Mind blowing

Mind blowing

……………………….

It was a hectic day, getting up early in the morning to catch Shatabdi for Kathgodam and then a road journey of one hour by SUV to Naukuchiatal. By the time we reached it was 1.30 PM.

I was taking rest after lunch in our room in the kumaoon Mandal Tourist lodge when my nephew Shuvo entered. Me, my wife Madhuri and shuvo chatted for some time and then shuvo suggested we go out for a walk around the beautiful lake before it becomes dark. There had been snowfall in Himalayas ,the day temperature at Naukuchiatal was hovering around 12 degrees.

I got up from the bed , put on my warm jacket , shoes,cap and went out with Shuvo. The perimeter of the lake is about 5.5km and the road around it is partly metaled. We were enjoying the walk in that cold ,after a few minutes of walk we came across a tea shop. Some local people were having tea and were discussing the landslide victory of BJP in Uttarakhand , the same day ie 11 th of March,17 the result of assembly election was declared. It appeared a Sadhu whose Ashram is in the jungle near the lake had predicted the result. We got interested and sat down with them to know more about the sadhu.

“Does he perform miracle?” I asked curiously.

They did not like my question, my tone was cynical.

I quickly corrected myself by asking , “ Can he heal chronic diseases? As we often see Ramdev talking about powers of Himalayan jadi buti or herbs?”

“We heard that he has discovered many herbs for loss of memory, regaining health, improving concentration etc.” One of them informed us.

“You take this road till the metaled road comes to an end then on the right a dirt road will take you to his ashram. It is about 100 meters steep rise.” Another one told us helpfully.

We paid for our tea and started our walk around the lake.

“Let us go to that Sadhu.” I said.

“Can you walkup that steep rise?” Shuvo was not sure about my prowess.

I was also not sure whether I would be able to climb but still curiosity compelled me to push my luck, “ Don’t worry, I will manage.”

After 10 minute walk we came to the end of the tar topped road, we found two dirt roads one going straight circling the lake and the other one was at the right going up. We could see an arrow indicating Ashram of Sukhdev baba on that road at the right. We trudged on for about 10 minutes, it was pretty steep, arrived to a flat surface. Not a big Ashram ,a moderately big hut with lot of foreign back packers sprawling around on the ground. The sight of backpackers was not surprising as they can easily access cannabis in Himalayas.

The sadhu was sitting on a raised platform, his disciples were scurrying around. We caught hold of one of those disciples and started enquiring about herbal medicines.

“Come straight to me.” We heard Sadhu shouting at us in Hindi.

We were taken aback; we thought he had not noticed us.

We hurriedly walked towards the rostrum and bowed at him.

He smiled and said, “Cut out the formalities, don’t get mislead by this orange garb. I am no sadhu; I am a botanist and came to do research on medicinal herbs twenty years back.”

“Interesting, then why did you stay back?” I asked while both of us sat down in front of him.

With a beatific smile he said, “I love hills and while going up and down these hills I fell in love with nature. I discovered many medicinal herbs and cured the villagers from chronic diseases. They insisted that I stay with them, I had no money excepting my doctorate degree from Jadavpur.”

“Are you a Bengali?” I hesitantly asked.

“I know how to speak Bengali but I am from Bihar. My original name is Sukhdev Tiwari and now I am Sukhdev baba.” He said with a big laugh switching to Bengali.

“Look at those foreigners, to them I tell about Hindu philosophy, Budhism, Jainism and give them bhang or cannabis which is available in abundance in the hills. They go back to their countries and talk about me; more of them troop in every year during winter.”

I was impressed by his simplicity, “You must be getting offer from Ayurvedic companies?” I asked.

“Yes, Ramdev sent offer but I don’t want to commercialize  my research.”

“Do you have any herb for remembering things, I often forget the passwords or locker number.” I asked eagerly.

He called one of his disciples and told something. That guy brought some small baskets with labels.

He gave a pinch of herb and said,”first take your mind when approximately last you used your password which you don’t remember now”.

I was not remembering my email password of Yahoo since I switched over to Gmail. I remembered that my Gmail account is roughly 12 years old or so I tried to remember some event of 2005. I remembered to have shifted to our present address in Calcutta in February,2005, even I could recall my first visit to the flat before the purchase. Around that period I was using Yahoo so I took the pinch of herb. For a moment my mind went blank, a kind of zero experience and then with sudden jerk I came back to my senses. The mind was absolutely fresh and the password floated in my mind. I felt great.

“Yes, I can recall my lost password, thanks Sukhdevji.” I told him.

“You are kidding!” Shuvo whispered in my ear cynically,I winked at him.

“Please don’t discuss about this herb with anyone, this is my latest discovery. I had to go deeper in the Kumaoon mountain range with one of my volunteers and chanced upon this. I am in search of elixir of life which our sages supposed to have found in Himalayas.” Sukhdevji said.

“How did you find this?” I asked eagerly.

“Whenever I see some plants with small buds and flowers then I smell that first.From the smell I can make out whether that plant has some curative quality. After that I cut the stems, roots, buds, leaves, flowers and collect those in my bag. Once in three months or so I make trip to the hills to discover new herbs and of course my search for elixir of life will continue. I always take one of these volunteers with me. This memory herb is my latest discovery; of course I mix some other ingredients as well”

“Did you find any herb to reduce weight?” I was looking for a quick solution to reduce my weight.

He laughed loudly and said, “There are dieticians, gyms for that. Don’t you see film stars keep on adding abs at their own will? You contact one of them!”

It was getting dark and I already got a call in my mobile from my wife so nudged my nephew to get up.

Before leaving I requested him to give some of those concoctions of memory regain. He gave a small box containing the magic potion.

I wanted to pay but he refused to take money. Before leaving I asked about his prediction about BJP’s victory which we heard in the tea shop.

He said with a twinkle in his eyes, “ Oh,that! A team conducting exit poll had come to the ashram and they only told me. As they could not declare so I told on their behalf to the local people. Now local BJP leaders regularly visit me to find out if I need anything.”

The journey back was through the woods to the tourist lodge, we covered the distance in ten minutes.

I told Shuvo not to discuss about my taking that herb for memory and he kept it to himself.

After returning to Delhi I wanted to draw our maternal place in Birbhum which I have last seen in 1964. Surreptitiously I took that box out so that my wife could not see and took a pinch of herb. As experienced earlier, after a momentary blackout the complex in Bipratikuri , Birbhum got projected in my mind screen vividly. I could draw the layout correctly which was confirmed by my brother and sister. Later on I drew our house of Allahabad after taking a pinch of that herb. I have shared those pictures with my Face Book friends and in Google plus.

Well friends my request to you all is not to divulge about this mind blowing herb to anyone. I have a feeling this has shelf life and the potency may not sustain forever .
By the way after returning to Calcutta i am not able to locate that box of herb. I hid it in some such place that i forgot that secret location. Looks like i have to make another trip to Naukuchiatal.