Interview with a Naturopath! - Dr. Achyuthan Eswar

*What inspired you to become a Naturopath?

When I was twelve years old, I had a nightmare that I was stranded on a desert island, I was so ill I couldn't move and I was all alone. I heard wolves howling all around me and vultures circling overhead. I woke up scared and sweating and had a thought - if I could find a system of health care that treats illness without medicines, would that not be the most powerful system of health care? Anyone can heal themselves anywhere, any time! After many years of learning different healing modalities like relaxation, meditation, reiki, pranic healing, autosuggestions, etc., and interning at an ayurveda hospital, I finally stumbled upon Naturopathy and Yoga - the only drugless, yet complete system of health care in the world.

Ever since I graduated, the hundreds of people who have cured themselves of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, allergies, asthma, arthritis, infertility, menopausal problems, etc., just by returning to Nature, without any medicines, have only strengthened my belief that I have chosen the right path.

*How can we, as students, start off with slow food?

The best age to start off with slow food is when you are a student. Most adults don't have too much imagination, and are just not interested in trying out awesome food! Let me tell you secret #1.

Think about this - what makes us eat? Have you ever thought about it? There are so many reasons why we eat.

After a long day, after a tough workout, after a long walk, after a sun bath and a cold shower, you feel hungry and you eat. A physical sensation of hunger drives you to find food and eat.

When you’re bored, tired, upset, angry, irritated or stressed, you eat. Your mind makes you crave for tasty food. Taste is the second reason why we eat. Comfort food, we call it.

Any other reason you can think of will fit into one of these two categories.

Have you noticed, when you’re hungry, anything and everything tastes great? All you need to do is get your hands on some food and you’re ready to gobble it down!

But let’s talk about taste.

We all have our favourite food. Most of us have multiple favourite dishes! We crave for these, we feel happy when we eat them. We even have favourite restaurants, specific restaurants for specific dishes, favourite dishes to cook, flavours we like and flavours we don’t. Most of us will also agree, nothing can ever beat amma’s cooking. Cooked and served with love - that gives a whole different flavour to the dish, doesn’t it? The entire gastronomic world is build around the way food - or food products - taste. Today I'm going to show you the first steps of this method. Our secret weapon is called Mindful Eating.

It’s a simple yet powerful idea that can radically transform your relationship with food - for many people, for the rest of their lives! We have evolved with a tongue so that we can enjoy eating good food! Don’t you agree? What’s the point of living if you can’t even taste good food anymore? The problem is, our definition of ‘good food’ and ‘tasty food’ today are two opposites.

Without further ado, let’s get set!

Mindful Eating simply means enjoying your food completely. Every morsel, every chomp, lick and bite! Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Many times - most of the time actually - we eat something because we think we like, without allowing ourselves to fully experience it. When we do this, we are robbing ourselves of the complete enjoyment, the complete experience.

One of the questions we ask every person the first time they walk into our clinic is, “What do you do when you eat?” We get a whole bunch of answers -

I watch tv

I read the newspaper

I read books

I talk to the person sitting next to me

I text

I call someone

I plan for the day

I think of work, family, kids etc.

Nobody ever says “I just eat, I don’t do anything else”.

In fact when we ask them to do this, the first thing that we hear is ‘this is going to be very difficult’, simply because they’ve never really done it before.

So, how do you enjoy food?

Here’s the first step:

Focus completely on eating.

This means that you must not do anything when you’re eating, regardless of whether you are eating a meal or a snack. No watching TV, reading newspaper, talking or listening to anyone, reading a book, checking your email, answering or making a phone call or any other activity except for eating.

Activity #1: Mindful Eating

Today, eat whatever you usually eat. Don't make any changes to your diet. But, eat it mindfully. Here’s how you do it:

Prepare: Take everything you’re going to eat, on a plate or bowl. If you don’t do this, you may need to get up in the middle of your meal to take more food.

Sit: Find a comfortable place to eat, without noise or disturbance. Explain to the people sitting with you what you’re going to do, invite them to join you for this activity!

Look: Look at the food. Take a piece in your hand, feel the texture, the temperature.

Smell: Take a sniff, inhale the aroma of the food. Enjoy this for one deep, long breath.

Close eyes: Put it in your mouth and close your eyes. Closing your eyes is eye-opening, literally! When our eyes are open, we are so distracted we can never focus completely on food. Make sure they are closed after you put food into your mouth (This does not mean you close your eyes throughout the meal, and end up eating an insect! Please open your eyes to see what you’re putting into your mouth. Once food is in your mouth, please close your eyes to enjoy it completely.)

