Hariprasad’s Weblog

Yesterday at one of the Adiga hotels in Bangalore, I saw this super-efficient waiter prepare finger-bowls for 2 customers.

Placed two bowls, poured steaming hot water into it, picked up a jug of cold water, mixed some cold water into both the bowls.

While walking towards the customer table, he “stirred” the water with his fingers and did a mock-test to ensure the water wasn’t too hot, lest the customer burn his hands.

The customers happily cleaned their hands and lips with this tested & certified water!

I’ll leave the MOS to you. But I decided to never again ask for a finger bowl in any restaurant.

Ayurveda says that all problems in the body come as a result of imbalances between the three types of constituents in the body – Vata, Pitta and Kapha. And generally, one is born with an imbalance. One or two of the constituents tend to dominate over the others. Thus we see people commonly complaining about having a sensitive stomach, or having sinus problems or constant tiredness and so on.

It is definitely possible to identify this imbalance at a gross level using one’s chart. Before we get to that, some data points.

Vata – Windy types, flatulence, “gas” problems, etc
Pitta – temper, baldness, acidity, “heat” etc
Kapha – cold, slow, watery, “sheeta” etc

Classifying the 12 signs according to the three doshas

Vata – Mithuna (Gemini), Kanya (Virgo), Tula (Libra), Makara (Capricorn), Kumbha (Aquarius)
Pitta – Mesha (Aries), Simha (Leo), Vrushchika (Scorpio), Dhanus (Sagittarius)
Kapha – Vrushabha (Taurus), Kataka (Cancer), Meena (Pisces)

Classifying the planets

Vata – Mercury, Saturn, Venus (partly – corresponding to Tula), Rahu
Pitta – Sun, Mars, Jupiter (partly – corresponding to Dhanus), Ketu
Kapha – Moon, Venus (Vrushabha), Jupiter (Meena)

With this data, one can see which of the three have a pre-dominant influence on one’s chart. The main factors would be the planet placed in the Lagna. If none, look for the placement of the Lord of the Lagna. Similarly, analyse the 6th house and its Lord. The strongest planet in the chart could also have a significant say. Once you have identified your dosha type, run to your grandmom for some ayurvedic juices/kashayas/lehas

A small anecdote….

I was suffering for many many years from chronic mouth ulcers. Remedies under multiple systems failed. Most people diagnosed it as either due to stress or due to improper food habits. Finally, I realized that I had a pre-dominantly Pitta body. I have Sun in Lagna and Lord of 6th Mars is in 11th house (own house, to top it). I started with regular Jeera concoctions and now have Kokum juice twice a week. For the last 6 months, my ulcers have practically ‘vanished’.

Ananthu has started off a series on our Mysore days. Great piece to start off Annie. Made me realize there are still some memorable parts of my past. I do hope you come up with a few more in the series and hence will leave the “episodes” for you to blog-cast.

But, since I hold the rights over the “sambar” story, I will put down a few memories here.

Since Ananthu and Proms had classes from 7ish in the morning and mine started from 10, I had the privilege of getting sambar from the friendly neighbourhood “Sri Manjunatha Mess”. The mess was about half a kilometer away and we had this old steel “dabba” to fetch sambar. I would start off on my black Hero Jet cycle around 9:30AM. Sambar for 5 rs was enough for the whole day. I remember the bearded guy at the counter in the mess. Never once did he talk to me. Neither did I…

The challenge was always in getting back home. The road had a slight elevation and I could not hold the cycle with both hands lest the sambar would spill off. It used to take quite some effort (remember, I am also a life time member of the “Never to cross 60kgs club”) to cycle one-handed on the road with sambar in one hand. Of course, the reward for doing so was excellent – crappy sambar rice (we cooked rice ourselves, btw).

We got addicted to the crap soon and never realized what we were stuffing ourselves with until Proms’ mother turned up one day. She simply could not believe we were eating such low quality stuff. The sambar ordeal ended pretty soon thereafter – we moved out of the area altogether.

I have always found that fruits in US/Canada have an extraordinary visual appeal. Very clean and huge in size, especially apples and bananas. But I always found them to lack a bit when it comes to taste. They seem to have an artificial sort of taste.

So when I heard that my company was serving organic fruit at our headquarters at Palo Alto, I was curious to try it out. I finally ate an “Organic Banana” today and found that its the closest in taste to an Indian banana. I am just wondering if that means all the fruit we grow and consume back in India is “Organic” Will try the organic apples and oranges available here and that should confirm.

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