This is a comprehension class, not a health class. You are not being asked to hold an opinion on ആയുർവേദം (aayurvedam). You are being asked to understand what is being said to you — because in a Malayali household, it will be. The reason is linguistic. In Kerala, ayurveda is a licensed, taught, government-recognised system with its own colleges, hospitals and pharmacies, operating alongside modern medicine. And its vocabulary is simply the everyday vocabulary of the body. Someone who goes to a modern hospital for a fracture will still describe their constitution, their food and their seasonal health in these words, because that is the language available. ചൂട് (choodu) heat · തണുപ്പ് (thanuppu) coolness — and in the body these are qualities, not temperatures ശരീരത്തിന് ചൂടാണ് (shareeratthinu choodaanu) the body has excess heat — nothing to do with a thermometer വാതം (vaatham) · പിത്തം (pittham) · കഫം (kapham) the three doshas കരിക്ക് (karikku) tender coconut water · മോര് (moru) buttermilk — the cooling things pressed on you when you are unwell So when someone hands you tender coconut water during a fever, they are not being generically kind. They are applying a coherent system, and now you can follow it. In this class: • Heating and cooling foods, and why you keep being told to avoid something • The three doshas and what the crude English translations miss • Massage, oils and the monsoon treatment season • Talking about your own body without giving offence Quizzes below. Dr. Reshmi R Nair — SpeakMalayalam.