Good green life
By Asha P Nair
15th September 2010 03:26 AM ]
THIRUVANATHAPURAM: If there are a thousand families in this city, leading a healthy life and staying out of hospital-beds, then N.Nanukuttan Nair and Saraswathy Bai deserve a big share of brownie points. The couple have not just believed in Nature Cure and shared its curative powers with many, but lived a life that even Mother Nature would be proud of.
The two are almost always together. When we met them at Gandhi Bhavan, Thycaud, they were calling it a day and about to walk the small distance from Gandhi Bhavan to their house. Nanukuttan Nair is the Secretary of the Prakriti Jeevana Samithi under Kerala Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi and Saraswathy an active helpmate. She takes counseling in naturopathy with her spouse, manages an eatery inside the Bhavan which serves only naturopathic food and would bind you to her words in the most subtle way one can imagine.
More than to learn good eating habits and healthy lifestyle, Saraswathy is sought after by many women to have a hassle-free delivery. By now, she can point out atleast a 100 children who have come to this Earth, only because their mothers followed a strict naturopathic regime under Saraswathy’s guidance.
“It’s not easy as it sounds. There are no short cuts. It’s not a treatment, it’s a way of living, close to Nature, that keeps one fit and the way humans were meant to be,’’ she says. Slim, pleasant and soft-spoken, Saraswathy would turn into a strict tutor when she has lives placed on her hands to be made better, says her husband.
Nanukuttan Nair, a native of Kummanam, had become a fellow-traveller of Gandhian ideas as early as his childhood days. He began frequenting Gandhian youth camps when he was just 12 years old. In the 70’s when Gandhi Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram was hosting some of the brilliant minds of India during the times, including Vinoba Bhave and Jayaprakash Narayanan, Nanukuttan Nair shifted his base to Thiruvananthapuram, In 1971 he married Saraswathy who was then a Hindi teacher with Kerala Hindi Prachara Sabha.
Saraswathy was suffering from severe arthritis at that time and Nanukuttan Nair introduced her to nature cure. It was a beginning. “Since then, I have shared what I learned with others,’’ she says. That’s how she’s got a cookery book to her credit (apart from the few translations she has done) that describes how to make ‘sambhar, juices and curries’ with the same flavour and taste but in the purest natural way. The book is available at Gandhi Bhavan.
“Food should be cooked and consumed fresh. There are many items that prakriti jeevanam restrain from using, like coffee, tea, sugar, meat, onion, pepper, green chillies, aluminium utensils and so on. But more than that, a change must engulf our whole being. If you are bad at heart and try to bring in good habits, then it negates the good effects. Food is secondary, virtues count first,’’ Saraswathy shares the secret.
According to her, ripe mangoes and tomatoes are an excellent substitute for tamarind. A ‘chammanthy’ made of mango is high on vitamins, she says. Saraswathy has hosted cookery shows in many television channels, stressing on Naturopathy food.
The biggest hurdle for the couple was not sticking to the principles they believed in, but passing on the faith to their two sons. “They are boys, they can easily go out and fall for bad trends, people used to scare me. But I took extra pain to cook them delicious food, keeping away the bad stuff. They took to yoga andpranayamam which Naturopathy advocates and remain loyal vegetarians,’’ a proud mother beams. Both their sons are now professionals and settled, one of them working abroad. Their childhood practises keep them fit for the fast times, the parents say.
At 70 and 61, the husband-wife duo are not thinking of taking a day off. They organise yoga and meditation classes along with Nature Living courses. Their phones keep ringing asking advices to good living, their counseling continues till the last person is satisfied and leaves and they keep talking about corrective life and positive energy which they hail as the mantra to long and healthy life. They can be contacted at 94470 15635.
asha.nair@expressbuzz.com
The two are almost always together. When we met them at Gandhi Bhavan, Thycaud, they were calling it a day and about to walk the small distance from Gandhi Bhavan to their house. Nanukuttan Nair is the Secretary of the Prakriti Jeevana Samithi under Kerala Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi and Saraswathy an active helpmate. She takes counseling in naturopathy with her spouse, manages an eatery inside the Bhavan which serves only naturopathic food and would bind you to her words in the most subtle way one can imagine.
More than to learn good eating habits and healthy lifestyle, Saraswathy is sought after by many women to have a hassle-free delivery. By now, she can point out atleast a 100 children who have come to this Earth, only because their mothers followed a strict naturopathic regime under Saraswathy’s guidance.
“It’s not easy as it sounds. There are no short cuts. It’s not a treatment, it’s a way of living, close to Nature, that keeps one fit and the way humans were meant to be,’’ she says. Slim, pleasant and soft-spoken, Saraswathy would turn into a strict tutor when she has lives placed on her hands to be made better, says her husband.
Nanukuttan Nair, a native of Kummanam, had become a fellow-traveller of Gandhian ideas as early as his childhood days. He began frequenting Gandhian youth camps when he was just 12 years old. In the 70’s when Gandhi Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram was hosting some of the brilliant minds of India during the times, including Vinoba Bhave and Jayaprakash Narayanan, Nanukuttan Nair shifted his base to Thiruvananthapuram, In 1971 he married Saraswathy who was then a Hindi teacher with Kerala Hindi Prachara Sabha.
Saraswathy was suffering from severe arthritis at that time and Nanukuttan Nair introduced her to nature cure. It was a beginning. “Since then, I have shared what I learned with others,’’ she says. That’s how she’s got a cookery book to her credit (apart from the few translations she has done) that describes how to make ‘sambhar, juices and curries’ with the same flavour and taste but in the purest natural way. The book is available at Gandhi Bhavan.
“Food should be cooked and consumed fresh. There are many items that prakriti jeevanam restrain from using, like coffee, tea, sugar, meat, onion, pepper, green chillies, aluminium utensils and so on. But more than that, a change must engulf our whole being. If you are bad at heart and try to bring in good habits, then it negates the good effects. Food is secondary, virtues count first,’’ Saraswathy shares the secret.
According to her, ripe mangoes and tomatoes are an excellent substitute for tamarind. A ‘chammanthy’ made of mango is high on vitamins, she says. Saraswathy has hosted cookery shows in many television channels, stressing on Naturopathy food.
The biggest hurdle for the couple was not sticking to the principles they believed in, but passing on the faith to their two sons. “They are boys, they can easily go out and fall for bad trends, people used to scare me. But I took extra pain to cook them delicious food, keeping away the bad stuff. They took to yoga andpranayamam which Naturopathy advocates and remain loyal vegetarians,’’ a proud mother beams. Both their sons are now professionals and settled, one of them working abroad. Their childhood practises keep them fit for the fast times, the parents say.
At 70 and 61, the husband-wife duo are not thinking of taking a day off. They organise yoga and meditation classes along with Nature Living courses. Their phones keep ringing asking advices to good living, their counseling continues till the last person is satisfied and leaves and they keep talking about corrective life and positive energy which they hail as the mantra to long and healthy life. They can be contacted at 94470 15635.
asha.nair@expressbuzz.com
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