Aarogyalays First Founders Day Celebration

The last couple of years have seen the resurrection of Ayurveda in the mainstream in a big way.

The first International Exhibition and Conference on AYUSH and Wellness sector- AROGYA 2017 was held with great pomp and show in New Delhi last month. It is heartening that our ancient roots are being watered afresh.

Aarogyalay, an initiative to spread the word about Health through Ayurveda was started by Rajeev Narang in January last year.

Narang started this with an intrinsic endeavor to connect the modern world with the forgotten heritage of Ayurveda, using schools as the building blocks.

Aarogyalay celebrated its First Founder’s Day on January 25th, 2018 at India International Center, New Delhi. Padamshree Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH, was the chief guest of honour. The event was attended by Ayurveda doctors, school principals, teachers, students, industry representatives, students of Ayurveda, media and key people from the social circle.

Aarogyalay organised a national competition called Explorica for school students for making a project on health through ayurveda. The winners of the contest were honoured by the dignitaries. Vd. Kotecha launched an Ayurvedic Activity Book “Aarogyavity Book” for children and an album of the successful one year journey by Aarogyalay team across various schools and states like Delhi-NCR, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh.

Vd. Kotecha expressed his views on the theme of the event, i.e., Stress Management among students. Remembering his own childhood, he explained how the modern parents have deprived their children of the common level of stress that every child should learn to fight. He explained three important factors, i.e., Aahar, Nidra, and Vyayam for managing stress.

Kotecha spoke nostalgically of the olden times where children grew up amongst several siblings with little parental supervision and minimal levels of stress. Talking of today's parenting styles where helicoptering has become the norm he pointed out the importance of allowing children to manage themselves in addition to a healthy plate which engenders resilience thereby minimising stress.

He heartily appreciated the efforts by Aarogyalay team and supported the mission. Also, representatives from Dev Samaj School, Dabur India, Kairali Ayurveda, NASYA, Vishwa Ayurveda Parishad-Noida, BusinessWorld, Soch India newspaper and different Schools supported the Aarogyalay mission and spoke about stress management.

Kotechas sentiments were somewhat echoed by Mr. Sunder Solanki, Deputy Editor, India News Haryana. Solanki expressed his grief that in the olden times only petty quarrels occupied the playgrounds of schools, but today, it has turned to murders. Stress management is as important for children as for adults, as there are many cases where students suicide or involve in violent acts due to depression. Depression, panic attacks are the worst forms of stress among people. Communication with a child is always necessary.

Holding on is far tougher than letting go, underlined Mrs.Vanita Bhardwaj, Vice Principal, Dev Samaj Modern School. She shared that her school environment has changed completely after the visit of Aarogyalay team and that they will be supporting their Nukkad Natak performance.

Representatives from Kairali Ayurveda, NASYA and Vishwa Ayurved Parishad-Dr. Ruchi Vyas, Dr. Preeti Chhabra and Dr. Prashant Shandilya emphasised the importance of fighting stress with various ayurvedic methods and teaching stress management at the grass root level.

Due to the current digital atmosphere and exposure to different gadgets, children are not getting proper sleep, stressed Dr. Piyush Juneja, which is affecting their health and brain development and burdening them with stress at such tender age.

This is a new wave, which Narang hopes will grow exponentially over the years with all the effort he and his supporters are investing.