05/01/2021
It sounds ludicrous to assume that a 74 year-old man could have lived the last 48 years of his life solely eating potatoes, but that’s just what I discovered on one dusty day in Pushkar, India.
Pushkar is a perfectly pocket-sized town on the brink of the Thar Desert in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The town is situated around the sacred Pushkar Lake, a place where Hindu pilgrims come to bathe and be blessed, and is also home to handfuls of temples. Renowned by tourists for its relaxed atmosphere, vegetarian and vegan cuisine and beautiful scenery, the streets of Pushkar have recently sprung up with market stalls and restaurants to cater for the town’s ever-expanding fanbase.
One of the main tourist streets in Pushka
We first heard about the aptly named Aloo Baba (Aloo means potato in Hindi) from some fellow backpackers in the town, and the next day decided to visit to uncover the mystery of Pushkar’s potato guru. This, we found surprising, since we were seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and there were no other signs to be seen! Clearly, we thought, he is well-known and respected in the area. When we finally arrived at the Shiva Temple, we were introduced to an elderly Indian man with a long grey beard as white as the temple he lives in, and a wise look in his eye. A group of us sat down before him and he surveyed us with his warm brown eyes before answering any questions that we had for him.
Aloo Baba told us that he was a meditation guru and local expert on simplicity, control and healthy living. For 48 years now, he has only eaten potatoes. The reason behind this lifestyle, he said, was to take back ownership of his own life. Potatoes, he explained, are healthy, easily sourced and can be cooked in many different ways. “You people fall ill just as much as I do,” he laughed. “Just because I eat only one thing, it does not mean I will live a shorter or more unhealthy life than you.” And when he does fall ill, Baba declared that he only uses plants and natural medicines, and drinks only chai tea and water (not potato juices, sadly).
At 74 years of age, Baba has been living in the Shiva Temple for 21 years, and is regularly visited by fans wanting to know the secrets of happiness, peace and a healthy long life. Now, I’m not sure what a nutritionist would have to say about his dietary choices, and I’m certainly not planning on making any starchy increases in my own diet, but I do think there is a lesson to be learnt from Baba. We spend so much of our time nowadays worrying about the perfect diet, to the point that Orthorexia has become a growing problem in Western culture. Maybe, just maybe, if we meditated more and worried less, our bodies would reward us with a lower blood pressure and stress levels. I’m no nutritionist, but I’m sure that a healthy mind and a positive outlook are just as important as a healthy body.
And it was an amazing experience to visiting Pushkar.
| Canon EOS 200D Tamron 18-400mm F/3.5 - 6.5 Di Manual Mode 70.00mm F4.5 1/180 ISO 800 |
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