Grandmothers who have lived through separation, war or both keep the secrets of this heritage from natural remedies
For centuries, people across the Indian subcontinent have used the wise advice of their ancestors to solve various problems they encounter in daily life.
My twins from birth have been draping steel pot lids, small bags of rice, and tea-cup saucers, just to keep their heads turned.
This is one of the Pakistani “tutkai” tricks, which I have encountered since I gave birth to my two children, and “tutkai” - singular totka - are home remedies and solutions, promoted by many and underestimated by some, but they are often effective.
For many years, the people of the Indian subcontinent have used the wise advice of their ancestors to solve the problems of daily life.
Some of these tips are practical, such as treating eyelid boils with garlic, and spreading salt and turmeric in the house to expel ants, and some of them are strange, such as placing egg shells in the corners of the house to deceive lizards, and putting cloves in lemon to prevent dengue fever.
Many of these remedies rely on the magic trio: lemon, turmeric, and ginger. While the ghee drink is prescribed to stimulate labour, the asafoetida drink treats flatulence. Bus and train passengers may encounter street vendors selling "cures" for common ailments. Older people often give advice at social events to solve various problems of daily life.
In Pakistan, if you develop any symptoms of a disease, everyone will race to give you advice on how to treat it.
Natural herbal skin and skin care recipes are also very popular, perhaps because beauty salons and the use of cosmetics are still the preserve of married women in some Pakistani families, which makes these natural treatments the only option for many.
Acne treatment tips include crushing stale flat bread and mixing its powder with neem leaf powder to reduce excess skin sebum and cleanse pores. People pin their hopes on these ingredients that are available in kitchens and food cupboards to treat various problems and diseases.
These centuries-old natural recipes and tricks have provided effective solutions using tiny amounts of available ingredients, made health care more accessible to the largest number of people, and popularized self-care methods.
The word "totka" is an Urdu word that was used for the first time in 1683 in a book called "Chants of Married Women". Sayeda Noshin Ali, who teaches Urdu in Karachi, says: “Totka means cure from evil and negative things, and the word was associated with black magic and witches. In contemporary Urdu after people in South Asia refrained from these practices, the word became used to refer to herbal medicine As if it was a magic cure."
Tutkai in Pakistan evokes nostalgia, as grandmothers who lived through separation and war are the keepers of this type of treatment and advice. The publication of these treatments may be a tribute to the perseverance and resourcefulness of these grandmothers.
Tutkai's treatments gained great importance during political turmoil or famine, as they were the only means of treating diseases, and were not complementary or alternative.
Rehman Nawabjan Siddiqi, an octogenarian Pakistani, tells of watching his grandmother in India, where he grew up, treat ringworm with garlic and wasp stings with onion juice.
Although his grandmother had never practiced medicine, and her home was a minute from the Christian Medical College Hospital, the townspeople preferred the herbal remedies she prescribed to them rather than a visit to the hospital.
My friend and grandmother kept a wide vial filled with poisonous scorpions soaked in sesame oil to use as an antidote to scorpion stings. In the garden of the house, they grew various herbs such as the local aloe vera, which is used as a natural sunscreen. They collected the roots, the pulp of the fruits and the leaves of the flowers and used them in the preparation of medicinal recipes for various diseases.
These affordable and available solutions often come from the kitchen or pantry
Many patients resort to herbal medicine because it is the cheapest alternative to chemical drugs sold in pharmacies. These herbal remedies are from the earth and passed down by people who live on the earth. "I still trust the herbal remedy since my childhood," says Siddiqi.
Zubaida Tariq, a famous chef in Pakistan, has been popular for her role in promoting "tutkai" cures and tricks since the late 1990s. Over the course of her rich career, which she started at the age of 50, during which she presented 6,500 cooking shows, she has been giving advice to viewers on local channels and answering their inquiries.
In her last interview, Zubeida described Tutkai by saying: "She is the heart of the extended family system. We were brought up to use warm honey, nutmeg seeds and ginger to treat coughs, and lemon juice on the temples to treat headaches, so that people do not know the names of medicines."
But even if people know the names of medicines, they always prefer to return to the methods of medicine they have been familiar with for centuries. Sajid Mahmoud, the naval captain, remembers that his grandmother treated a deep bleeding wound on his finger with turmeric, and he did not need to see a doctor or visit a hospital.
Due to their overwhelming popularity, companies such as Hamdard are now massaging these popular ancient remedies
Dr. Balqis Sheikh, a certified homeopathic and alternative medicine practitioner and herbalist, helps bridge the gap between the world of medicine and the world of herbalism. Bilqis hails from a small village in the far north of Pakistan, and the village's lack of doctors and medical centers has ignited a passion for nature's healing.
“If you have a fracture and the nearest doctor is 12 hours away, the best solution is to look for a remedy from the kitchen or use willow branches. All the women in Pakistan have their kitchens full of natural recipes,” says Bilqis.