Focus: As you chew, concentrate on the taste of the food, the texture, the temperature. Completely enjoy the sensation of eating yummy food. Once you’re done chewing, swallow the morsel and take another mouthful.

That’s it!

This are the first six steps to enjoying your food completely, the first six steps to eating mindfully. Please do this exercise for one snack or meal, do it completely, throughout the meal. Invite your family and friends to join in!

When you eat every food mindfully, you'll find that you are only able to enjoy the foods that are healthy for you. This is the secret of every wild animal's fit, healthy body - and can be the secret of yours too!

*In this day and age, where home cooking is replaced by food from street food hawkers, do you find any pros at all?

A. There was a time in India when the word 'restaurant' was non-existent. Every home cooked food every day. If you were traveling for any reason, you packed your food and took it along with you. You had extended circles of friends and relatives at whose homes you could drop in and eat a hot meal. Every home cooked a little extra, to feed the guest who might walk in any moment. Athithi Devo Bhava. The guest was equivalent to God, and would be served first, before the family ate, irrespective of the financial status or other situations of the family.

If you had no home to eat at, temples and Dharmashalas opened their doors to hungry travellers every day. You could randomly walk into any one on your way and eat a full meal.

Whether it is a home or a temple, the focus of the food was health. Would you serve your guest poison? Would you serve something that could give them a stomach upset? Would you serve them something that would give them a heart attack soon? No. Would you serve them food that reverses their problems and gives them health as they eat it? Yes.

"I do not have time to cook my own food" - time is subjective. If you have time to put on your moisturizer and layers of makeup, check Facebook ten times a day, laze around in a hot bath, you very well have time to cook.  Eating out is a compromise.

Eating at home itself is a compromise today, because of the processed ingredients in every kitchen. Eating out is even worse. Baking soda, MSG, white rice, wheat, sugar, added colours, preservative, flavours... A compromise contributing to infertility, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, strokes, cancers, autoimmune disorders - even if there is a small pro to this, it is insignificant.

*In your view, how big can the slow food movement benefit the society at large?

A. The slow food movement is nothing new to India. It aims at preserving traditional and cultural practices. These are already ingrained in every aspect of our daily lives. Locally produced foods, local businesses and local consumption of produce - this was the way we have lived for many thousands of years.

Commercialisation has stripped our food of its nutritive and medicinal properties. The green revolution has given us white rice, hybridised wheat, milk laced with antibiotics, poisoned fruits and vegetables, hybridised produce that lacks the nutrition of naati varieties, tea and coffee, herbs that don't work as well they used to...

Speaking of processed food, the food we eat at home is processed food. Not many realise that an idli made from white rice is worse than even white bread. Coconut burfi with sugar is as bad as ice cream. This is must change.

The only way to reverse it is to go back to our roots. We still have a chance if we act now. All we need to do is ask our grandparents what they did in their childhood, and we'll be able to understand the immense magnitude of lifestyle change we have undergone - and how badly our health is affected because of that. The Slow Food movement can be a major step towards reversing the lifestyle disease epidemic looming large in India, and lifestyle clinics like ours are aimed towards exactly this.

*In your view as a doctor, how much has the concept of a healthy meal changed in Bangalore? In the case of these health concerns effecting our daily lives And thereby effecting our work...

A. "Unave Marundu", "Let Food be Thy Medicine" - Hippocrates.

Unfortunately, today, for most people, medicine has become food. Whether or not they eat a meal, they make sure to eat their 10 medications every day.

Health was incorporated in our traditional lifestyle, including food. Nearly everything that was eaten two generations back and the way it was eaten was aimed towards health. Today, there are mistakes being committed everywhere from the farm to the dining table that give us disease.

Here's a brief overview of these changes:

Farm:

·        Natural Farming to chemical farming

·        Freshly plucked fruits and vegetables to old, stored fruits and vegetables

·        Groceries only 3 months old to Groceries more than 6 months old

·        Naati varieties to hybrid and GM varieties

·        Multiple varieties to mono variety (ex: sona masoori rice)

·        Naati breeds of animals, grown with love, fed natural diets in their natural environments; to hybrid breeds of animals, grown in cages, fed processed food.

