𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄

Modern medicine is not the enemy. It is a powerful tool that saves lives when used wisely. The danger begins when we make it a daily crutch. The intention of avoiding modern medicine is not rebellion — it is responsibility. It means learning to live in a way that the body rarely needs interference.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐀 𝐌𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐄

Hospitals often treat the body as if it were a machine with replaceable parts. A pill for sugar, a tablet for sleep, another for pain. But a body is not a sum of parts. It is a living network — mind, gut, nerves, emotions, and microbes all working together.

For example, if you lose sleep for many nights, your digestion slows. Constipation begins. That constipation raises your blood pressure. You take a tablet to bring the pressure down, and the tablet weakens your digestion further. The body was only asking for rest — not a chemical correction.

Medicine breaks this web by isolating symptoms. It wants to silence the pain instead of asking what caused it. In doing so, it forgets that pain is a signal, not a mistake.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔

Most people today believe health is a number — sugar 90, cholesterol 150, pressure 120/80. But the body doesn’t read reports. It feels hunger, strength, mood, and sleep. Those are its real diagnostics.

Imagine two men: one walks daily, works on his farm, eats freshly cooked food, and sleeps before 10 p.m. His cholesterol shows 210 mg/dl. Another sits all day, eats packed food, sleeps late, and his cholesterol is 160. The first man’s body is far healthier. The second only looks “normal” on paper.

Numbers without context create disease in the mind before any appears in the body.

That is how overdiagnosis begins. A “borderline” value becomes a label. Labels bring medicines. Medicines bring side effects. Side effects bring new tests. A small variation that needed rest becomes a lifelong dependency.

---

𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓

If you meet with an accident, suffer a deep infection, or need surgery — use modern medicine without delay. It saves life in such moments.

But these are exceptions. Ninety-five percent of what brings people to a clinic is not emergency — it is poor lifestyle, unmanaged emotions, or plain ignorance of rest.

Cold, acidity, migraine, joint pain, mild hypertension — all these are ways your body speaks about your habits. Not punishments. Not diseases. Tablets mute that conversation. They give short relief but lengthen suffering.

In ordinary life, the goal should not be “no medicine” but “no need for medicine.” That begins with eating right, sleeping right, and thinking right.

---

𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐏𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄

Food is the simplest and most neglected medicine. Every region in India has food that suits its soil, climate, and people. But we abandoned that system for convenience and fashion.

A person in Karnataka eating packaged noodles for breakfast and refined bread for dinner is not eating — he is testing his immunity daily. The body doesn’t need variety; it needs regularity.

Choose grains that grow around you — jowar, ragi, bajra, or millets. Use traditional oils like cold-pressed safflower, groundnut, sunflower or coconut oil. Avoid refined sugar and maida. Do not keep food in the refrigerator. Cook what you can finish. Food must rot outside you, not inside you.

Eat only when hungry. Eat slowly. Stop before you are full. Drink enough water — around thirty millilitres per kilogram of body weight.

These small things reduce half the need for doctors.

---

𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Modern medicine conquered many microbes, but it created a new epidemic — stress.

Stress burns silently, like slow acid. It increases acidity, disturbs hormones, reduces sleep, and weakens immunity. A single pill cannot cure that because it is born in the way we live, not in the body alone.

If you want to avoid modern medicine, you must address your way of living. Step into sunlight every morning. Work with your hands. Sweat daily — through walking, cleaning, or yoga. Eat dinner early. Spend some time without screens. Sleep before the mind begins to spin stories.

When you live like this, the body releases its own medicine — endorphins, melatonin, serotonin — without any prescription.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄

There is a modern belief that every feeling must have a tablet. If you are sad, a pill. If you cannot sleep, a pill. If you feel bloated, another pill. It begins as help but soon becomes habit.

Painkillers, antacids, sleeping pills — these three are the silent destroyers of modern life. Painkillers damage kidneys and liver. Antacids disturb the stomach’s acid balance and digestion. Sleeping pills suppress natural sleep cycles and weaken memory.

Take them only when absolutely needed, and never without asking — what caused the pain, acidity, or restlessness? Most times the cause lies in lifestyle, not chemistry.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐎 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋

You cut your skin, and it heals. You get a fever, and it subsides. You lose appetite, and it returns. The body has its own intelligence. Interfering too soon with medicines interrupts this process.

