Doctor continues with a unique tradition for the benefit of asthma patients

He is a practicing physician for 364 days in a year. But as soon as full-moon night of Poovar’s Poranmashi (the last full moon prior to Diwali) descends, Dr. Anoop Kumar Srivastava, an MBBS doctor, sheds his doctor’s robe to distribute a very traditional medicine for chronic asthma patients. Thousands of patients from far and near descend on his house, with kheer (a traditional delicacy cooked in milk) in earthen bowls to take the medicine at midnight. This is a practice that has continued in his house in Lucknow for last 75 years, right from the time of his famous homeopath grand father, Pyare Lal Srivastava.
Coming from an ordinary person, you would have been tempted to discard this. But the thousands of people, who descend on Dr. Srivastava’s ancestral house on Poovar’s Pooranmashi every year, suggest that there could be some veracity in his treatment. Moreover, he is a practicing physician who would otherwise test all things on the basis of science before believing them.
Elaborating on the procedure, Dr. Srivastava tells that the patients are required to bring kheer made in old chawal (rice) and no sugar, cooked in cow’s milk in an earthen utensil and on fire lit by igniting gobar (cow’s waste). No metal is to be used in cooking, not even a steel spoon. Medicine is given in this kheer, which is to be eaten there only and the patient is advised not to sleep or have water for two hours. Thereafter, one can continue with his daily routine. “It is purely a traditional medicine and contains neither asteroid nor anything that could be harmful,” the doctor adds.
When asked how he would correlate this with that particular night, scientifically, Dr. Srivastava says that he too, as a doctor, would not believe it on scientific grounds. “As a doctor I would say this night is same as always,” says he and adds, “Or one can say this has been done to fix a date or else people would be queuing here everyday.” However, he reiterated that he has seen people benefiting so much that he never thought of discontinuing the practice.
Dr. Srivastava further adds, “It is a matter of faith though some people claim that amrit falls down from sky on this night. More importantly, I am following the tradition of my father, Dr. RP Srivastava, who had followed on the tradition of my grandfather.”
When asked whether this medicine could be given other than the specified day, he said that it could be given a try, though he has not tried it until now.
This one night institution that Dr. Srivastava runs is totally charitable and no money is taken from the patients. “Earlier, we used to give the kheer as well, but now that practice has been discontinued.” Whatever, the endless queues of earthen utensils with white kheer in them, waiting in the lawns of Dr. Srivastava’s house, for the medicine to be delivered at midnight, itself presents a picture that cannot be easily forgotten.