Born on 24 October 1929 into a Gandhian family, Satyendra Singh Goindi felt like the answer to my searching. His father, Sardar Bhagwan Singh Goindi, resigned from British Government service at the age of 25 to follow the Gandhian philosophy. His mother belonged to the nobel family of Patiala. Dr Goindi, describes his mother as an affluent noble, who had never encountered poverty before. But as she stared working with lower class women, she got deeply disturbed by their plight and the injustices that they suffered while trying to make a living. She started reading Gandhian literature and felt that the best thing at that time for women would be to get involved with Khadi and Charkha.

“My parents then set up an organization to promote Khadi in Sialkot, Punjab. As their work increased, my father became someone even Gandhiji would trust and soon people started referring to him as ‘Sialkot Gandhi’”, said Dr Goindi. “It was common in those days for Gandhian followers to also believe in and follow naturopathy, which is how I initially encountered it”.

One amongst 5 siblings, Dr SS Goindi has had an interesting life. Struck by coma at the age of 6, where he lay in bed motionless for 30 days to having his wife nearly die at the age of 39, Dr Goindi has seen health at its ugliest.

“I have learned naturopathy in the ‘School of life’”, Dr Goindi would often say to me. But really it all started with his wife, Gurkirpal Kaur.

Born in Rawalpindi (Pakistan) she moved to Delhi in 1946 with her family. This big shift completely changed the family’s lifestyle, and she started falling sick. She became ridden with allergies and started getting joint pains. “When we got married in 1959, she was 27 and joint pains and allergies were very much a part of her life”, said Dr Goindi.

“She too was familiar with naturopathy. In 1959, while we were in Allahabad, she got bed-ridden because of Rheumatoid arthritis and our nephew who was a doctor in nuclear medicine, told us that there was no cure other than lifelong medication.  We decided to go to Hyderabad’s nature cure hospital. We even took our kids with us and stayed there for 40 days. They made her do a 17 day fast on lemon water along with other treatments. She got rid of her bone issues there. Since both her and me were interested, we also studied all the naturopathy treatments”, explained Dr Goindi.

“But just 3 months later, my wife got very sick. Her lungs gave up and she was coughing blood. Doctors suspected tuberculosis. The doctor gave her 4-5 days to live, and the choice was between having her die in the hospital or at home. She said to me “I don’t want to die in the hospital, please treat me yourself”. I did my first ever naturopathy treatment on my own wife, feeding her only milk for 80 days.  Her weight increased by 16 kgs from 42kgs. She started feeling much better just after 2 weeks but stayed on the milk diet for 80 days to completely rebuild her health”.

“After this experience, my wife never looked back. She was convinced that the food we ate made us either healthy or sick. She learned to self- treat herself with mono-diets and fasts”.

“She fasted once for 15 days and lost 10kgs. Then had orange juice for 45 days only because it was in season and got rid of the problem from the root, as she would call it. This love affair with food would continue for her till she died peacefully, at the age of 83. She did multiple mono-diet experiments on herself from oranges, muskmelons, snake gourd to fenugreek. Sometimes her weight would drop to 35 kgs but she never got hassled”.

“Seeing her I learned to use mono-diets to treat other people. Personally, I was more interested in experimenting with eating grains in a way that would promote health. Hence, I did a lot of experimentation with sprouts. Also, we had two small children, who needed to be fed and sprouted food worked wonders for them too!”

“Naturopathy hence became our way of life”.

“Both me and wife were conferred the Doctor of Naturopathy degree (ND) by All India Nature Cure Federation in 1988 (having studied MSC mathematics from Allahabad University earlier). I went on to head the Haryana/Punjab Gandhi Smarak Samiti as Director between 1986 to 1998.”

“Naturopathy has also made me meet some interesting people. From Lal Bahadur Shastri (prime minister of India) to Governors of State. Most memorable is spending time with Ann Wigmore, who is famously know for the ‘wheatgrass cure’. I was with her for many days as she went about touring and conducting workshops in India”, said Dr Goindi.