For instance, when you get fever, the body raises temperature to destroy infection. Taking paracetamol immediately cools it down before the work is complete. The infection survives inside, and you fall sick again later.

Let the body finish its job unless the situation is severe. Support it — with rest, fluids, simple food, and patience.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑’𝐒 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄

A good doctor should be your teacher, not your supplier. Visit the doctor to understand, not to collect medicines. Ask what caused your problem, not which tablet will hide it.

Modern doctors work under pressure — to diagnose fast, to prescribe more. But the responsibility of health cannot be outsourced. You must observe your own patterns — what you eat, when you sleep, how you react, and how often you rest.

A doctor can help during emergency; only you can prevent emergencies from repeating.

---

𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐄𝐒

Traditional knowledge in India evolved from observation, not superstition. People watched what healed and what harmed over centuries. They knew that food cooked in brass or clay behaves differently from food cooked in aluminium. They observed that eating curd in summer and buttermilk in winter had different effects.

Science must return to that humility — observing, not imposing. Dr. BM Hegde often said, “Medicine must listen to life.”

Avoiding modern medicine means bringing back that listening.

---

𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐎 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐓

1. Stop eating milk, maida, sugar, and refined oil.

2. Minimise white rice and wheat.

3. Eat local millets, fruits, and vegetables. Same for non-vegetarian foods - local, traditional, home cooked and

4. Stay active and sweat daily.

5. Allow occasional cheat meals but cook traditionally.

6. Use fermented foods like buttermilk every day.

7. Avoid the refrigerator. Eat fresh.

8. Eat only when hungry. Eat dinner early.

9. Fast on Ekadashi.

10. Do full-body castor oil massage on Amavasya and Purnima.

11. Drink Mother Simarouba Kashaya nightly before bed.

These are not rituals; they are ways of keeping medicine away.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇

Avoiding modern medicine is not a war. It is a choice to live attentively.

If you eat real food, move daily, think calmly, and rest deeply — most diseases will not find a place in you.

Use modern medicine when truly needed. Respect it. But don’t let it replace common sense.

The body was designed to heal. Medicine was designed to help.

Between the two, wisdom is to know when to step aside and let the body do its work.

---

---

---

𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄 — 𝐀 𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐃𝐑. 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐇𝐔𝐊𝐀𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐀

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄 — 𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

The morning arrives slowly at the homestead near Yelmadagi. Thin light settles on the mud courtyard. A rooster cries once, somewhere beyond the bamboo fence. The air smells of damp earth and the thin smoke of last night’s wood fire. Dr. Madhukar Dama sits on a low wooden stool beneath the big neem tree. He folds his hands around a small cup of warm Kashaya and breathes, looking at the rising sun as if he is listening to it.

Adhya and Anju come out from the kitchen with a clay pot and two small cups. They move quietly — the way children carry water for guests. Adhya sets the pot down; Anju arranges a few small cups on the mat. They do not speak much; they know the ritual. The Kashaya is bitter and clean. It is offered to everyone as they settle.

A group from Bidar arrives by borrowed tempo in the dim hour. They tie their shoes, shake off the road, and step into the courtyard a little unsure. They were drawn by an article they read — a piece about avoiding modern medicine. They wanted to ask, to argue, to test an alternative voice. They came early, because the homestead is two hours away and the road is good only at dawn.

They sit in a loose circle. Each person takes a small cup of Kashaya and waits.

Raghavendra: I am retired. I lived by the clock and the rulebook. I have been on tablets for diabetes for fifteen years. My doctor tells me every three months what my sugar does. I read the article and I thought—maybe there is another way. But I cannot stop. I fear the sugar will go wild. What do I do?

Meera: I work in a company in Bidar. I leave home at seven, come back past nine. My acidity is constant; I wake at night. The doctor gave me medicines. They help some nights. They also make me lazy. I read the article and I thought—will I have to give up my job to follow any of this? I have two children. How do I change when there is no time?

Karthik: I am twenty-eight. I go to the gym, I take protein, I use supplements, and I follow influencers. I never thought I would get ulcers, but I did. I feel weak sometimes. I read what was written and I wondered if this whole fitness culture is wrong. I came to see.

Sharada: I teach at the village school near Chimmanchod. I grew up with hands in the soil. I have seen people heal with rest, with food, without hospital machines. But I also see fear. People now run on numbers. My father never measured his pulse. He woke, worked, and slept. I wanted to listen to someone who might make sense of both views.