Factory:

·        Hand pound rice to white rice

·        Unrefined, cold pressed nut oils to refined vegetable oils, industrial waste oils and animal fats.

·        Forest honey to high fructose corn syrup

·        Unrefined jaggery to sulphurised white sugar

·        Fresh fruits to packaged juices, preserves and candies.

Shop

·        Locally grown food to imported food

·        Seasonal food to non-seasonal, preserved, artificially ripened food.

·        Kitchen

·        Water-based cooking to oil-based cooking

·        Slow cooking to fast cooking - microwave, induction, pressure cooker, etc

·        Clay, copper and iron vessels to Aluminium, non-stick vessels

·        Huge diversity of ingredients to diversity of dishes with limited ingredients

·        Serving food within 3 hours of cooking, to overnight refrigeration.

·        Cooking animal foods once a week or on special occasions, to cooking animal foods every day

Dining

·        Food eaten in the order of fruits > cooked vegetables > cooked cereals to eating it all mixed and eating fruits for dessert.

·        Eating with hunger, to eating without hunger & overeating

·        Oota/Khana to Nashtha/Thindi - two meals a day, to 3 or more meals a day

·        Eating breakfast rarely, to eating heavy breakfast daily

·        Mindful eating after washing face, hands & legs, to rushed, mindless eating

·        Eating seated silently on the floor, to eating while walking or driving in a noisy place.

This is a very brief idea of how much the concept of healthy food has changed today. Every one of these changes has a profound impact on our daily lives. Can we walk for hours on end without getting tired or thirsty? Can we work every day in a farm without any back pain? Can we lift and move heavy loads without getting exhausted? Can we sit for hours and meditate? Can we calculate huge sums in our mind without any calculators? Can we remain calm and peaceful in all situations, even when someone is shouting at us for a mistake we made - or didn't make? Can we go to sleep the moment our head hits the pillow and wake up by ourselves, without an alarm, early in the morning feeling absolutely rested and fresh? Can we live without any fear of developing any lifestyle disease? Can we give birth without pain, without any need of surgery? 

From concentration to will power to strength to endurance to flexibility to peace to physical health to good social connections, our food today has impacted us profoundly. The way back is simple. You take one step towards Nature, and Nature will take a thousand towards you.

From the chef's mouth

Not all who can cook can be a chef, just as not all chef’s want to keep cooking. This can be found true in case of the hotel industry, where dedication is needed every step of the way, in a space where timing, skills and service take center ‘plate’.

Meet Rohan P Sheth, a 2008 BHM alumnus of Christ University, who as a 7 grader dreamt of being a part of a hotel, had made up his mind to be a hotelier when he was in grade 10, a mere 15 yrs of age, packed with much enthusiasm.

With internship experience at The Taj Residency and The Taj Westend and a resume that speaks of his time at The Park Hotel and Blimeys Restopub, he had interesting things to say about his experience as an hotelier.

*How many years of experience do you have in the food industry?
I worked for 5.5 years in the hospitality industry.

*How valid were the techniques you learnt in BHM in the real world context?
The basic things we learnt helped set a mind-set. The internship gave an experience and sneak peek into the real world. Though the course itself was quite outdated since we were following the curriculum set by Bangalore University which was 25 years old.

*What is the level of ease with which one can get a job with a BHM degree?
To get a job with ease is more on the individual than just the degree itself. It depends on the individual’s abilities and smartness. That being said the time and effort put getting the degree does prepare you in a few ways i.e. tolerance, patience, dignity of labour etc.

*Where have you worked at during your time in the industry?
I worked at The Park Hotel Bangalore from 2008-12 and Blimey Pub from 2013-14

*How different were the work atmosphere's in The Park and Blimey?
The work atmosphere and the way things worked were of quite different levels in The Park hotel and at Blimey, both in terms of management and work standards. Blimey being a standalone and privately owned had its own share of disadvantages.

*What was your position in The Park and in Blimey?
In The Park hotel I worked as Associate Manager - Front Office and Associate Manager - F&B Service at different times. In Blimey I managed the outlet as the Operations Manager.

*What was the reason for you to move away from the food industry?
I had plans to eventually move out of food industry and get in to the corporate world in Admin and Facilities and grow there.

*Do you believe that the way food is presented has anything to do with the level of consumption ad its appreciation?
I think it is mainly based on the expectations that are set with individuals on where they are dining. The way food is presented in a star hotel and the way it is in a small restaurant varies and is accepted. Personally I feel the presentation is important to make the food appealing but not necessarily always the best.

