Comedy of Parasites: An adventure into the Bowels of India

How to avoid the mistakes of the young and foolish when traveling, and to stay healthy and sound in your body, mind and spirit.  A parable by Dr Susan Lange, OMD, L.Ac (1996)

I first became intimately acquainted with parasites and digestive problems when I was twenty years old. I was hitchhiking from England to India during a University summer vacation. Having been berated by a fellow traveler in southern Iran for throwing away a date with a maggot in it (food was scarce in the desert and we needed our protein), I obediently - or was it foolishly? -drank the Holy water at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India - just like everybody else there. Along with the other worshippers, I took a bowl, dipped it into the turbid brown water and drank it reverently. Later, I watched idly as two old men washed themselves down in the very same temple pool. I was young …….

 That night we took a train to Delhi. The carriages were packed with families, children and animals. I was lucky because I managed to clamber up onto a narrow luggage rack where I would remain immobile until dawn, high above the cacophony and the struggle for space below. My triumph was short lived. To find out what happened next  click on the next page