Dr. Nikhil: I am an intern from Bidar Medical College. I am young. I was taught how to use tests and medicines. I also see patients who return with worse problems. I read that article and had questions. I want to know whether the advice is safe to tell patients.

Basappa: I grow vegetables. I walk every day. I have not been to a hospital often. I eat simple food, work with my hands. I brought a small basket of vegetables for the household. You invited people to come — so I came to see what the fuss is about.

Dr. Madhukar Dama listens without hurry. He does not take notes. He waits for the last bird to fall silent. Then he speaks.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: You all have come with different weights. That is good. Ask what you carry. Speak plainly. You are not here for a lecture. You are here to unlearn things that do not belong to you.

Adhya pours a little more Kashaya. The cups are small and warm. The group drinks. The bitterness wakes them.

Raghavendra: I will say it first. I have taken tablets for years. I am afraid to stop. I have seen people stop and then their feet go numb. I will not risk my life.

Meera: I am afraid too. If I try to change food and sleeping, my manager will not understand. If I go to a doctor less, what if something serious happens to my children? I cannot play with risk.

Karthik: I want to know whether some modern things are actually wrong — not all. I lift heavy, I push my body. I thought supplements were harmless. My stomach disagrees now. How do I know what to keep and what to leave?

Dr. Nikhil shifts. He is careful, young enough to still believe the textbook and old enough to have watched contradictions.

Dr. Nikhil: In the clinic, we follow guidelines. We rely on numbers. We are taught to save life. But I see medicine creating new problems. I want to know which medicines are necessary and which are convenient.

Sharada folds her hands on her lap and speaks with a teacher’s quiet.

Sharada: I do not read many papers. My life is small. But I know when someone does too much. The body tells us with cough, with tiredness, with a pain. Sometimes the village elder says rest, and the problem goes. Sometimes the doctor gives tablets, and the problem grows new branches. I want to hear an explanation that I can tell others.

Basappa: I only know work. I eat what the land gives. I want to learn more about this avoid-medicine talk. My nephew takes many tablets for fever and cough. His mother believes medicine is protection. I want to ask — when do you give up a tablet? When do you accept you need one?

Dr. Madhukar Dama nods. He moves his cup to the earth and breathes again. He speaks slowly so each sentence sits heavy and plain.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: You all read a piece at Bidar. That is why you came. I will not repeat what you read. I will speak from the ground where I live. There are three things to start with.

He counts on his fingers.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: One — the body is not a machine you fix by replacing a part. It is a living conversation. Two — medicines are tools. They save life often. But they can also numb signals the body uses to heal. Three — there is a difference between emergency and life. Learn that difference first.

Meera: How do you know which is which? If I stop a medicine and my child gets fever, will I be to blame?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: If a child has high fever, severe breathing trouble, inability to drink, or is limp and not waking, that is emergency. Take the child to the hospital right away. No argument. Use modern medicine. If the child has a low-grade fever and is active, drink fluids and rest, you can support the child’s own healing. The decision rests on the state of the person, not on the thermometer alone.

Raghavendra: But my sugar numbers always worry me. The doctor says 200 is bad; 120 is good. I have been at 180 for months. If I try to reduce tablets, the numbers will shoot up.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Numbers are a guide, not a sentence. We must look at how you feel, how your eyes sleep, how your feet feel, whether you have hunger, whether your wounds heal. A single number does not define you. Talk to the tablet, yes—but more importantly, talk to what makes the number change. Food, motion, stress, sleep. These are the levers you control.

Karthik: You say talk to food. Do we change just what we eat? I eat protein and heavy meals before sleep because I train late. Will changing food fix ulcers?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: It is not only what you eat. It is when, how, and why. Food eaten late at night invites acid and restlessness. A body expects rhythm. A training schedule that forces food at midnight will fight the body’s rhythm. Shift the schedule if you can. If you cannot, change what you eat at night—simple grains, cooked vegetables, not heavy protein shakes. Small changes often turn ulcers around.

Basappa brings his basket forward and offers a handful of fresh greens. Adhya accepts them with a nod.

Basappa: These are from the field. Eat them when they are fresh.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Fresh matters. Food loses life when kept long or put in cold boxes. The fridge is a modern convenience; it is also a slow thief of natural rhythm. Fresh food asks less of medicine.

Dr. Nikhil listens and then raises a hand.

