Alka Kharsati has carved out a niche in the world of traditional alternative medicine and Ayurveda, says Rajiv Roy
PATIENTS FROM all over Meghalaya and elsewhere throng her clinic – Mei In’s Herbal Health Care – in Shillong’s Nongrimmaw area. That explains why Alka Kharsati is up there among traditional alternative medicine and acupressure practitioners.
A leading herbal healer, Kharsati has cured patients with severe arthritis, rheumatism, piles, toothaches, gastritis, ulcer, pressure, skin disease, backache, hair loss, etc. Her status as a doctor carries the halo of a beautician, her vocation in the past.
For Kharsati, traditional medicine is a legacy that her great grandfather had started. The family tradition earned her an honorary doctorate from Martin Luther Christian University.
But she had set out for a different career after doing a course from Shahnaz Husain International Beauty Academy in New Delhi. She returned to open a beauty parlour where she received people with health problems who wanted to look good. This made her develop an interest in Ayurveda after learning the anatomy of the human body.
“I never thought I would one day be a health practitioner and help patients with Khasi Dawai,” she said. Besides, people started telling her that the family tradition must go on.
Into herbal healing since 1997, Kharsati has earned tremendous faith from her patients for effectively resolving their problems. “I mostly get patients with complaints like backache, slip disc, rheumatism, arthritis and spondylitis,” she said, adding that she gets five cases of rheumatism on an average daily.
As word spread about her healing touch, patients from across the state, elsewhere in the country and even USA and UK began arriving for treatment.
Kharsati, a graduate from Lady Keane College, said she made up her mind to pursue herbal healthcare when her grandmother fell ill in 1997. “A patient came with a broken forearm. I applied some paste exactly the way I used to see my grandmother treat her patients. After few weeks she was cured,” she said.
That boosted her confidence. Her second patient was a woman from Pynursla, a village in East Khasi Hills. Her swollen hand was cured in two weeks by applying paste, oral medicine and controlled diet. There was no looking back as she went on to cure the former Meghalaya governor MM Jacob besides other dignitaries who has appreciated her work.
Kharsati was invited to an international conference “Transforming health systems to serve the wellbeing of indigenous and minority people” on traditional medicine in 2012. She was invited by Rockefeller Foundation and the conference was conducted by Amsterdam based Royal Tropical Institute, KIT Development Policy and Practice at Bellagio in Italy. She represented India along with another doctor.
“We were made to discuss in groups, observations of traditional practitioners at the local, national and international level, mind mapping among others,” she said.
Kharsati’s clinic manufactures oils made of herbs sourced from the state and border areas. These are then processed to extract the natural oil. The clinic has five workers.
While calling upon the state government to promote traditional medicine Kharsati hoped a bill passed by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council recently would help protect traditional health practitioners. “There are so many practitioners who are experienced and capable. I feel we can turn Meghalaya into a herbal health tourism destination just like Kerala is,” she said.
Kharsati is the secretary of Society for Promotion of Indigenous Knowledge and Practices, which is trying to bring all traditional practitioners under one umbrella and give them a platform. In a workshop at North Eastern Hill University, these practitioners got an opportunity to know about the research and use of various plant species. She is also trying to revive the use of small plant species mainly used for the purpose of first aid, stomach ache and other minor ailments.
“I remember when we suffered any injury during childhood our parents would rub on the affected area some plants, effectively medicinal. This is something we discussed in the international conference and NEHU workshop,” she said.
Affordable traditional medicines or Ayurveda, without any known side or after effects, is crucial for the rural areas where access to modern healthcare is difficult, she said.
Do her oils and medicines have any expiry date? Her grandfather did not believe so, but on a study tour to South India, Kharsati came to know that medicines should ideally be utilized within six months from the date of grinding.
In order to ensure the family tradition continues after her, Kharsati has admitted her eldest daughter in a Bangalore institute for a course in Ayurveda. Her second daughter is studying in Allahabad Agriculture University, presumably to attain expertise in farming medicinal plants.
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