SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH AlTERNATE THERAPIES
Success has no other shortcuts apart from the ones that tell you;
control thoughts, delete negativity, alternate actions and shift attitudes to become positive!
Israelmore Ayivor (b.1989) Writer & Life skills Entrepreneur
2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of creation of Magic Cube, popularly known as Rubik’s cube invented by Ernő Rubik, a shy Hungarian Professor of Architecture. His motivation for designing the magic cube was to give a puzzle to his students to play around for enhancing their spatial creativity. Realising that he had accidentally created a spatial-logic toy, Rubik applied for patent and started participating in international toy fairs. In one such fair held in Germany he met Tom Kremer, a marketer who acquired the rights for the magic cube and in 1980 licensed it for manufacturing to the Ideal Toy Company changing the name to Rubik Cube. Within three years 300 millions of Rubik Cubes were sold across the world![1]
Around the same year (1974) when Prof. Rubik invented the cube, B.R. Anantha Raman (b.1952) living in Malleswaram, a residential area of North-west Bangalore joined Kirloskar Electric Limited, a manufacturing company having its factory at Peenya, an industrial suburb situated around fifteen kilometres from Malleswaram, as a clerk cum typist. Before joining Kirloskar, having dropped out of Pre-University Course and cleared English and Kannada Typing, both Junior and Senior apart from English Short-hand Junior, he tried his hands at several jobs during 1969-74; Tool and Die Maker trainee, clerk in a printing press and an Instructor at a Typing institute apart from spending a long time taking care of his ailing father who was hospitalised, to the extent that Raman was offered a job at St. Martha’s hospital where his father was admitted!
After Raman got married during 1977, his main purpose of life became earning enough money to lead a comfortable life. His daily routine was reaching the factory at 7.30 AM, after a whole day’s work rush to catch a bus at 5.00 PM to reach around 6.00 PM the Specialists Clinic situated in the heart of Bangalore to work as part-time typist to the practising doctors till 9.00 PM and reach home by 10.00 PM.
As the Rubik cube caught up the curiosity of the common man in early 1980s, Raman’s life got transformed in 1982 when he was posted as Personal Secretary to N.A. Janardan Rao, Vice-President of Kirloskar Electric Ltd. Janardan was a highly competent engineer having graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) apart from being a thorough professional. Raman accompanied Janardan wherever he went for meetings as he had to take down notes, prepare Minutes of the meetings and type letters (computer era was yet to begin) apart from driving his official car! Raman not only enjoyed working under Janardan, but around the same time started taking interest in learning Homeopathy[2], Reiki[3] and Acupressure[4]. He tried out his newly acquired knowledge of alternate therapies with some of his colleagues and gained confidence as they got rid of their pain or cured of illnesses.
By 1990 he also started learning Yogasanas[5] by attending classes at Ladies’ Association, Basavangudi another old residential suburb of South Bangalore. By the turn of the millennium, Raman decided to quit Kirloskar and join Microland, a Software company as Administrative Officer. Soon he became popular in the company because of his Alternative therapies practice. After getting promoted as of Administrative manager, he worked for a few more years, before resigning in 2010 to pursue his interests of treating patients using alternate therapies. On resigning, Raman took up ten courses in Varma kalai[6] – two courses at Coimbatore and eight at Kanyakumari spread over two years. After completing the courses, he started regularly visiting a couple of places for consultation apart from practising at home. His practice flourished over time.
It was sometime during 2013 he was referred to me by my youngest sister who was employed with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), as one of the agents of LIC had mentioned to her about Raman’s Alternate therapies that helped him and his family. Raman was then living at Mathikere and we also were living close to Mathikere as our house at Ulsoor was under repair. I requested Raman to come over to our house to find out whether he can help my mother who has been suffering from joints related issues for a long time. He did a combination of a few of the therapies and was happy to come over whenever we called him. Even my mother said she was feeling better.
Since 2008, after undergoing a surgery for Soft tissue Sarcoma, I had started doing some physical workouts apart from walking to keep myself fit. Raman invited me and Hema to the park in Mathikere where every morning he was teaching a few physical and breathing exercises to many of his patients. After a few visits we could not go to the park as Hema had to leave for her college work after completing all the morning chores at home. However, I picked up a few breathing exercises from Raman, who had by then become a good family friend, more than being a consultant. Even after shifting back to our home at Ulsoor in early 2015, we used to call him for consultation as well as invite him for some of the festivals and family functions.
Whenever we meet, he will be narrating some interesting anecdotes about some of his patients, a few being software professionals and even some medical professionals. Some patients have even flown him to other cities like Ahmadabad / Chennai / Hyderabad for consultation to treat some of their relatives who have been suffering from certain chronic problems. We have also recommended him to some of our relatives and friends who have benefited from his treatment.
As observation (face-reading) and imagination (extrapolation) are his hobbies, Raman says he generally able to read the minds of not only his patients, but also the immediate relatives living with them. Out of curiosity I asked Raman, ‘what is your reading about my family’, to which he quipped, ‘you five (my mother, myself, my wife and two sons) are like five gems. I have not come across a family like yours’.
[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/tom-kremer-rubiks-cube-entrepreneur
[2] Homeopathy is a type of complementary or alternative medicine that’s based on the use of highly diluted substances, which practitioners claim can cause the body to heal itself.
[3] Reiki is a complementary therapy relating to energy healing. Some people say it works through the transfer of universal energy from the practitioner’s palms to the patient.
[4] Acupressure is a type of massage therapy in which manual pressure is applied to specific points on the body. It is a practice of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice that is similar to acupuncture, except that it uses fingertip pressure instead of needles.
[5] Yogasanas are a way of aligning the inner system and adjusting it to the celestial geometry, thereby becoming in sync with the existence and naturally achieving a chemistry of healthfulness, joyfulness, blissfulness, and above all, balance.
[6] Varma Kalai (Tamil: varmakkalai, Malayalam and Sanskrit: marma-vidya/marmam) is an Indian traditional art of pressure points. It combines massage, alternative medicine and traditional yoga in which the body’s pressure points (varmam) are manipulated to heal.
November 09, 2024 | Ravi 90