Dr. Nikhil: If we are to avoid medicine, how do we teach patients who depend on us? I do not want to be irresponsible.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Teach them to live. Teach them to observe their habits. Teach them to ask why a symptom came. Teach them to change work, sleep, and food before pills. Use medicine when it is the only safe route. But also teach that many conditions resolve when a person changes the way they live.

The sun climbs. Children from the village begin to call from a distance. The circle breathes. There is no rush. The visitors from Bidar are not here to be convinced with slogans. They are here to ask practical things, to lay down fears, to find a path that will not wreck their lives or their jobs.

Dr. Madhukar Dama closes Part One with a simple sentence.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: We will speak of examples and tricks. We will speak of food, of daily work, of fasting, of the skin and of rest. We will also speak of when to use modern medicine and when to refuse it. But first—live enough that you are not constantly in need of a pill. That is the first instruction.

They sit a while longer. The Kashaya warms them. Adhya and Anju return quietly to the kitchen. The road from Bidar will take them back in a few hours. For now, the morning is a patient teacher. The questions are lined up like a careful row of stones, and the circle is ready to pick them up one by one.

------

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎 — 𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐓𝐒, 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

The light has now spread fully. Shadows are softer. The morning breeze has the smell of neem and wet soil. A bullock cart passes at a distance, creaking slowly on the mud road.

The group from Bidar sits in a circle under the tree. Their cups of Kashaya are empty but their minds are not. Doubt rises in them like smoke. Dr. Madhukar Dama sits calmly, rolling a neem twig between his fingers. He looks at no one in particular; his eyes move between them and the soil.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄

Raghavendra: I will start again. You said the body is not a machine, but that does not erase sugar in the blood. My numbers rise if I skip tablets for even two days. I eat carefully, yet it climbs. If I stop medicines, who will take responsibility for my death?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: The fear is real. But tell me, Raghavendra — when did you first take those tablets?

Raghavendra: Fifteen years ago.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Did your doctor promise that they would cure you?

Raghavendra: No. He said I must take them for life.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Then, in fifteen years, with all those tablets, did your sugar disappear?

Raghavendra: (pauses) No, it stayed. Sometimes better, sometimes worse.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: So the medicine never cured you — it managed you. Now, if something manages you for fifteen years without curing you, is that healing, or maintenance?

Raghavendra: I suppose… maintenance.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Exactly. Now, we do not throw away all medicine. But we ask — why is the sugar high? The body creates it for a reason. When you were working, what was your routine?

Raghavendra: Office at nine, lunch at canteen, evening tea, then television.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: And after retirement?

Raghavendra: Less walking, more sitting.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: So the body receives the same fuel but burns less. The sugar builds up not because of fate but because of imbalance. If we move the body, sleep right, eat on time, and breathe deep, the insulin sensitivity changes. The medicine may still help, but smaller doses. Slowly the body learns again. That is how we reduce dependence.

He pauses and looks at the group.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: You are not forbidden to take medicine. You are invited to remove the need for it.

---

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊, 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄

Meera: I understand the idea. But how can people like me follow this? I wake before sunrise, cook for children, travel an hour to office, sit before a computer, return late, finish housework. If I skip a pill, the acidity returns. If I eat early, I get hungry again at midnight. Modern life doesn’t allow these natural schedules.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: True. But let me ask — is your work helping your health, or only your wallet?

Meera: Both, I hope. I have to provide.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Of course. But the wallet is useless if the body collapses. You can earn double and still be forced to spend it on doctors. The trick is not to escape work — but to make the body stronger than the work.

Meera: How?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Three things. First, don’t eat out of fear or habit. If you are not hungry in the morning, don’t eat. If you are hungry, eat simple food. Second, avoid eating late dinners. The body after 8 p.m. wants to sleep, not digest. Third, rest your eyes and mind during the day — a few minutes of silence after lunch. Even that lowers acid.

Meera: But if I don’t take my antacid, I can’t sleep.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: You can, if you stop chasing screens and news. Modern stress is not in work — it is in overstimulation. The mind doesn’t know rest, so the stomach rebels. Give the mind silence; the stomach follows.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐓𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐌𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄

Karthik: I follow everything in my gym routine. I lift heavy, eat high protein, take supplements, no alcohol, no sugar. Yet I got ulcers and hair loss. How can that happen if I’m fit?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Fitness and health are not the same. Fitness is external — numbers, muscles, appearance. Health is internal — digestion, calmness, deep sleep. You trained your body to look strong, but not to feel safe.