Healthy Eats!

In our current age and time, where food is readily available with the click of a key, why not take a healthy option to eat when you order online?

Presenting Jiyo Natural, a personalized food ordering site, started on May 2014 where, healthy and tasty alternatives to that of fast food are offered.

Dr Sunandini Sharma, chief health officer and one of the co-founders of this site said that this initiative came about from a strong need for the availability of healthy food for office goers, from a group of food and health enthusiasts.

She added that with the availability of better alternatives there will also be a prevention of the onset of lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension cardiac problems and many others that are running rampant in our current society.

Jiyo Natural take orders from companies in masse and from individuals as well, with a preference of one week or one month subscription to have a complete experience of the benefits of pure fresh food.

They take special care to provide deliver purely wholesome food, devoid of chemicals, refined products, artificial colours, preservatives or taste enhancers.

They plan on expanding their centre from that of Bommanhalli to other places as well, so that they can provide healthy, tasty and wholesome food to homes, schools, care centres and to senior citizens.

Hopefully, this venture catches more attention in time for the sake of a healthier and fit generation to come.

When Character and Real lifey mingle

The passion with which people relate to characters can sometimes be confounding to the actor who plays that role. Many Actors have both celebrated and sometimes bemoaned the fact of their portrayed characters overtaking their effort to display them. We need to be conscious of the reality in which they inhibit themselves and not just their characters.

Kunal Nayyar better known by his character persona of  Rajesh Koothrappali from the hit Rom-Com series The Big Bang Theory recently got interviewed by an Indian Newspaper. you would think this is normal enough, him being so famous and all, but here is the catch - the caption of the picture inset said 'Rajesh Koothrappali' with his recently released book. This mistake got shared on social media but was reined in before it got out of hand.

Kunal was quite amused this and in his book Yes, My Accent Is Real released in September 2015, he chronicles the up's and down's of his acting career and what it really means to embody the character of Rajesh Koothrappali, who is the stereotyped opposite to what he actually is.

There was a lot of jovial exchanges both on and off  the TBBT set, when Nayyar married Miss India 2006 winner, Neha Kapur, in December 2011. Nayyar said that it's hilarious how even people near to him call him as Raj instead of his real name. 

Rajesh          vs     Kunal

Women of the world in pieces for peace

On November 16 2015, Mount Carmel College of Bangalore had an international seminar on Gender Studies take place in their auditorium. Aptly called World Court of Women against War, for Peace; It became an arena where Women in black came forward with an experiential set of testimonials, of loss, of torture, of main and most of all, of survival.

The chief guest of the day in attendance was Ms. Louisa Morgentini - a representative of the European Parliament, who declared this function to be one that celebrates Peace, Freedom and Dignity. Ms. Kamala Basu one of the many speakers said that we need to say yes to the power of love and no to the power of violence, thus stepping forward to wards achieving peace for women across the globe.

Ms. Lisa Suhej Majaz from Palestine, another speaker said a heartfelt prayer for those who will be born into a better world and expressed that there should be a certain dignity lauded to those who are forced to cross borders. Ms. Rose Duvichu from the Naga Mother's Association was emotionally overcome as she dedicated this court in memory of the lives lost to militarization.

In the break, when we students were able to briefly interact with Mr.S.P.Udayakumar, the convener of the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), which is protesting against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant project. He said that he is proud of the way Women in his hometown of Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu are empowering themselves by being outright about their needs. "Our Women will be fully empowered only when they realize that they can beat up the perpetrators who want to put them down" he said as he bade us farewell. 

Thus, this first day of the 3 day international seminar showed us a peek of how it held in itself the angst as well as uprising of women everywhere.

A P.R Crisis management

Situation: A big time dining restaurant in NY started noticing that the profit they were regularly earning was declining steadily. There were several complaints from the customers about slow service, even though the staff had 20 extra hands on duty. The last straw was when several customers just walked out saying their order was served cold.

Analysis: A meeting of the whole staff was called and these were the findings - The use of mobile phones, kept distracting the customers from properly going through the menu. Slow service complaints seemed to arise from the young adult crowd, who forgot that they had ordered just then or had not placed the orders at all. The same age group had more complaints about cold food service, as they took more time snapping pics than eating the hot and fresh meal. The same social media effect that had made the restaurant popular had become their worst enemy.

