Ayurveda Basics
Anupana: why herbs come with warm water, milk, or honey
In a small kitchen in Mysuru, an aunt of mine keeps a brass tin of triphala powder on the shelf above the...
Section
Ayurveda Basics
A gentle, beginner-friendly look at Ayurvedic lifestyle ideas. Cultural and historical, not medical guidance.
17 entries in this section
Ayurveda Basics
Agni: what “digestive fire” means, in plain language
In the kitchen of a small flat in Pune, an aunt used to lay her palm flat against her stomach after lunch...
Ayurveda Basics
Winding the evening down, the Ayurvedic way
The lamps in my grandmother's house in Vellore used to come on around six, even when the sun was still out. She...
Ayurveda Basics
Resting the senses: a quieter Ayurvedic afternoon
Years ago, in a small writing residency on the Moroccan coast, I shared a kitchen with an older woman from Bangalore who...
Ayurveda Basics
Drinking water through the day: warm sips, small cups
In the old tea-room culture of Kyoto, water is treated almost as carefully as tea. A kettle is kept warm in the...
Ayurveda Basics
The six tastes: a beginner’s introduction
The first time someone explained the six tastes to me, I was eleven years old and helping my grandmother put together a...
Ayurveda Basics
Mindful eating: the slow Ayurvedic plate
There is a small steel plate in my parents' kitchen, slightly dented at the rim, that has eaten more meals with me...
Ayurveda Basics
Resting after meals: the village afternoon pause
In a small village outside Madurai, I once spent a summer week in a friend's family home where the afternoon, between roughly...
Ayurveda Basics
Eating food warm: an old Ayurvedic idea
There is a small lunch room in Kyoto where I used to eat almost every weekday for a year. The owner, a...
Ayurveda Basics
A small Ayurvedic spice shelf
The spice shelf in my mother's kitchen in Bangalore is not the romantic kind. There are no hand-labelled glass jars or chalkboard...
Ayurveda Basics
Ghee in the traditional kitchen
The smell of ghee being made is unmistakable. Slightly nutty, faintly toasted, with a kind of patience that no other cooking smell...
Ayurveda Basics
Tongue scraping in the Ayurvedic morning
The first object I remember picking up in my grandfather's bathroom in Hyderabad, around the age of five, was a small, U-shaped...