Karthik: What does “feel safe” mean for the body?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Safety for the body is regularity. Same time for food, rest, and work. When you eat heavy protein late night, the stomach burns while the brain wants to sleep. The liver protests silently. The supplement powders burden your kidneys. Your body doesn’t speak English — it speaks signals. Bloating, hair fall, fatigue. You silenced them with gym motivation.

Karthik: So, should I stop gymming?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: No. Move. Sweat. Lift. But don’t turn your body into a laboratory. Do manual work too — dig soil, carry water, walk barefoot. Exercise built on vanity becomes disease; movement born from necessity becomes therapy.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐏 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐍𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐒

Dr. Nikhil: I want to ask something as a doctor. We use tests because we can’t rely on feelings. Feelings mislead. If a patient says “I feel fine,” but his blood sugar is 400, I can’t ignore it. What do you mean when you say we should rely on the body?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: The body gives a full report every day. But most of us have forgotten to read it. Take a farmer. He doesn’t know his blood sugar, but he knows when his body slows, when his eyes blur, when he feels thirsty too often. He acts then — by changing food, rest, water. You use numbers because you don’t trust observation. But numbers without observation lead to panic.

Dr. Nikhil: But we need data to act scientifically.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Of course. Test when needed. But test rarely, not weekly. Numbers should confirm what you observe, not replace it. You are a doctor, not a calculator. Your first duty is to teach people to live in a way that needs fewer reports.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑

Sharada: I have seen this confusion in parents of my students. A small cough — they rush to a pharmacy. A sneeze — they bring antibiotics. We never saw that twenty years ago. Now everyone is afraid of the smallest symptom. What changed?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Fear became business. Earlier, a cough meant your body was cleaning. Now it is seen as a defect. Modern medicine taught people to hate discomfort. Discomfort is often healing. A fever burns what should not be there. A cough throws waste out. A mild pain calls for rest. We stopped trusting that intelligence.

Sharada: How do we teach children this?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: By example. Let them see you handle discomfort without panic. Let them see you use natural remedies — turmeric water, rest, fresh air. Let them watch you sleep early, cook fresh. That is how knowledge travels.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐃𝐎𝐌 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐑

Basappa: I have not taken many tablets. When fever comes, I rest. When I feel cold, I drink Kashaya. But now people tell me this is dangerous, that without modern medicine, infections will become serious. Are they right?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: They are half right. When the body fights infection, fever rises to burn the enemy. If we interrupt too soon with tablets, we stop that natural war. But if fever is too high or the person is weak, medicine saves life. The wisdom lies in knowing when to wait and when to act.

Basappa: My nephew had fever; his mother gave paracetamol every few hours. The fever returned each time.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Because the body hadn’t finished the fight. If she had waited, supported with fluids, fruit, rest, and only used medicine when exhaustion came, the fever would have passed cleanly.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐘𝐋𝐄

Meera: You make it sound easy — eat right, rest right, live simple. But cities don’t allow it. Rent, schools, deadlines — all these are real.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: True. But look closely. You are not forced to eat late — you choose to. You are not forced to check the phone after dinner — you choose to. You are not forced to skip sunlight — you choose to. Small corrections in daily rhythm create space.

Raghavendra: So we should all leave the city and live like you?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: No. Not everyone can. But everyone can simplify. Cook at home, walk instead of gyming indoors, sit quietly after sunrise, avoid cold stored food, eat only when hungry. You don’t have to copy my life; just remove what damages yours.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐋𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆

Dr. Nikhil: You mentioned Simarouba Kashaya and castor oil. Do these really make such difference?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: They do — not as magic, but as support. Mother Simarouba Kashaya clears inflammation, strengthens digestion, and resets the system. A full-body castor oil massage draws out waste through skin and lymph. Both remind the body of its ability to clean itself.

Karthik: So they replace medicine?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: No. They remind you that the body has medicine inside.

---

The wind moves the neem leaves. The light falls across everyone’s faces. There is a quiet after so many questions.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Avoiding modern medicine does not mean rejecting it. It means rejecting dependence. Learn to listen to your body before the pill. Learn to rest before the report. Learn to live before the prescription.

He pauses.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: When we return after lunch, we will speak of the path forward — how to build health so that you rarely need a doctor, and how to live with balance between nature and science.

