"A bond that heals"

"An entrance fee of Rs 10, a piece of cloth, some eggss and of course a broken bone are all that is required from a patient" says Hindu sunday supplement about Puthur bone setting clinic. In some cases the hospital provides the cloth(but the broken bone HAS to be provided by the patient!)
I have heard about the puthur treatment for mending broken bones. Remember the case of my driver going there to get his bones set in his toes. Had to make a couple of visits and we paid for the journey and some nominal amount for the treatment. But did not think much of it at that time. But when I read this article, it really made me sit up and notice. I also felt very humbled; how much I do not know about the service rendered by so many nameless people in our country;about the herbs giving relief and succour to thousands of our people who would have found it difficult to survive otherwise.
Now move over to Puthur on the chennai tirupati road, 35 km from tirupati.
There are no xray or scanning machines. fracture is assessed by expert hands only.
The hospital is not a super speciality hospital. It is a medium sized room with four beds. Period.
Green herbal paste is applied on the broken part; and a cloth dipped in herbal juice is tied around it. A bamboo stick is placed around the spot and tied with a cloth. Treatment over at the hospital and you are asked to come again for a review.Treatment next time will be applying eggwhite mixed with the herbal juice.Most of the bones set in 45 days time.
Sounds too simplistic; and by the way what is the magical herbal juice consist of.That is the secret;passed on from two generations.
As is usually the case, the original inventor of the "puttur kattu" chanced upon it by accident. Looking at it in another way, it was no accident, but keen observation. Mr Raju had gone to the forest nearby and found a rabbit whose back was broken. He lifted it up and comforted it by placing it in a bed of leaves which he picked up.after a few days he found the rabbit slowly limping back to normal. This was in the year 1881!He did not ignore this observation. He thought the leaves must have medicinal properties. He crushed the leaves and applied the juice on the broken part. the rabbit was cured in a few days.He then tried it on farm animals and later on humans.
Thus the tradition has been passed on strictly within the family to the next generations.
There are no patents or branches or franchisees.
This is where Indians differ from entrepreneurs from other countries. When we discover a new idea/invention, we keep it strictly within the family and dont think of expanding.
Perhaps we may have a next generation of puthur Rajus who have franchise outlets throughout the globe and herbal juice is a patented product!