Accessibility is the key word today.

In the lockdown, being accessible to our loved ones or being accessible to the things we need has been a challenge. Accessibility with oneself got clearer and many reached out for being natural in every consumption, from food to self-maintaining products. Natural remedy to improve one’s immunity during the pandemic was a hotline topic discussed and circulated amongst groups.

In a normal course of living too, many seek out for natural remedies to overcome disorders and diseases.

Natural is something that is readily available in one’s garden, kitchen and local market and farms. To simplify it, the natural remedy ingredients are usually ingredients that are readily available in the backyard or kitchen. Our grandmothers always had a remedy for our everyday cuts, bruises, burns, cold, cough, heartburn, indigestion and skin rashes. Not only that, but quick decoctions of certain herbs, spices or some delicious aromatic foods were always served to help a disturbed, agitated, low or nervous mind!

In todays world, we search online for natural remedies and most of our effort goes in trial and testing exactly at the time when the remedy is needed at the earliest. Natural remedies are like an inheritance when learnt from the seniors of the family, as those formulas have been tested, applied and have worked successfully for generations. The remedies are like natural medicines and so they have a chemical composition which has its effects on the body not only through taste but also from our senses. For example, women wearing jasmine flowers in their hair during summer has a cooling effect on the mind. The fragrance of the flowers for the nose, the colour white for the eyes and the cooling effect on the scalp which acts as the touch. Similar is the case with sandalwood paste and the champa flower which blooms in abundance in the summer. It is a cooling remedy in the scorching heat for the senses and the mind, which is the 6^th sensory organ. I guess we all have experienced the use of the above through the senior women in our families in some way or the other around us.

The proportions of the ingredients play a crucial role in these natural remedies. For example, a remedy for cough is boiling a few bamboo leaves in 2 glasses of water and reducing to 1, adding a pinch of ginger powder and sipping it over a period of minutes. In this case the age of the person will decide the amount of leaves, ginger powder and the amount to be sipped. So with the tested formula, the proportions of ingredients, its use in consideration with age, gender, intensity of illness/discomfort and a good knowledge about its contraindications should also be known. It is a good time now, when everything has slowed down to connect to our grandmothers, mothers, aunts and take down recipes or formulas of natural remedies from the family treasure box of the naturally fit and healthy!

To share a few with you from my treasure box. Its simple to grow the following plants on your terrace garden too.

SON CHAMPA FLOWERS

Have them around in your house, especially if you are working on the screen for long hours, keep them in some water and inhale the fragrance and look at them every few minutes – for a cooling effect.

BEETEL LEAVES

It has various properties like anti- diabetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-infective just to name a few. Besides chewing it with betel nut and other ingredients, one can use it regularly in cooking. Place them over cooked rice when it is just about done for the rice grains to soak in its benefits and adds a refreshing taste to it. You can add them to your butter when you make ghee, as a teaspoon of ghee is consumed by the entire family in an Indian household.

AJWAIN LEAVES

Ajwain leaves are an easy available remedy for digestive disorders, whether its flatulence or improving digestion. Eat one leaf on an empty stomach for a few days. Add chopped leaves to raitas, juices or dips foe easy consumption.