------

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 — 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐇

By noon, the sun has climbed above the neem tree. Shadows have shrunk into thin, quiet lines. A soft breeze carries the smell of fresh vegetables from Savitri’s kitchen — ridge gourd, onions, and ground masala being fried slowly in castor oil. The group from Bidar has spent half the morning questioning, opposing, and listening.

Now they sit again under the tree, after washing their faces in the well water. Adhya and Anju bring a second round of warm Kashaya. It is bitter, earthy, and grounding. Dr. Madhukar Dama sits cross-legged on the mat. His tone has changed — lighter now, yet precise, like a teacher concluding a long class.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄

Dr. Madhukar Dama: The human body has its own pharmacy. Every breath you take makes chemistry. When you walk, your bones release calcium. When you laugh, your brain releases endorphins. When you rest, your liver clears poison. The body makes hundreds of healing substances every day — but we keep interrupting that process with our habits.

Raghavendra: So all these diseases — sugar, pressure, acidity — are only habits?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Most of them, yes. The body does not want to be sick. But we tire it with food at wrong times, long sitting hours, no sunlight, and mental noise. Then we blame the body for misbehaving. Modern medicine helps you fight symptoms, but not your habits. That part, only you can change.

He points to the ground gently with his finger.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: You see this soil? It knows how to heal if you stop digging it every day. The body is the same.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Healing starts with routine. Before food, before medicine, before herbs — routine. Let me tell you what that means.

1. Wake before sunrise. The body is designed to move when light appears. Sleeping late disturbs hormones.

2. Drink warm water. Not fancy detox water — just warm water to open the gut.

3. Walk in sunlight. Sunlight builds vitamin D and resets mood.

4. Eat only when hungry. Hunger is your body’s permission slip.

5. Rest when tired. Don’t chase exhaustion.

Sharada: Simple things, yet no one follows them now.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Because we were trained to look for complicated cures. The market survives on your confusion. The truth is simple. That’s why it is ignored.

---

𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐀𝐒 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄

Meera: What exactly should we eat, then? There are so many opinions — keto, vegan, low carb, high protein.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: All those diets are businesses. The body does not understand English words like “keto.” It understands season and soil. Eat what grows where you live and when it grows naturally.

He takes a few of Basappa’s greens from the basket.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: These leaves from his field are medicine. They come from the same soil where you walk. You don’t need imported food.

He lists slowly, on his fingers.

Dr. Madhukar Dama:

– Use millets like jowar, ragi, and bajra.

– Use local vegetables — gourds, greens, roots.

– Use traditional oils — groundnut, sesame, or castor for massage and cleansing.

– Use buttermilk daily.

– Avoid milk, maida, sugar, and refined oil.

– Avoid the refrigerator — cook fresh, eat fresh.

Karthik: So no animal protein at all?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Use it sparingly, like a medicine, not as a staple. The human body needs variety, not overload.

Raghavendra: What about rice and wheat?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Minimise. They make you dull if eaten daily. Replace half your meals with millets.

---

𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Sleep is your cheapest medicine. One hour of deep sleep repairs more than any tonic. But we sabotage it with screens, late food, and overstimulation.

Meera: Sometimes I can’t sleep even when I try.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Then you are not resting — you are waiting for sleep like a train. Silence first, sleep later. Switch off the phone, dim the lights, sit quietly for ten minutes, and breathe. Let your body remember the rhythm of dark and quiet. Sleep will come as naturally as hunger.

Sharada: We used to sit outside in the dark after dinner, talking softly. The children would sleep listening. Now everyone stares at bright rectangles.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Yes. Artificial light fools the brain into thinking it’s day. Night is when the body heals. Guard it like wealth.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 — 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐎𝐈𝐋

Dr. Nikhil: You spoke of Mother Simarouba Kashaya and castor oil. How should one use them?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Kashaya is taken every night before bed — one small cup. It cleans inflammation, corrects digestion, and supports the liver. For those with illness, twice a day — morning and night. For healthy people, nightly is enough.

Castor oil is used externally as full-body massage twice a month — on Amavasya and Purnima. It removes toxins through the skin and restores circulation. The skin is your third kidney — it must be cleaned and fed.

Karthik: So these are like a detox?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: You can call it that, but the word is not important. Think of it as reminding the body of its natural housekeeping.

---

𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐎𝐌

Raghavendra: You mentioned fasting. My doctor says fasting is dangerous for diabetics.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Fasting is not starvation. It is disciplined rest for the digestive system. You can do Ekadashi fasting — eat fruits or light food, not starve. When the body pauses digestion, it repairs tissues. Even machines last longer if not run all the time.