Solution: The tables had a sign kept on them saying - Gadget free zone, your personalized meal awaits you, Conversations are great when you know your food is own it's way etc. Management made sure to tell the tables waited on that the service staff would be more than glad to click pictures of the customers. The week they started this rule, they had a 10 minute timer placed on each table, which had a hidden clause saying that if the customer finished ordering within that time, a free ice cream was served. temperature checks were introduced to the food served, with the waiters announcing that the hot meal has arrived along with clocking the time of service.

Result: Though met with a bit of initial skepticism and annoyance from frequenters and regulars, the idea became a hit as the customers found a sense of contentment with the orders, more time on their hands to converse with friends/ family that they were with. Using re-establishing connections and enjoying good food as the agenda, the restaurant's management made an impact on the customers, while earning themselves a great profit.

Interview Questions for Padma Lakshmi

1. How has being penta-lingual helped you at work?

2. From a BA in theater to modelling - what sparked the change?

3. When did the cooking craze set in?

4. Culinary artistic aside, which country's dish speaks to you more?

5. How taxing is it to be juggling a modelling and t.v celebrity career?

6. Has being a judge on Top Chef changed your views on healthy eating?

7. How lucrative is having your own line of spices, tea and dinnerware?

8. Is there any romance slowly sparking for you right now?

9. Have the effects of  endometriosis ever come in way of your busy life?

10. So, what are the next new ventures you are planning for?

Food street of variety!

Since our group got the category of food to work with for our newsletter and i got assigned street food as my part to uncover; I thought "what better place to go capture the essence of this topic than V.V.Puram's EatStreet".

Armed with my trusty mobile camera, i was able to gleam a sense of how fulfilling (in both literal and figurative senses) this trip to contribute to a photo essay was.

The aromatic and hectic place is truly pocket friendly and leaves one spoilt for choice.

My P.R advert

Imagine a world
Where water is
Taxed by the drop

We'd be thinking thrice before we even wasted water.

Thus my cia-3 was a take on what's to (may or not) happen if we aren't careful with our water resources.

Correcting technical mistakes

When Using the right word:
This Accident made the public quite alarmed
This Accident cause the public to panic

Remove qualifiers and intensifiers
The Chief minister stressed on the importance of girl child protection
The Chief minister put forth the need for girl child protection

Remove tautology
Latha tore the lace off the slipper on her foot
Latha tore the lace from her slipper

Avoid repetition
The Mall authorities had not paid heed to the rules. They now suffered the consequence of the fire.

The Mall authorities who had not paid heed to rules, suffered a loss from the fire

Improve verbs/nouns
The debate put stereotypes under fire
The debate focused on stereotypes

Precise verbs/adjectives
This method was much easier than others
This method was simpler compared to the others. 

Avoid ‘there’ and ‘that’ traps
The party over there was that of a rave.
The party was a rave.

Avoid/Replace overworked words like “basically, lots of, nice, simply”
There were lots of nice flowers to be seen in the valley.
There were a multitude of beautiful flowers to be seen in the valley.

Vary sentence lengths
The model was insulted. She got enraged. She caused a scene on set.
The model who was insulted was enraged and caused a scene on set.

Distinguishing formal from informal speech
She asked him whether he had the savoir faire needed for the job
She asked him whether he had the experience needed for the job.

The Photographer wanted a Nouveau riche family to photograph.
The photographer wanted an upsart family to photograph. 

She wanted the crem de la crem treatment every time
She wanted the Best treatment every time.

Use parallel construction
Meghana likes Photography, nature rambles and to eat pizza.
Meghana likes photography, Nature rambles and eating pizza.

Advertisement analysis #2

An advertisement close to my heart. This shows the impact of how pictures speak more than words. For those of us who are a bit handicapped, there is a great need for better access spots. Thus, this puts it forth straight out there that we need to give equal means to all.

Advertisement analysis #1

Dancing babies by evian mineral water is a catchy advertisement that Plays on the ruse of being younger (that almost every adult is said to long for) in it's 1:16 video.

https://youtu.be/pfxB5ut-KTs

Using a popular remix of the song Hotstepper from 1995, the whole advertisement is made more intresting as the adults are lulled into a playful interaction with their younger reflected selves.

What starts out as people going about on their normal everyday lives turns into a mini dance video with that of their baby reflections. A very escapist based notion, this advertisement has a simple notion behind it saying that 'Drink evian, stay young'.