“Aaaaiii! I’m dying, Banta!'”
“My foot is broken!” Santa howls, sitting on the ground and clutching his rapidly swelling ankle.
“We need to get a dandi ready!”
“The hospital is three hours away!”
“By the time I reach, my foot will be the size of a pumpkin!”
Banta calmly examines the ankle.
“It’s a bad sprain, Santa, not a break.”
“But you are right, the swelling is quick and the pain is great.”
“The journey will be long and agonizing.”
He looks around, his eyes scanning the edge of the forest nearby.
“But wait here.”
“Our ancestors left a Dawaai for this very pain, growing right here.”
“Medicine?”
“Here?” Santa asks through gritted teeth.
“There is no chemist shop in the jungle!”
Banta ignores him and walks purposefully into the bushes. He returns a few minutes later with a handful of a specific, broad-leafed plant.
“Ah, here it is.”
“My grandmother used to call it the Dard Haran Patta.”
He quickly crushes the leaves with a smooth stone, mixing them with a tiny bit of warmed mustard oil from his small tiffin, creating a thick, fragrant poultice.
Santa watches with a mixture of scepticism and hope.
“You’re going to put that… that Chutney on my foot?” Santa asks.
“This Chutney, Santa, is a gift from our Van Devtas,” Banta says, gently applying the warm poultice to Santa’s swollen ankle.
The effect is almost immediate. A soothing warmth spreads through the joint, and the sharp, throbbing pain begins to subside into a dull ache.
Santa sighs in relief.
“Banta… the pain… it’s fading!”
“What is this magic?”
“It’s the magic of traditional knowledge, Santa,” Banta replies, wrapping the poultice with a clean cloth.
“The knowledge of which plant reduces swelling, which leaf stops bleeding, which root soothes a burn.”
“For centuries, this was our First Aid Box.”
“Our forests were our pharmacy.”
“Our women and elders were our doctors.”
He then looks sad.
“But this knowledge, Santa, is now a dying ghost.”
“I remember this plant because my grandmother insisted I learn.”
“But ask my son, or yours… do they know the Dard Haran Patta from a useless weed?”
“No, they know the name of the painkiller tablet from the city, but they don’t know the name of the pain-relieving plant in their own backyard.”
“This knowledge is not written in books; it lives in memory.”
“And as our elders pass on and our youth look only towards the cities, this entire library of healing is being erased.”
He adds, his voice taking on a chilling tone, “They say when a sacred plant is forgotten by all humans, its spirit weeps in the forest at night, lamenting the loss of its purpose, its name, its power to heal.”
“Our forests are now full of such weeping ghosts, Santa.”
“And that is a horror far greater than any Churail.”
Santa looks at his soothed ankle, then towards the forest.
He feels a chill that has nothing to do with the cool mountain air.
“The weeping ghost of a forgotten leaf… Banta, you are right.”
“What is the use of a hospital three hours away if we forget the immediate relief growing at our own feet?”
“We must… we must write these things down, before all our plants start weeping.”
संता – बंता की इस जुगलबन्दी से आज हमने क्या सीखा:-
- परम्परागत ज्ञान का अभिलेखीकरण / Document Traditional Knowledge: इससे पहले कि सदियों के अनुभव से उत्पन्न पूर्वजो का यह ज्ञान पूरी तरह से विलुप्त हो जाये हमें इसे खोजना व अभिलेखित करते हुवे इन्हे विज्ञान कि कसौटी पर जांचना होगा, और आपदा प्रबंधन के साथ ही विशेष रूप से उपचार कि विधियों तथा औषधीय पौधों के सन्दर्भ में यह अत्यंत आवश्यक है / There is a pressing and urgent need to scientifically document and validate traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and healing practices before it vanishes.
- बदलने के बजाय एकीकृत करो / Integrate, Don’t Replace: हमें ऐसा माहौल तैयार करना होगा जहाँ आधुनिक प्राथमिक चिकित्सा व उपचार के साथ-साथ परम्परागत चिकित्सा पद्धतिया एक साथ काम में लायी जा सकें। विशेष रूप से दूर दराज के इलाको में जहाँ आधुनिक उपचार की सुविधा नहीं है वहाँ परम्परागत चिकित्सा पद्धतिया अत्यन्त महत्वपूर्ण हो सकती है / Promote an integrated approach where modern first aid and traditional remedies can coexist. Traditional knowledge can provide invaluable immediate relief, stabilising victims in remote areas.
- ज्ञान ही प्रतिरोध्यता है / Knowledge is Resilience: विशेष रूप से आधुनिक चिकित्सा सेवाओं की पहुंच से वंचित दूर दराज के इलाको में समाज को स्वास्थ्य व निरोग रखने में परम्परागत चिकित्सा विधिया अत्यन्त महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभा सकती है और इनका ह्रास होने से समाज की घातकता में बढ़ोत्तरी होगी / This indigenous knowledge is a critical component of community health resilience, especially in areas with poor access to formal healthcare. Its loss is a direct increase in community vulnerability.
संता – बंता की यह जुगलबन्दी आपको कैसी लगी, कृपया हमें जरुर बताये
व
इस जुगलबन्दी को बेहतर बनाने के लिये अपने सुझाव अवश्य दें।
हमें हमेशा की तरह आपके सुझावों, प्रतिक्रियाओं व कटाक्षो का बेसब्री से इंतजार रहता हैं और सच मानिये इसी के आधार पर हम अपने आप में, अपनी सोच व रचनात्मकता में सुधार करने को प्रेरित होते हैं।
सो अच्छा – बुरा जैसा आपको महसूस हुवा हो, कमेंट जरुर करते रहें।
Leave a Reply