Truly affordable healthcare

I took my first of the "precious pills" from the Tibetan Men-Tsee-Khang this morning. I even woke up, took it with warm water, and went back to sleep under some blankets, just like the instructions said! As luck would have it, I also managed to avoid eating putrid food, getting into an accident, and having sex. So far so good!

After some thought I decided that I'd be missing out if I spent four months here, in the center of the Tibetan nation-in-exile, and didn't actually go check out the Tibetan medical facilities. Everyone keeps telling me about how you go in there and they diagnose you based on what your pulse feels like.

I'm intrigued. The 40 rupee price tag makes it even more appealing.

So today after class I went to check it out. I was told to take a number and have a seat by room C3.

After a wait of maybe fifteen minutes (and a line-jumping old Tibetan man), it was my turn. I went in to see doctor, a youngish Tibetan man of maybe 40, who was very kind and soft-spoken. He asked me a few questions, took my pulse in both wrists, and told me he'd write me a script for a couple of different medicines. I have some that I am supposed to take before breakfast, after lunch, and before bed, and then a different one that I take once a week. He also instructed me to "not take too many sweets" and to keep warm, especially on my lower back, and especially in the evenings. 

That sounds easy enough, right? 

After I paid (a whopping 550 rupees for a month's supply of these 4 different medicines, plus the office visit... I might have to move here just for the healthcare) I went over to the "medicine counter" where the women behind the glass read the doctor's order and filled little bags from jars of what looked like malted milk balls.

It's worth a shot, I suppose.

Yesterday in class the book had us practicing the form "What do you think of                 ?" "I like (him/her/it)." In order to do this, we were asked to make lists of famous people. It wanted four each of famous actors, famous actresses, pop groups, and TV "programmes." I had a feeling this was an exercise in futility, so I told my students to change it to famous men, famous women, musicians, and we did leave the TV programs as it was.

Here's the list we came up with:

Gotta love that Tibetan worldview.

Oh, and I also just discovered Memrise. It's like DuoLingo but with about a zillion more lessons. The only potential drawback I can see so far is that the lessons are submitted by users, so I'm not sure how accurate or regulated they are -- it's kind of like a cross between DuoLingo and Coursera. Regardless, DuoLingo does not yet have a Hindi program, so I'm taking my chances here. I also installed the Hindi keyboard so I can accurately type all the new words; it's taking some getting used to.

Medicine "enriched with spiritual blessing"

Ever since a few days after I arrived here in Dharamsala, my right eye has been giving me problems in the  mornings. (No, not the one that had the crazy infection before I went to India.) I wake up and I feel like something's in it -- not so much an eyelash, but maybe dust. I figured it might clear up after a few days, and when it didn't, I thought perhaps after I moved to a different building the new environment would fix the issue. I thought that maybe the monsoon season and resultant mildewy cushions/sheets/everything was the culprit, and once the sun came out for more than a few hours at a time I'd feel better.

Well, long story short, none of that helped. I still wake up most mornings feeling like there's something irritating my eye and it waters constantly for a good half hour. It's obnoxious. Nothing I do seems to make a difference. I considered just riding it out until I got home, figuring maybe getting out of India would fix it.

The other day, Gusti mentioned that she was going to go to Men-Tsee-Khang, the local Tibetan medical establishment, so I asked if she'd find me some eye drops while she was there.

This is what they gave her to give to me (50 rupees, by the way.. a little under $1):

Apparently they instructed Gusti that I take them with warm water; however, the official instructions are a bit more involved. I've taken the liberty of typing up excerpts so you don't have to squint at the photo:

A night before taking the precious pill, take light decoction prepared from seven grains of yerma (prickly ash) to open up body channels. Soak the pill in a small amount of hot boiled water using an clean unbroken cup covering it with a lid and leave it to stand overnight. The pill should not be expose to bright light. Early the next morning before day breaks, crush and stir the content either with a spoon or with the ring finger and drink the whole mixture after adding little amount of hot water. Retire to bed with warm covering and sleep for about one hour in order to induce little perspiration. Following that take little amount of hot water infused with saffron to close body channels. This will help to retain the effect of medicine in the body. ... When taken for rejuvenation by a healthy person, it should be taken on an auspicious dates like eight, full moon, and new moon days of Tibetan lunar calendar to gain optimum result.

(All errors are in the original text. I copied it exactly.)

The "Cautions" section reads as follows:
For a period of three to seven days after taking the medicine, avoid fish, pork, egg, sour alcohols, onion, garlic, wild garlic, putrid food, hot spices, strenuous physical activities, accidents, daytime sleep, cold bath and sex.

Well damn.