Did you know?

Did you know that there was a foundation for revitalization of local health traditions (FRLHT) in Bangalore? Wow! It has Sam Pitroda, among others, on its Governing Council.

How did I get to know? Saw their office bus going past mine a few days ago and noticed the name of the foundation printed on the bus and actually gaped at it as I really did not imagine we had such interesting initiatives to preserve our good old knowledge of medicines! Would be interesting to know what else this foundation does apart from research on ancient Indian medicine theories. Their mission talks about medicinal theory, practice and yes - perhaps the most important – lasting social impact. But well the truth is that it is yet to impact a laywoman like me…! I hadn’t even heard about the existence of such a foundation till I saw their office bus but I am to be blamed for that. If not for my poor newspaper reading habits…

But on scanning some press releases linked to the FRLHT website, it appears that there was one initiative that tried to touch laymen - An effort to get some cities in TN to grow medicinal plants. BTW, many homes in South India do grow Neem and Tulsi both of which are well-known for their medicinal values.

FRLHT Mission

To demonstrate the contemporary relevance of Indian Medical Heritage by designing and implementing innovative programmes related to
A. exposition of the theory & practice of traditional systems of medicine,
B. conservation of the natural resources used by Indian systems of medicine
C. revitalisation of social processes for transmission of the heritage, on a size and scale that will have societal impact.