Western medicine seems lacking says author Abraham Verghese

Indian-American author Abraham Verghese, known for his intensely personal works’My Own  Country’ and “The Tennis Partner” is writing his fourth book, a novel set in Kerala, his home-state. Although his last book and first novel “Cutting for Stone” was autobiographical, it wasn’t set in Kerala, but in Ethiopia, where he grew up. This time, he seeks to go back to his roots in Kerala - beyond his Syrian Christian ancestry and voyage into temples, churches and perhaps the mystique and metaphysical of native wisdom. What Verghese has written about his visit to Kerala in New York Times, should serve as the perfect promotional literature for Kerala tourism. [caption id=“attachment_317787” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Author Abraham Verghese is known for his books on HIV and AIDS. AFP”]  [/caption] He starts with the fabled Padmanabha Swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, which shot into global fame for its reported $22 billion treasure trove and the magical spell it wove around him. In fact, he manages to gain entry into a temple that is forbidden for non-Hindus, and vouches for the presence of Lord Vishnu that he felt. The next exotic details are from a Syrian Christian wedding which also takes one through another fable - that the Syrian Christians were Brahmins converted into Christianity in the first century. His visits to Parumala Church in central Travancore, where his grandfather worked as a deacon, and to Kozhikkode present some more pop history and ethnographic details against the present landscape of Gulf-remittances and concrete. An exposure to the traditional martial art form “Kalari” and the millennia-old medical practice of Ayurveda are also on his menu. While most of the essay reads like a replay of a non-resident’s nostalgic homecoming account of his/her native country that one sees on TLC or Discovery, there is a dramatic element in Verghese’s account: his seeking the “body and soul” after experiencing Kalari and a traditional massage. He writes, “But this was the surprise: the one thing I had felt fairly certain about, the Western craft of medicine, now seemed lacking and superficial. I had done some exploring of the soul, but the study of the body would have to begin again with new purpose and vigor. God give me mastery of the body, is what I prayed on the flight back. Give me body and soul.” He almost shuns the incompleteness of Western medicine, doesn’t he? Read the complete essay here: