170 chapter
an allopathic hospital because of fear of the eff ect of ECT on her somewhat
elderly husband:
Th ey told us we should take him to [name of allopathic hospital]. He is old now.
If we take him there, they’ll give him a shock or something. He is 64 years old.
Here they give only native medicine and will get change [māttam]. Th ey [some
relatives] told us there was improvement [bhēdam] with this medicine for their
son so we took him here. He has a cough and asthma now, but he will get over
it. Th is treatment can do all this.On a previous visit to an allopathic hospital, Kuttappan ran away from the
hospital claiming the staff was doing black magic on him. I do not know if this
was a reaction to ECT or other aspects of treatment or if he was given ECT
during his fi rst stay at the allopathic hospital. I did not specifi cally enquire
about this because I was not specifi cally looking for reactions to ECT when
we met Kuttappan.
In addition to her worries about allopathic treatment, Kuttappan’s wife’s state-
ment reveals a degree of enthusiasm in describing their expectations and experi-
ence in ayurvedic care. I heard several enthusiastic descriptions among other
ayurvedic patients and persons using religious therapies, but such descriptions
were rare among patients we interviewed who were using allopathic medicine.
Some patients say they were helped by allopathy, some say they appreciated the
quick eff ects of allopathic treatment, but interviewees did not off er nostalgic or
enthusiastic descriptions of allopathic care. Also, Kuttappan’s wife uses the term
māttam, which best translates as “change,” and bhēdam which means “improve-
ment,” to describe what they hope to accomplish in seeking therapy. Neither of
these terms, nor indeed any term in Malayalam used for the dispensation of an
illness has the remedial, return-to-normalcy implications inherent in the con-
cept of “cure.”^8 Th ey leave open the possibility of more modest or more exalted
forms of “change” than what is implied by “curing” or “healing.”
In discussing the outcome of an earlier stay at an allopathic hospital with
my assistant Benny, Kuttappan’s wife recalled:
Kuttappan’s Wife: After staying there, the problem was gone [literally, “there
was nothing” onnum undāyilla].Benny: After taking treatment from there he was completely okay [pournamāyi
sariyāyi].Kuttappan’s Wife: After 22 days, all of his illnesses had changed/were gone [ellā
asukhavum māri].