Basappa: In our village, elders used to fast naturally when not hungry. Now people eat even when tired.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Because hunger has become entertainment. Fasting teaches gratitude. It reminds you that food is not constant.

---

𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐃

Dr. Nikhil: You said earlier that modern medicine is still needed in emergencies. Can you explain clearly where the line is?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: If the body is in crisis — severe pain, uncontrolled bleeding, loss of consciousness, deep infection — use medicine. If you are simply uncomfortable — mild fever, acidity, headache, tiredness — try rest, food correction, water, and patience first.

Meera: What if we misjudge?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Then learn. Mistakes are teachers. Each time you observe your body honestly, you become wiser. Remember, the goal is not to never fall sick — it is to know what sickness means.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘

Sharada: You spoke a lot about food and rest. What about the mind?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: The mind is the first medicine and the first poison. Most diseases begin as emotional strain. Resentment, jealousy, guilt — they tighten the body. The blood vessels narrow, the gut contracts. Medicine cannot heal that. Only awareness can.

Raghavendra: But how do we stay calm in a noisy world?

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Don’t fight noise. Step aside. Ten minutes of sitting under a tree, doing nothing, resets your nervous system. People call it meditation, but it’s just being alive without doing.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒

Dr. Madhukar Dama picks up a stick and writes on the soil before them:

1. Stop milk, maida, sugar, and refined oil.

2. Minimise rice and wheat.

3. Eat millets, local fruits, and vegetables.

4. Move every day under sunlight until you sweat.

5. Cook traditionally; allow occasional treats.

6. Use fermented foods like buttermilk daily.

7. Avoid refrigeration. Eat fresh.

8. Eat only when hungry, and eat dinner early.

9. Fast on Ekadashi.

10. Castor oil bath on Amavasya and Purnima.

11. Simarouba Kashaya before sleep.

He drops the stick and looks up.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: These are not rules from a book. They are reminders from the body. Follow them, and medicine will visit you less and less.

---

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Meera: So, to avoid modern medicine — we don’t reject it, we outgrow it?

Dr. Madhukar Dama (smiling): Exactly. When a child learns to walk, he no longer needs a cradle. The cradle is not wrong — it was useful once. Modern medicine is that cradle. Use it when you must, but don’t stay in it forever.

---

The wind shifts again. Adhya and Anju bring plates of warm lunch — red rice, ridge gourd curry, and curd. Everyone sits on the ground and eats quietly. The conversation slows into the sound of birds and spoons.

Before they leave, Raghavendra folds his hands.

Raghavendra: I came afraid. I leave curious. Maybe I can live lighter.

Dr. Madhukar Dama: Start with one change, not ten. The body rewards patience, not ambition.

They stand, thank him, and walk towards the mud road. The sun is bright, the air still smells of neem. Behind them, Savitri hands each Simarouba Kashaya and cold-pressed castor oil.

Dr. Dama watches them go — slow steps down the path, a line of people carrying new questions and fewer fears. He sits again under the tree, finishes his own cup of Kashaya, and murmurs quietly to himself:

“Health was never lost. It was only forgotten.”

---

---

---

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐌𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒

— 𝐀 𝐏𝐎𝐄𝐌 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐄

by Dr. Madhukar Dama

---

You are smart enough

to build machines that count your heartbeats,

but not smart enough

to feel them without the screen.

You are smart enough

to store your grandmother’s recipes on cloud drives,

but not smart enough

to cook them without measuring cups.

You are smart enough

to swallow ten pills a day,

one for the stomach, one for the mood, one for sleep,

but not smart enough

to ask why you need so many reasons to feel normal.

You know which vitamin is missing,

but not why the sun stopped touching your skin.

You know your blood group,

but not which food makes you slow

and which one makes you alive.

---

You have a plastic box marked Monday to Sunday,

each compartment filled with obedience.

You take the pills like prayers,

and you believe the pharmacy is your temple.

You pay the priest at the counter,

and call it healthcare.

---

You wear smart watches to remind you to breathe.

You pay subscriptions to learn how to sleep.

You count steps as if walking was an invention.

You order salads from apps

that travel farther than the vegetables inside them.

You say you are educated.

You say you are modern.

But you are afraid of silence,

afraid of hunger,

afraid of resting,

afraid of feeling pain,

afraid of not doing anything.

