A unique healer of our times

HEALING: Today I have to divert from my usual column and pay attention, nay, pay, homage to a unique healer of our times - Dr. Thanuja Fonseka Abeynayake. The fact that I am her patient is only one of the reasons I want to write about her.

The primary reason, in fact, is that I want my readers - most of who are of the older generation if I am not mistaken - to come to know that there is this wonderful healer living and working among us. Let me elaborate to the best of my ability.


HEALING:Dr. Thanuja Fonseka Abeynayake with a patient.

Dr. Thanuja is a different kind of healer. Hers is a combination of Acupuncture Therapy, Aroma therapy, Oil Therapy, Reflexology and Ayurveda Herbal Therapy. These she has learnt assiduously both here and abroad. She had her first lessons in Alternative Medical Therapy under Doctor Wimal de Alwis, in 1996.

Dr. de Alwis was at that time treating our Olympic team with his new approach to physical fitness. If you ask Dr. Thanuja what made her interested in all this, she has a very simple answer - "As a young student at Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya, in fact all my life, I had an abiding love and respect for nature.

I love flowers, I love trees, I love the sea, I love the sky, I love the wind and the breeze - I love everything in nature. These forms of treatment I have learnt and make use of to cure my patients are very close to nature.

Endearing smile

There is nothing 'artificial' in what I use for treatment." She smiles that very special and endearing smile and adds - "Of course you might argue that the needles I use for Acupuncture Therapy are artificial. No, they are not. They too come from the very womb of our earth and shaped into what you see.

They have been used in the Orient, for centuries. The Chinese are credited for their discovery. In fact one of my greatest longings is to go to China and study this technique further...."

Dr. Thanuja is a chirpy woman - very pleasantly chirpy indeed. She explains a lot of things about her needle, her oils, her 'pattu' applications, her very special aromatic oils etc. while carefully kneading a dough ring around the edge area of my spine.

Of course I cannot see it but I have seen this dough ring being put into shape on other patients. It is rather like a round wall kneaded out of a special dough. Once the dough ring is placed, Dr. Thanuja pours mildly hot oil into the well. This is done several times.

The sensation is very soothing indeed. She has already placed a few needles at certain pressure points in my back. I come to know that needles are being used only when I feel the prick of one needle at the middle of my head.

Spinal cord

I have come to Dr. Thanuja seeking relief for a back pain I have been having for years. The X-rays show a certain amount of 'non-alignment' on the very last two fish-bone like digits of the spinal cord. (I really don't know the medical terms of these things. Anyway, the problem is at the very end of the backbone - imagine!) I have tried Western Medicine, physiotherapy, oils and massages and all kinds of things for this problem.

With Acupuncture and oil massager the situation eases a little but comes back. I have come to Dr. Thanuja Abeynayake, as a last resort. With just five sessions of Acupuncture Therapy, Oil Therapy and massaging, I feel very much better already. At least I can walk without being subjected to pain in the thighs and in the back.

I dare not ask many questions from her simply because I know next to nothing about her ways of treatment. But when she has the time, she explains for the benefit of the patient.

Says she, "My treatments are patient-oriented. It differs from patient to patient. It is holistic. You have a back ache. Somebody else has a rheumatic knee or arm. I don't treat only the affected place. The problem is deeper than that. I have to treat the whole body."

I take a good look at her while she talks. Yes, she has the same face, the same smile, the same shape of mouth and the same eyes as her celebrated father - Gamini Fonseka. When I tell her she even walks like him, she smiles and there is happiness in that smile.

"I never imagined there could be a life for me without Thaththa..." Says Dr. Thanuja. "I loved him so much." She says that without emotion - her dedicated, work has helped her to overcome the grief. She looks so calm and collected - a kind of inner contentment.

It is my eyes that mist over. She is very happy that her father had noticed the healing touch of her hands even as a young girl. Later in life, he had told her that there was the healing touch even in a glass of water she offered him. He was very pleased when she chose to become a doctor - nay, a healer.

Dr. Thanuja's youngest sister, Ishara tells me that her hands are magic. She, Ishara, had tried some karate or some such thing and come up with a very painful neck. "She touched me and I was cured...!" says Ishara.

Ailments

Treating old people like me for various kinds of ailments such as back pain. rheumatism, stiffness of joints, arthritis etc. is fairly routine work for Dr. Thanuja. The difficult healing process is for children with physical and mental growing problems.