Belqis launched a channel on YouTube, with more than one million subscribers, and it deals with many topics from hormonal imbalance to natural recipes for straightening the hair using coffee, yogurt and borax powder, and a three-minute teeth whitening recipe, which includes clove powder (because it is an antiseptic substance) and garlic powder ( Which contains sulfur that removes tartar), ginger powder (to prevent bleeding gums) and salt (to clean the accumulated material on the teeth and eliminate bad smell).
Although these ingredients are known in grandmothers’ recipes, Belqis has added a scientific character to them, by reviewing practical research, periodicals and books in this field, to support each recipe with evidence and research.
Many see that natural herbal medicine is the least expensive alternative to resorting to doctors and hospitals
Belqis says that her method of presenting scientific evidence for traditional remedies resonates with millennials, who turn to the search engine "Google" in search of solutions to their problems in life.
According to the channel's staff, many of its followers are in their twenties, and this reveals the increasing demand of Pakistani youth for local treatments. "We are like plants, if we lose touch with our roots, we will wither," says Bilqis.
Social networking sites, "WhatsApp" and "YouTube" contributed to the dissemination of tips and tricks "Totkay". The videos on the "Pak Tutkai" channel, which presents daily tips in less than ten minutes, on various topics ranging from ways to apply cosmetics to ways to make chicken pasta, and recipes to fight wrinkles, have gained more than six million views.
Daily conversations, family chats on WhatsApp or TV shows are not without Tutkay's advice.
To meet this great demand for natural healing recipes, these recipes are produced on a large scale, and packaged in vials in laboratories and pharmacies.
I spoke to Fatima Munir Ahmed, Managing Director and CEO of Hamdard, Pakistan for the manufacture and distillation of herbal medicines.
Fatima's great-grandfather established the first clinic in Delhi for Greek medicine in 1906, and after Pakistan's secession from India, her father established the Hamdard Company in Pakistan. "All the fixtures we make are taken from my father or grandfather," says Fatima.
Like Ayurveda or "the science of life", which dates back 5,000 years, the World Health Organization states that Greek medicine is based on principles established by Greek and Persian scholars, such as Hippocrates and Avicenna. Oriental medicine combines Greek medicine, Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic principles, and is practiced in South Asian countries.Oriental medicine treatments are based on treating the entire body to maintain internal balance. In her childhood years, Fatima used to take steps to clean the stomach on the weekends. Eating castor oil on Saturdays for its laxative effect, then eating yogurt rich in beneficial bacteria on Sundays, contributes to maintaining the health of the stomach and intestines.
Fatima says: "The whole body is interconnected. Do not expect the stomach to perform its functions one day, and then the brain to perform its functions the next day."
Instead of treating the symptoms of disease like contemporary medicine, oriental medicine treats its causes. When treating acne, practitioners of Greek and oriental medicine do not prescribe chemical ointments and preparations, but rather remove impurities from the blood using neem leaves and Chinese sarsaparilla, known for its properties in the treatment of psoriasis.
In contrast to the parents and grandparents who used to attend these recipes daily, the current generation wants to obtain these effective remedies quickly and without difficulty. That's why Hamdard has produced a "Safi" drink made from neem and Chinese sardine leaves. The drink was very popular in Pakistan among those wishing to have clear skin free of spots and pimples.
Fatima's grandfather founded the City of Wisdom, to be the City of Education, Science and Culture on the outskirts of Karachi, the first of its kind in the Indian subcontinent to offer a Ph.D. and five-year study programs in oriental medicine. The city aims to prepare practitioners of Greek medicine in order to continue research into alternative natural therapies.
The city conducted advanced research using cross-fertilization techniques and genetic engineering, and came to new results, for example, that immersing lemons without squeezing them in water preserves the nutrients of lemons that may be lost in the case of squeezing.
Ghazala Radwani, Dean of the City of Wisdom, recommends the benefits of natural herbal medicine, and explains in detail the properties of all the ingredients used in natural healing recipes. The effectiveness of cloves in treating toothache is due to the fact that it is rich in eugenol, which makes it a natural anesthetic.
Radwani discovered that the cumin and nutmeg seeds drink treats bloating, because the nutmeg seeds aid digestion, and cumin contains the anti-inflammatory substance thymoquinone.
Many natural recipes "tutkai" have recently found their way to the West, perhaps for their therapeutic benefits or to keep pace with new trends. But the centuries-old tips and recipes of Totkai are of great importance in the Indian subcontinent, because they provided effective solutions using small amounts of available ingredients, and were credited with making health care available to the largest number of the population, and spreading self-care methods.
These prescriptions still serve the injured and sick at an affordable price.
It is likely that the recipes of "Tutkai" will remain for many years and will play a pivotal role in shaping our identity. When we display these recipes, we recall the heritage of our ancestors. This is evidenced by the full rotation of my head.