experience. The forest trip on the third day, where we went into the Thattekadu Bird Sanctuary and the Bhootatankettu dam inside the forest, to identify herbs and all, was fun… Kerala has got so much natural abundance, if She was a woman, she’d be one of whom you’d never tire…

 

We had went there the previous day, but the trip was called off because of the rains. In the morning, it was all the more beautiful… The modern dam now is a successor to a mythological one, said to be built by the Asuras – demons – to gain power, hence the name; from ‘kettu’ - build/dam, and ‘bhootam’ - demon. They had to do this in a night, before the cock crowed, and it meant invincibility if they completed the task. They also couldn’t be disturbed while they were working. (This is how the legend was told to me. I think the latter part was added on to avoid questions like “Why didn’t the gods just nuke them as they were piling on the rocks?”) But they hadn’t factored in the party-popping killjoy Shri. Vishnu, Lord of pulling-the-rug-from-under-the-feet-of-Asuras, who assumed the form of a rooster (his not too publicized ‘Kukkutaavatara’), and crowed before the sun rose. The Asuras rested prematurely, and were taken by surprise by the Gods.

 

 

After the dam, we went inside the forest…

 

 

 

 

And after a refreshing walk through the forest, during which we encountered many fascinating plants, and the odd fascinating volunteer who told us what we were seeing, we reached the original Bhootatankettu.

 

Having toured the natural dam, we backtracked our trail and got out, next stop, The Bird Sanctuary…

It was a bit of a dampener there, caused due to a power outage, which meant we couldn’t see the stuffed exhibits well in their lighted displays. We didn’t have time to spot many of the ones that were still stuffed with their own insides and flying around, so we didn’t get to watch that many birds in the sanctuary… But there were other things to be watched, so…

 

…And then, it was back to the seminar hall… So did another event come to pass. Good papers, entertainment (sang a no-rehearsal, poorly planned song with Tony to wrap up the cultural events that got out of cue on karaoke, but brought the house down anyway), good food, and of course, the bird-watching.

The question is, does the memory recollection  and some pics on a low-res mobile camera make anything flow in a stagnating blog?