SURTI SCIENCE SHARUKH’S SURGEONS DON’T KNOW OF......
Of late, Tapi town has turned into old Mac. Donald’s farm. With here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack quack! Thankfully, now with more people aware of their existence, Surtis will watch out before taking prescriptions from the,’neem Hakeem khatrey jaan’ types. Or rather as Surtis put it,’gunn vagar na gyaani.’
In the old city area, there are some naturopaths- ’pattiwaley babas’; that cook wax like packs in a pan and apply sticky hot tapes to unmentionable body parts that are ailing with oozy boils! They believe a crime is committed only when you prescribe medication without a licence; as long as you do not do that, alternative medicine is legal enough.
There is however, another kind of alternative medicine which the government of Gujarat used to provide official licence for, after years of observation and practice. Though the government has now discontinued licence for this particular field, the ‘juna ane jaanita’ licence holders continue to soothe the pain of hundreds of patients a day, men women and children for an extremely nominal cost against the service they render.
If you have grown up in Surat as a child, chances are that a game of cricket, kabbaddi, khokho or catching the cook left you with a twisted arm, dislocated shoulder, swollen ankle or some such ailment for which you would have inardvently visited a bone setter a.k.a.’hadvaid’.’This term is a short form of ‘hadkana vaid’.
Since ancient Egyptian times, bone setting is an art that is an acquired skill. It is ancestral knowledge, which has been passed on down the generations, through sheer experience. A science that exists from a time when there were no chiropractors, osteopaths or therapists. ‘Bone manipulation is the Science of having X-ray vision’, a stalwart in the field told me. ‘We believe in preserving the bones,not removing them. I can confidently say, if Sharukh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had come to Surat, they would be cured without surgery.
Unlike our state of the art hospitals and clinics, a hadvaid’s clinic is generally a no nonsense, simple room, divided by a curtain in respect to the patient’s privacy. Cool Kota stone floors, with a whirring fan over old wooden benches and most definitely a poster or two of the visual human body chart with an anterior and posterior view. You can discover where medial/lateral condyle of femur, middle phalanx, lumbar vertebra and other such interesting body parts exist within your frame. Within the curtained room, one look at the trouble spot makes the experienced therapist know a ‘tachakda’ or popping in which particular angle will provide immediate relief.
Although swellings take time to heal, the pain relief is instant. Mortar and pestle ground cold and hot pastes that look like face packs are prepared at home by hadvaids. Everyone has their own special receipes with herbal ingredients that come in from the jungles of Dang,Bharuch,Vyaara etc.Once the dislocated bone is set, its painted with a ‘lep’ and neatly bandaged in white gauze and the patient gets to go home immediately.Now,only if Sharukh and Vajpayee knew about it.
TAPI TOWN TATTLE –What did Fiza’s phone friend turn into? Phoney fiend!