Some of them are very young and often both parents come along when they are brought to Dr. Thanuja for treatment. We have to put up a 'brave' face just to see them. But for healer Dr. Thanuja they are God's very own children. Not a muscle changes in her face. Often she helps to carry them into her little healing clinic and lifted onto one of the three beds in the room.

The Acupuncture Therapy and other therapies most suitable for each child are administered with the utmost care and love. The children respond to her like kittens to a loving hand. One can observe the faces of the parents light up as if a heavenly light has descended upon them. It is such an ennobling sight I can hardly hold my tears back.

"How are you today, how do you feel? Is the pain less? Are you responding well to the treatment?" Are the first questions she would ask an adult. For each patient they are intoned differently. No, not as a tactic, but as a genuine, soul felt enquiry.

For difficult children she has different approaches - not necessarily language. It is often a hug, a touch, a loving hand caressed across a face and how those little faces light up.

Reflexology

Dr. Thanujua has graphic pictures of Reflexology, Herbal treatment and various other pictures of Alternative Medicine on one part of the wall in her clinic. Her many certificates are also framed and hung on another wall.

But what she treasures most is a little folder containing some of the articles written in a few newspapers and a couple of letters she has received from some of her patients. It is in fact a very thin folder containing just two personal letters and four newspaper articles.

One particular letter written by the patient herself is a heart rending address to an adored individual by a patient who has been saved from a very grave illness. It is handwritten in Sinhala with a few words in English such as 'depression', 'physiotherapy' 'voice therapy' etc

She starts by saying that she is 'much better' now and that she can walk unaided. That particular story is also a record of the extreme love of a young husband to his disabled wife - right along.

"Does not she come to you for more treatment? "I asked Dr. Thanuja, "You see uncle." Replied she with a rueful smile. "Sometimes well meaning, or otherwise, relatives take over a patient. It could just be that they find it a bother to bring the patient to the clinic. Or it could be financial problems about transport etc. But the girl is okay and with care she should have a normal life. I do wish she came to me a few times more..." sighed the Doctor.

Alternative medicine

Dr. Thanuja has a Doctorate in Alternative Medicine from the Open University, another Doctorate from India and she has studied various aspects of Alternative Medicine in Kerala, India, in England and in Holland. She has also taught as lecturer and demonstrator in Denmark and here in Sri Lanka.

"I used to be out of the country quite a bit and could not establish a regular practice here," she said. "But now I want to spend most of my time treating patients in my country.

I want to do it as an act of homage to my father... who, was rather proud of me being a healer..." She added. "I might just take a little time off. If I can make arrangements to visit China, for further study."

Dressed in a white top and loose black pants, Dr. Thanuja looks cherubic, with just a little trace of the youthful mischief in her calm and beautiful eyes - perhaps just to remind us that she is the daughter of the inimitable Gamini Fonseka..

Dr. Thanuja conducts her clinic in her home itself at No. 1, Keketiya Mawatha, off Gangadara Mawatha, off Templers Road, Mt Lavinia. She works a full day from 9 a.m. to about 6 in the evening. She takes a rest during weekends. "They will drive me out of home, if I work weekends too..." says she.

Most likely she will be away for around two weeks till about the 17th of October. "I have never been on a cruise. I have always loved to go on one. I am going on the Malaysian Cruise with a friend of mine," she says gleefully.

"I wish you a very nice cruise and a nice holiday, my dear Dr. Thanuja...You richly deserve it."

Thought of the week

The Sahitya or literary month is over. It is reported that the largest ever crowd for a Book Exhibition and sale thronged the BMICH for nine days. The Cultural Ministry conducted its Literary Festival and Literary Awards ceremony at Anuradhapura, away from the usual Colombo. That was a very apt move on the part of the Cultural Ministry.

Many awards are given at this event. In fact the cream of the Literary scene in Sri Lanka - in all three languages - are chosen and awarded with deserving prizes at this grand event.

Lifetime contributors are also honoured. I just want to make a suggestion for the consideration of the relevant authorities. I have made this suggestion earlier too. No harm doing so once again.

Why not name each award after an eminent personality in that particular field? For instance The Martin Wickremasinghe Award for the best novel, the G.B. Senanayake Award for the best collection of short stories, The S. Mahinda Award for the best collection of poems, The Ediriweera Sarachchandra Award for the best play, The A.P. Guneratne Award for the best translation, The S. Paranavithana Award for the best Research and so on? In this era of short memories and even less appreciation, would not it be a fitting thing to do to keep the memory of these giants alive for generations to come? Do think it over, ladies and gentlemen of culture..and gratitude...

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