Phew!! What a month that was. January 2017 happened to be quite a busy month for me. If you have noticed that I was not so regular in my posts in January. Well, if you did not notice then you may call me a victim of the “Spotlight Effect” Bias, as somewhere I always think that my readers miss my blog posts when I do not write regularly.
Well, in January I happened to visit Mumbai twice for different purposes. The first one is Health and the other one is the business. This post is to share my experiences of both these trips, especially the first one for health.
In the week of 7th Jan – 15th Jan, I went on a Pause. Yes, the same pause that I advised you to practice this New Year. This pause was for my health and since I did not go on any vacation in 2016, so I planned it in such a way that it can be counted in my annual vacations too.
I and my wife went to a place called Kaivalyadham, a Yoga, naturopathy and Ayurveda institute at Lonavala ( a small hill station near Mumbai). The purpose was to give focused time to my health as I had been experiencing lower back pain for quite some time now. This place was recommended by some of my friends who are regular visitors of this place.
It was a fantastic experience. K Dham Lonavala is a huge property spread across 180 acres. Lush green surroundings with a peaceful atmosphere, you actually feel like have got partially healed already.
On Day ZERO, we met the in-house doctors who recommended us with the line of treatment in Naturopathy or Ayurveda and also suggested some yoga asanas for our problem. Depending on your experience and regularity with yoga and kind of medical problem you are facing they recommend basic to advanced yoga asanas, which you perform in a dedicated class under the guidance of experts.
They have separate departments, buildings and even doctors/therapists for Naturopathy and Ayurveda. You have to meet the doctors in the respective department as advised on Day 1, and then they will design your complete week schedule and the kind of therapies you should undergo. They also give you the diet chart. You will get all the food as per chart in the dining hall.
Trust me, even though the food was quite simple and sattvik with no usage of onion/garlic, you will enjoy every bite. The “Daliya” and “Khichdi” which used to be my breakfast and lunch, were fantastic. And I mean it 😉 Also the salads were superb.
The day starts at 5:30 AM with herbal tea which had a strong taste of ginger in it. You will not feel a bit of cold after having 3-4 sips of the same. Then goes the cleansing kriyas like Jal neti, Sutra neti etc. followed by 1.5 hrs of Yoga class.
There used to be 2 sessions of the therapies per day as recommended. I was into Naturopathy, which was not as extensive and strict as Ayurveda, so I was quite relaxed and at leisure most of the time. By the way, you can also visit Kaivalyadham for Relaxation and participate in the yoga sessions only, and in that case, you will be at ease during 9 AM-5 PM, as this the time for the treatments session.
They had strict kitchen timings, if you missed food during that time, you will not be served again, unless you have some session scheduled and thus have a genuine reason.
Second yoga class starts at 5 PM, then 1 hour of Pranayam kriyas, and dinner at 7:30 PM. There used to be 1-hour daily lecture at 9:00 PM on different topics like stress management, Organic food, history of yoga etc.
There were 2 libraries if you are fond of reading, a juice center named Sattva, a provision store, cowshed, Plant nursery, a college, a school, Playground surrounded by Hills which reminded me of Queenstown Cricket stadium New Zealand.
All in all, it was a wonderful experience, which you can only enjoy when you are in a Pause. No phone, No TV, No fear of the boss, no service calls…Since I was actually on a pause so I hardly clicked any picture over there, moreover since most of the time we were either in the session, class or soaked in oil, so were not much in a position to click J and that’s why the videos that I have shared above are taken from Kaivalyadham website only and not recorded by me. But yes we enjoyed the relaxing surroundings a lot.
It was flexibly strict routine. Strict in the way they put it, and flexible from the eyes of students like us who are experiencing new things, which may look tough to start with, but once you put yourself in a process, you feel the importance of the activities around. I am a kind of person who when asked to follow a process, follow it to the core, No questions asked. So I surrendered myself completely to them and let them drive me the way they want.
I feel that when you start analyzing you stop enjoying. You just need to be sure of the other person’s intention and once you accept the person, you should trust completely, and follow what is being told.
You must be wondering if the treatment was effective and how is my back now, Right? Since this was the reason I went there at the first place. Well, I must say that the pain is still there, as I was told in the beginning only that 1 week is too less a time for full recovery. But I should also admit that the journey was wonderful and learning was quite useful…now it’s up to me how I will use those learning and inculcate those habits in my daily routine.
On our way back to Chandigarh, we had one day halt in Mumbai, where a dear friend and Fellow Financial planner Kiran Telang, treated us with pure authentic Maharashtrian Food. We went to a place named Vinay Health Home and relished delicacies like thalipeeth, kothimbir wadi,pooran poli, sabudana vada, Modaks and many more. So in a way, we broke our kind of “Semi-Fast” that was in Mumbai that was going on since last week.
I must tell you that Kiran is no less a foodie than me. She knows every nook and corner of Mumbai, where you can have the kind of food you like. She is like a Zomato to us. By the way, she is the one who recommended us K Dham, and I really thank her for that.
The Later half of the day and before calling it off, we enjoyed Chit -chat and stroll on Marine drive.
It was indeed a different unusual but a way healthy Pause. Would like to experience it more often.
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As they say, All work and No Play makes Jack a Dull Boy, I think the opposite is also true. So in the later part of the month, I visited Mumbai again to attend 3 conferences. The financial Planners’ Guild India Regional meet, Network FP RIA Summit and Network FP annual Conference 2017.
These are generally the few conferences which I attend in a year and rest others looks to be repetitive to me, with the same stuff.
SEBI Registered Investment advisor’s (RIA) Community is itself a very small group. Even after 4 years of regulations only 533 Individuals and entities are registered with SEBI. But those who are registered are among best of the lot. The agenda of the conferences are learning from each other in the areas of compliance, technology, and growth. I will not go much into this as it might not be of that interest to you.
But one thing I must tell you that if you can combine financial planning discussions with friends/Family, fun, and food, then those moments become no less than Funtastic.
The day of our arrival in Mumbai, I along with my friend Hemant went to see Theatre Play at Prithvi Theatre and had dinner at ISKCON temple nearby.
And rest of the 3 days, after we are done with the conferences we look upon to only one person to take us to the culinary tour of Mumbai, none other than the ZOMATO of the group- Kiran Telang J. However the idea of Prithvi theater and ISKCON was also given by her only.
This time along with other restaurants, on last day she took us to a Gujarati restaurant named SOAM, somewhere near Chowpatty. I was of the view that Gujarati food means Gujarati thali only, but no, it was much more than that. We had the farsaan platter, Dal Dhokli, Matar ki puri with Dahi wale alu. (Likhte likhte hi bhookh lag aayi 😉
And we called off the day with New Kulfi Centre’s Kulfi.
Family, Friends, Fun, Food, Finances and Health, what else you want in life? I had spent my entire month with all of these. But now I am back to work…February is going to be another happening month…Budget 2017 is around the corner.
