As a postgraduate student in Moscow, I had taken a brief course in massage under a well-known physiotherapist, Ms Miranova. She was tall, heavy and indeed very tough in her treatment. She did a very deep massage to stimulate the muscles of the body for various types of physical conditions. Under her expert hands patients would moan and groan but come out thoroughly invigorated and refreshed. At first I found the massage tough as my fingers and hands were more used to doing such delicate things as writing, acupuncture and pulse reading. Pressing the muscles, kneading and pummelling required different skills altogether. I had learnt her technique, however, thinking it might come in handy one day and so it did, in Delhi.
I would massage the back for a few minutes before inserting acupuncture needles to relieve backache. People would get tremendous relief from this combined effect. Some people, however, especially women, were very scared of needles as they would imagine the worst possible scenario of pain and agony. I then had no option but to restrict my therapy to massage only. The results were just as good and after many such experiences I realised that massage was a powerful method of treatment of backache in itself. I therefore switched over to massage and yogic exercises for treatment of back problems and related complications like sciatica. Soon the word got around and my appointment book filled up with back sufferers. When I opened an evening clinic in West Delhi, most of the patients that came to see me suffered from backache.
Over the past 20 years, I have treated thousands of backaches of different types and developed my own technique. My natural curiosity made me probe into this and find out why my method of treatment worked so well. By touching and feeling muscles and ligaments I was able to discover the various defects in them. My knowledge of applied anatomy (anatomy as applied to a human body) helped me to identify precisely the various structures like strains of muscles, ligaments, joints, tendons and their pathology (sprain, tear, inflammation, disalignment etc). It is this knowledge combined with a dedicated effort to seek the truth, that helped me to discover the clues to various types of back problems. One who searches finds, provided one is dedicated enough to persevere.
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