Hospital with a difference

Forty-four km due south from Imphal and about three kilometres off National Highway 39 that leads to Myanmar at Kakching lies the Anandsingh Yoga and Nature Cure Research Hospital. Managed by the Kha Manipur Yoga and and Nature Cure Association, the hospital in itself is a small 10-bed affair. But it is here that “miracles” are performed for those affected by paralysis, backache, sciatica, hypertension, obesity, nerve and stomach ailments, gastro-intestinal problems and peptic ulcers. No medicines are prescribed except for vitamin supplements and that, too, for the mental satisfaction of patients. And all this is happening in the lap of nature at a location flanked by a 20-acre hill spread adorned with pine trees and a two-hectare plain area where the hospital is located.

The treatment regimen is completely natural and starts with a weeklong fast during which patients live on lime juice and honey, supplemented by fruits in the second week and, thereafter, on a single meal a day. The day starts with the doctor’s round where blood pressure is checked and treatment prescribed — which could be a hip, spine, foot and hand bath or a steam bath.

In the afternoon, a body massage session supervised by two masseurs ensures that no part of your body is left unattended. The evening sessions are confined to treatments that involve traction, blood circulatory machines or electrical massages.

Central to the idea of this therapy is the detoxification process, which, besides the fasting technique, also includes being administered an enema to remove all impurities from the body. The end result is a wonderful experience as those suffering from high blood pressure suddenly notice a plunge in the level. The overweight begin to heave sighs of relief on noticing their waistlines reducing inch after inch. The radiant glow returning to once sick faces is enough reason to stop looking for expensive health spas and beauty salons.

Dr Mayanglanbam Rajkumar is the soft-spoken 55-year-old CEO who started this hospital in 1983. He is assisted by Dr Amrabati Devi and they have dedicated staff like Mohon and Sharat, the male masseurs, and Menaka  and Ilina, the female masseurs, who also double as health therapists. They, in turn, are assisted by Elvina, Juliana, Rosea, Bijaya and Sonia, all trainee therapists who have signed up for a six-month course following which they will fan out to the big metropolises in mainland India to seek jobs. Considering that these girls come from a rural background and have hardly been out of the state, it is significant that they are mentally prepared to seek jobs outside the state in hospitals, health resorts and spas in five-star hotels.

The majority of patients here involve those who have  suffered from paralysis following strokes, etc, and had spent a fortune seeking cures outside the state. Burly Manipur Police ex-havildar Lala Singh had to be carried by four persons when he came in three months ago. Now he takes evening walks with the help of a walking stick. For several others like him, relief comes by way of painstaking structured therapy that depends entirely on nature and it’s various gifts. One woman suffering from acute peptic ulcers would groan in pain after consuming lime juice. Dr Rajkumar then prescribed plain water and thereafter she was made to consume the paste of a plant known to have antiseptic properties and locally called Terapaibi. Within a forthnight she was cured and discharged.

Earlier, the hospital also housed a community care centre for those afflicted with HIV/Aids but it had to be closed down after the National Aids Control Organisation ruled that all hospices or community care centres had to be managed by the respective state’s aids control societies. But what remains is the deaddiction and rehabilitation centre, called Healing  Point.

This is a 30-bed centre for deaddiction and rehabilitation. With drugs and alcohol abuse on a rampage in Manipur, the staff here have a busy time. A rehab centre with a difference, it admits addicts affected by HIV and does not discriminate. An HIV-prone addict called Johnny Depp because he resembled the Hollywood actor in his Pirates of the Caribbean garb would ask his counsellor every evening for his LSD fix. When asked to explain LSD, he would call it his Life Saving Drug. Then there was Yaima, admitted for alcoholism. Cured, he told the staff he would return with his father, who was an even more chronic alcoholic. Return he did and admitted his father, stating that “we cannot have two alcoholics in the same house”. Then there was SK, a former militant who’d had his guts blown out in an ambush by Army personnel on their patrol. He took to drinking heavily because of harassment by the police upon his release from hospital, a clear case of post-traumatic shock withdrawal syndrome. The staff at Healing Point took good care of him and others who have made the comeback from trauma and addiction include Arun, Boinao, Ajitsen, Ajit and Enao.

Funded by various agencies of government of India and foreign donors, patients are charged a bare minimum — Rs.200 a month at Healing Point and about Rs.7,000 a month at the hospital, for lodging and treatment expenses.