MAGIC--Being in the Right Place at the Right Time

I wanted to see the Ayurvedic Doctor that I saw last time I was in Pune. While the temptation to see the famous Dr. Lad is always here, I decided to revisit Dr. Shaw; after all he is Mr. Iyengar’s doctor. My experience with Dr. Shaw in 2006 was a good one. After having tried to unsuccessfully ring him several times yesterday, I hopped into a rickshaw, address in hand, determined to find him. Alas, the rickshaw driver eventually found the clinic and as I was paying him, Dr. Shaw himself arrived via rickshaw. He greeted me in recognition with a smile saying “it’s been a long time”.
His clinic has one chair and two hard benches in the “front” followed by a false wall. Behind this false wall and door is the gigantic desk where the good doctor sits, behind which is a large bookshelf stacked with books and a photo of Dr. Shaw shaking Mr. Iyengar’s hand. To the left is a cabinet full of herbs manned by his two helpers and a very elegant Victorian-looking red curtain hiding the table on which the patient might lie. The walls are a faded vibrant sea green-blue—a color unique to India.

There was one patient waiting for him before me. As I waited in the front room, an older Indian woman arrived via private vehicle and sat in the chair across from me. “From where do you come?” she asked. “New Mexico” I replied and from there our conversation began about how long I’m here and what I’m doing here. Also a yoga practitioner with Guruji for 35 years, she was also an MD, specializing in gynecology before she retired.

It’s now my turn with the doctor. I sat at the desk in front of him as he asked me my complaints with one hand on my wrist and the other flipping through a tattered book to his right. After searching a few pages, he flipped to a page and there was my business card and record of treatment from August 2006. I was amazed. I wish I had the same acuity in finding my own records.

He re-emphasized some of the long-forgotten practices that he gave me the last time I saw him. I am to blow on hot water and suck it down, once a day, and eat a small piece of raw ginger before each meal. Then he told his helpers to prepare some kind of herbal concoction which I am to take three times a day for a month with a few teaspoons of milk. Listening to the charming singing from the temple across the road, I take a few photographs as I wait outside for the remedies to be prepared. The herbal concoction comes in individually hand-wrapped packets of paper.

My new friend, Dr. Telang, offered me a ride to the Institute, which I gratefully accepted. Traffic hour in Pune in a rickshaw is toxic---the streets smoky with thick, black diesel emissions. On the way home, we discussed Dr. Telang's book—which I can hardly wait to buy at the Institute this morning—Understanding Yoga through Body Knowledge. She spent six years researching Upanishads, the Vedas, Ayurveda, etc. etc. to write the book. She gave me her phone number so that we could meet and she could answer any questions I might have regarding it, after I’ve studied it. She answered long time questions I’ve had about Mula Bandha and the female body.
She graciously dropped me at the Institute—I am twenty-five minutes late for class. Stephanie, the lovely Australian woman who has lived in India forever, said that I could still join the class. It was a substitute teacher again….I would never dare to enter an Iyengar class so late. The class was fabulous. Sun salutations focused on the rhythm of the breath followed by long inversions with poetic descriptions of the actions of the practice. It was a beautiful, magical evening!