SAMRUDHDI KERKAR
Recently, I had the opportunity to witness an inter-school competition based on the theme of herbal medicine at Ideal High School, Piligao. I expected it to be a mere competition, but the moment I arrived, I was struck by an atmosphere brimming with passion, creativity and knowledge.
Various projects were displayed along the walls, where students had created colourful and informative posters about different herbs. On the tables was an array of plants and herbal preparations: concoctions infused with soothing herbs, aromatic soaps, herbal oils, face packs, pastes and much more. But what fascinated me most was that everything had been made by the students themselves.
Many of the students had chosen the same familiar herbs, yet their ideas were different. Some had even included photographs from their fieldwork, showing themselves interacting with their guides and various trees.
What made these projects unique was that they were not limited to information gathered from books or the internet. For this competition, most of the guides were elderly people or the students’ own grandmothers.
A girl in Class 10 had made a herbal leg-care oil that was said to help cure cracked feet. She remembered that a few years ago, while attending a wedding ceremony, she had noticed people feeling uncomfortable because of their cracked heels. Curious, she asked her grandmother, “Isn’t there any medicine to cure this?”
That was when her grandmother shared a recipe for herbal oil. What began as a simple remedy soon became a passion for her. She continued making the oil and distributing it among her relatives. Today, she says she runs a small business selling herbal oil.
At a time when being a doctor is often seen merely as a profession, her story felt like a reminder that the roots of the profession actually lie in empathy and the well-being of others. It was heartening to see that same curiosity and empathy in this young girl.
In the competition, most of the medicines were made from traditional ingredients such as ‘haldi’, lemongrass, ginger and many others. These flavours and remedies took me back to my childhood.
Whenever I had a cough, fever, wound, allergy or any other ailment, the first medicine I was given was a natural remedy prepared by my grandmother. I remembered the taste of tulsi leaves with honey and ghee, and how they seemed to soothe my sore throat. A little dab of colourful ‘haldi’ on a bloodstained wound would stop the bleeding.
The weekly ritual of ‘Kodu Vakhat’, a bitter concoction made from ‘kirayte’ (green chiretta), would make children wrinkle their noses and pull faces. The smell of adulsa leaves in warm bathing water somehow seemed to send the fever away. And then there was the way the home of a newborn baby would smell of fragrant dhoop made from onion peels.
Whenever I had ‘pitamb’, an allergic skin rash, my grandmother would go out and scrape some bark from the ‘jambhul’ (Syzygium cumini) tree, grind it into a juice and make me drink the bitter decoction, which, to me, seemed to send the allergy away almost immediately.
The knowledge of herbs and medicines passed down through generations speaks of the deep bond these communities have with nature. It was not only common herbs that found their way into traditional remedies; many wild plants were used as well. Perhaps this was one of the reasons they were protected and given a place of respect in culture and human life.
In Canacona, there is a festival called ‘Kodua Parab’, during which certain herbs are consumed as part of the tradition. During Diwali, there is also a tradition of drinking juice made from the bark of Alstonia scholaris, locally known as ‘Satvin’.
What made the competition even more special was the way it seemed to bring two generations together: the curiosity of the younger generation meeting the knowledge of the older one. And perhaps, if this traditional knowledge is given a foundation in scientific understanding, we can take the subject much further, preserving what we have inherited while also exploring what more these plants can teach us.
