On February 9th 2010, I packed a suitcase full of my belongings and flew to India on a one-way ticket from Los Angeles. After spending a few weeks visiting with family and friends in Delhi, I’ve set out on my own in this country. I am currently in Mussoorie, which is in the state of Uttarakhand, in the north of India. Here, I am attending Landour Language School—a small school nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. I’m hoping to further develop my skill in written and spoken Hindi while I am here. I may be here for up to four months depending on how the classes are going. From here, I may go to graduate school in Delhi, or work with an NGO. It’s still all up in the air.
I had been planning this trip for years before I came. Understandably, my friends and family were always very curious as to why I had decided to go to India. After all, I seemed to have everything a man could want in my life in the West—a good job, a great circle of friends, lots of family, and good prospects. Why would I leave it all to come to this faraway land? It’s very hard to explain. Ironically, it seems to be even harder to explain to Indian people in the U.S.
I know it sounds weird, but the truth is that this all started with a bottle of sesame seed oil. Until a few years ago, I would get recurring red rashes on my cheeks and shoulders. When I was kid, a dermatologist told me that it was a skin condition called Keratosis Pilaris, and that I would simply have to deal with it for the rest of my life. The doctor offered me a steroid-based cream to help. When the cream gave me huge white blotches on my skin, I stopped using it and just lived with the problem. Probably a full decade later, I just happened to see a result on Google which read “a cure for Keratosis Pilaris.” It was a posting on a forum. The person who wrote the post said that something called oil pulling cures the condition. I had some really high quality oil in my Berkeley apartment at the time. I figured I’d try it. I swished around a tablespoon of oil in my mouth for 10 minutes in the morning right after I got up. I did this for 3 days. On the Day 3, the rash disappeared, and it has never come back since. Only smooth skin. This was a tremendous mind-blow for me. The doctor had said it could never be cured. Not only that, my teeth became whiter, my hair become softer, and my skin was less dry. How could swishing oil in my mouth do all this?
Several years later, I am still practicing oil pulling. Not only that, I soon discovered that oil pulling is an ancient Ayurvedic medical technique which is actually called Kavala Graha, a Sanskrit term. I don’t know the exact mechanism through which the technique works (my cousin Arjun, a future med student, is trying to figure it out), but it is a process meant to cleanse the body of toxins by drawing them out through the blood vessels in your mouth. Different oils give different benefits. It’s funny; at first all my friends thought I was a nut job. But, I’ve managed to get most of them to try it. And they all attest to its beneficial effects.
So, back to the subject of why I have come to India. I came to India because that highly educated, highly qualified M.D., who went through years of costly medical school, could not solve an issue which an ancient (and I’d add virtually free) Indian health remedy completely cured in just 3 days. The reality is that Western knowledge and Western remedies are not always the best way to go. We are blinded into believing that the West is unquestionably correct in all spheres of knowledge. I realized that is simply wrong, and I had a small bit of proof to open my eyes to it.
Ayurveda was just the starting point for me. I soon started looking in to alternative methods for everything. Slowly, I started challenging every institutional opinion I heard from every Ivy-league educated WASP who said it. Again and again, I have found better answers in indigenous Indian knowledge. From health, to philosophy, to spirituality, to hygiene, to food and diet, you would be surprised how accurate and effective the advice of your old Indian grandparents is.
So that’s why I came back. I strongly believe that this country and this culture have something to offer the world. Gradually, the knowledge of something that practically works will inevitably spread. I strongly believe it is only a matter of time before we experience a re-emergence of our culture’s greatness. Whatever happens, I want to be a part of it. That’s why I’m here.