Atmaneem Nature Cure, Rajkot: My Unexpected Three-Night Experience
I have always been more familiar with Ayurveda.
Over the years, I have tried Ayurveda massages at some of the premium Ayurveda retreats, so when I was invited to Atmaneem Nature Cure in Rajkot, I was quite excited for a change.
This was going to be my first proper experience with naturopathy.
I had planned three nights at Atmaneem as part of a collaboration, and I had a whole list of things I wanted to experience.
And then, quite ironically, I got the flu.
A pretty bad one.
So, this isn’t going to be the usual post about all the treatments I tried at a naturopathy center. I actually couldn’t try most of them. What I did get to experience, though, was seeing how Atmaneem takes care of a guest who is unwell.
My first night did not go as planned
I started feeling quite unwell on my first evening. The fever kept going up and eventually reached 102.2°C. I had already taken paracetamol, but it wasn’t coming down.
For the next three hours, one doctor and two therapists stayed with me.
They tried cold sponging on my abdomen, spine and forehead and kept monitoring me. But the fever just wasn’t moving.
At some point, the team decided that I needed proper medical attention at a hospital rather than continuing to wait for the fever to settle.
They arranged a cab and made sure I got to a good hospital emergency room.
I was given IV treatment there and, after a couple of hours, my temperature came down to 99.7°C. They also did a few tests, including tests for malaria and dengue. Thankfully, everything was negative.
It was the flu.
By the time I got back to Atmaneem, I was completely exhausted.
“Just stay and rest”
I told the marketing team that I wasn’t going to be able to do what we had originally planned. I couldn’t really be on my feet, and there was no way I was going to be able to properly experience the treatments in that condition.
They simply told me to stay for the three nights as planned and just rest since the doctors at Atmaneem had advised me not to take any treatments while I was unwell.
I appreciated this because there was no pressure to somehow make the collaboration work despite being sick.
I was there, I was ill, and the priority was simply to let me recover.
The food was probably one of my favorite parts
I have to talk about the food because I really liked the way they approach it.
Atmaneem is quite particular about what guests eat, and I noticed this from the very beginning.
When guests ask for something extra, the kitchen doesn’t simply send it up. For example, if someone asks for an extra roti, they first check with the doctor. If the doctor says it is fine, the extra roti is sent. Otherwise, they offer the guest something lighter.
You are at a naturopathy center for a reason, so it makes sense.
And then, of course, I became the guest who needed a different kind of food. Because I was down with the flu, I wasn’t eating much. But whenever I did feel hungry, I could call and ask for something.
Most of the time, I was given fruit or something light like puffed rice or khakra. If I wanted something extra, they would call the kitchen and arrange it for me.
One rule I actually loved
There was one thing that happened during check-in that I thought was particularly good. Atmaneem doesn’t allow guests to keep outside eatables with them during their stay.
So, when we checked in, anything edible that we had packed in our suitcases had to be handed over.
I know it can sound a little strict, but if you are going to a naturopathy center and following a particular food plan, carrying biscuits, snacks and other things in your suitcase defeats the purpose a little.
The campus took some getting used to
The campus is lovely. It is green, spacious and feels quite far removed from the usual city chaos. There is also a lot of wind.
On my first day, I wasn’t exactly a fan of it. With a high fever and chills, the wind felt horrible. I was already shivering, so every gust made me want to get back under the blanket.
The funny thing is that by the second day, when I started feeling a little better, the wind that had annoyed me the previous night suddenly felt really nice.
And by the third day, I was feeling well enough to take short walks around the campus on my own.
Just walking around, looking at all the greenery, feeling the breeze and not having to rush anywhere felt good.
The naturopathy experience that will have to wait
As I mentioned, Ayurveda has always been more familiar territory for me. I have experienced Ayurveda massages and a few other Ayurvedic therapies before.
Naturopathy was new.
There were quite a few therapies I had never tried before, including hydro-reflexology, mud packs and mud walks. I was genuinely curious to see what these were like.
Unfortunately, the flu had other plans. So I don’t want to sit here and give you a review of treatments I haven’t actually tried. That wouldn’t be fair.
Hopefully, I will get another chance to visit and do them properly.
Atmaneem is primarily a naturopathy center, but it has also been offering Ayurveda consultations for the last five to six years, complementing the naturopathy treatments.
So there is definitely a lot more for me to explore here.
The people I remember
For me, the biggest takeaway from this stay was the way the staff handled the whole situation.
Charmi Gujjar from the marketing team was incredibly helpful. She made the booking process smooth from the beginning and continued coordinating everything right until I checked out.
Dr. Sheira and Dr. Ramesh were also very helpful and kept advising me to rest. And then there were the doctor and two therapists who spent those three hours with me on that first night.
When you are sitting with a fever that won’t come down, having people around who are calmly trying to help makes a big difference.
Maybe I was meant to rest this time
When I think about my three nights at Atmaneem now, it is funny how different they turned out from what I had planned.
I went there expecting to try naturopathy for the first time. Instead, I spent most of my time in bed.
I expected to explore the center. Instead, I slowly made my way from my room to little walks around the campus.
I thought I would come back with a whole list of new treatment experiences. Instead, I came back remembering fruit, puffed rice, khakra, a lot of rest and that very windy campus.
Looking back, maybe this was the healing I was meant to experience this time.
Hopefully, next time, I will arrive healthy and actually experience everything I had originally planned.
