GENTLE, smiling therapists help me off the hard and slippery wooden table, bathing me like a baby, with lukewarm water and powdered green gram, wiping me down with a rough, thin cotton towel.
Then, they apply rasnadichoornam on the crown of my head and wave it under my nose, to prevent me catching cold, also smearing chandan and kumkum on my forehead and throat.
After measuring my blood pressure, they send me back to my room, where a tiny, double-bottomed steel cup of warm green gram soup awaits me.
I am at Vaidyagrama. . .
