Neera’s poem describes an Ayurvedic retreat, offering traditional therapies, herbal treatments, and cleansing practices in a serene natural setting, exclusively for Different Truths.

Full-body massage with bolstered oils
Herbal packs thumped over the body
Marma points plucked for pranic flow.
Steam baths in tight wood enclosures
To release toxins, balance humours,
relax muscles and improve blood flow.
Nasal inhalations with steam to relieve headaches and coughs.
A slow release of warm oil across the forehead
To calm the mind, to reach submerged centres.
Half and full enemas to wash out toxins from within.
So, the back, bones, and muscles work better.
Happily, we eat tasteless, oilless food with hot ginger water
Speak shyly of our ailments:
exhaustion, hypertension, ankylosing spondylitis, depression.
Watch mists unfurl over blue hills through an all-glass dining hall. 
The rain patters gently on blue tin roofs.
We watch, listen and lapse into silence.
The doctors advise meditation in the temple shrine
For on our precincts a sage once lived and taught.
The temple bells beckon at dawn, noon and dusk
right through hymns sung as night gently falls
on this vast circular landscape of hill, mist, distant lights 
imbuing its spirit of still wellness.

Picture design by Anumita Roy

Neera Kashyap

Neera Kashyap is a writer of short fiction, poetry, essays and book reviews whose work has appeared in several international literary journals and anthologies. Her collection of short fiction is in the pipelines with Niyogi Books, and a poetry manuscript is under review. Her book reviews have appeared in Kitaab, The Bangalore Review, Café Dissensus, RIC Journal, Quiver Review, The Wise Owl & Hooghly Review (forthcoming).

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