You think medicine will save you

from being human.

---

You are not sick, my friend,

you are only disconnected.

You have left your body

like a house you once loved

and now visit only when it leaks.

Your tongue forgot the taste of bitterness.

Your eyes forgot darkness.

Your ears forgot what wind sounds like without traffic.

Your hands forgot the texture of soil.

---

Every pill you take

is a small lie you tell yourself:

“I don’t have time to heal.”

You do.

You had time to scroll,

time to compare,

time to panic,

time to stand in queues

for reports that only said

what your mirror already knew.

---

You buy protein powder

because the man on the screen had abs.

You avoid the banana because it has sugar.

You drink coffee at midnight and call it focus.

You wake tired and call it normal.

You call exhaustion discipline.

You say the pill helps.

Of course it does.

It helps you forget what hurts.

---

The medicine does not enter your soul.

It only cleans your report card.

You smile at the doctor,

he smiles back —

two people trapped in the same experiment.

He prescribes tablets,

you prescribe belief.

It works for both.

For a while.

---

Listen—

your body is not your enemy.

It never was.

It talks softly.

It says, “I am tired,”

and you call it disease.

It says, “I am hungry for sunlight,”

and you call it vitamin deficiency.

It says, “I am lonely,”

and you call it depression.

It says, “I need rest,”

and you call it laziness.

You label your instincts

because you forgot their language.

---

When you are sick,

the body is not punishing you.

It is rearranging you.

It is telling you

that you have not been listening.

Every fever is a meeting

you missed a hundred times.

Every cough is the voice

of something your lungs couldn’t say.

Every pain is a note

you refused to read.

---

You don’t need to quit medicine.

You need to quit dependency.

You don’t need a miracle.

You need a pause.

Sit quietly.

Breathe until your breath stops asking for your attention.

Walk barefoot until your skin remembers the ground.

Eat food that spoils —

that’s how you know it’s real.

Sweat daily until your body smells like effort.

Sleep early.

Dream about nothing.

---

There’s no rebellion in avoiding medicine.

It’s not heroism.

It’s intelligence.

You are smart enough

to sense when your body is honest

and when it is begging.

You are smart enough

to stop before you break.

You are smart enough

to cook your own cure.

The cure is not in the pill;

it’s in the rhythm.

Wake, move, eat, rest, repeat.

Let the sun write your schedule.

Let hunger decide your meals.

Let sleep come like gratitude, not exhaustion.

---

When your mother told you to drink water,

that was medicine.

When your father said “go play outside,”

that was medicine.

When your grandmother gave you turmeric milk

before the pharmacy existed,

that was medicine.

When you stopped listening to them,

that was the beginning of your disease.

---

You are not made of chemicals.

You are made of clay, air, light, and memory.

The factory can’t recreate you.

It can only sedate you.

---

Look —

the cow in the field doesn’t have cholesterol.

The farmer doesn’t need supplements.

The child running barefoot doesn’t count calories.

The tree doesn’t ask the soil for permission to bloom.

Why?

Because none of them doubt their own design.

You did.

You doubted your body.

You outsourced your wisdom.

You rented your health to someone else.

You pay rent every month —

it’s called a prescription.

---

There’s a way out.

It doesn’t need slogans.

It doesn’t need gurus.

It needs you —

sitting still,

listening.

Your pulse is older than any textbook.

Your gut knows chemistry better than any lab.

Your breath balances equations you never learned.

You are smart enough

to avoid modern medicines,

not because you hate science,

but because you love yourself enough

to stop poisoning it with confusion.

---

The hospitals will still be there,

in case the body breaks.

But for now,

don’t go looking for healing

in aisles of coloured boxes.

Walk outside.

Let the sun make you drowsy.

Let the sweat sting your eyes.

Let the hunger grow until food tastes holy again.

---

One day,

you will wake without pills,

without alarms,

without numbers.

You will look at your hands

and they will look back —

steady, brown, clean.

You will laugh without a reason.

You will cry without a trigger.

You will sleep before your phone says good night.

That day,

you will know you are healed.

Not because medicine left you,

but because you left dependency.

---

Until then —

be kind.

Be watchful.

Be ordinary.

Walk slowly through your own body

like you are visiting an old friend.

And when someone asks,

“How did you avoid all those pills?”

you will smile and say,

“I just began listening.”

---

(end)

---