Since childhood, Kavann started suffering from many allergies leading to chronic cough & cold and multiple accompanying health issues. After years of suppressing these through allopathic medicines and suffering from many health issues himself, Kavann’s father was totally frustrated. His search for a way out led him to many people and a world of natural healing and living and learning from nature. Read this heartwarming story here.

Kavann Singh

5 years

Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

(Kavann’s story as narrated by his father Prabhpreet Singh)

This is the story of my 5-year-old son Kavann. His journey to health and liberation disrupted my societal conditioning and made me look at life with a child-like exuberance and curiosity for self-discovery. This is the story of how he healed from chronic coughs, colds, allergic bronchitis and gained his freedom by going back to nature.

Early childhood plagued with health issues

Kavann was born a healthy baby but even before he was a year old some health issues began to crop up.

He was extremely allergic. He used to suffer from skin eczema, bronchial allergy, chest infection, cold and cough. Anything could bring this on - be it food, dust, AC or change in weather. These conditions used to be managed very frequently with nebulizations, antibiotics and quite often with steroids. This was how life went on.

Trying times

I was extremely frustrated and restless with the whole situation. I had many health problems of my own – Pneumonia in childhood suppressed through medicines, bronchitis, chronic asthma requiring hospitalization every year and usage of steroids. In my adulthood, I had more severe health issues like cervical spondylitis, degeneration of the lower spine, diabetes, tumour in the pituitary which required surgical & radiation intervention, sleep apnea, enlargement of organs, joint pains, mood swings, hormonal problems, weight gain and so on. I had spent a lot of money on the “medical system” with regular intake of expensive injections, medications, hormonal replacements, multiple surgeries and never-ending exotic tests and scans until one year after the birth of my son. In short, with no respite from plaguing health issues, I was under a lot of mental, physical, emotional and financial stress.

A child’s physical and mental well being is tremendously impacted by so many seemingly innocuous factors – the health and lifestyle of parents and grandparents, local environment, culture, society, education, religion etc. Thanks to our denatured and synthetic lifestyles, we pass on our acquired weaknesses and toxicity to our children. I was looking for a way out from this maze.

The shift mentally and physically

Through all these difficult times, our vision had been clouded and we were increasingly unsure of where to look for solutions. However, we became clear that the extremely polluted, congested and high-pressure city life in Delhi was not going to help the situation and we must break out of this man-made hole. But where to? I was a high performer “excelling” in my career and with my conditioned thinking I imagined of relocating to a cleaner and healthier life in Canada or Dubai. But the more my wife and I thought about it, the less appealing it felt. The air may be cleaner in those countries but ultimately we would be part of the same stressful urban life and the rat race. We were looking for alternatives.

Kavann was almost 3 years old. During the Diwali season of 2017, my son’s health suffered a big setback. He was coughing, running a cold, on medication and nebulization and we were struggling to keep it under control. With extreme air pollution, we were constantly under a cloud of smog with no sun or fresh air for days together. With no solid plan and a worsening situation, a moment of instinct led us to make a beeline to the hill city of Dharamsala – my mother’s native place and the easiest option available to us till the festive season was over.

The very next day Kavann was spending time in open space, out in the Sun in the cool mountain air but instead of aggravating his issues, he recovered rapidly. The week that followed was nothing short of a revelation to us. We stopped nebulization, all his medications and he was doing marvellously well enjoying his time in the scenic mountains like a normal child. We wanted to hold on to these moments forever!

We were immediately pushed into deep contemplation – Why would we cling onto a city just because we were born and brought up there and had our “so-called” career, house and family there? When that wouldn’t offer us any joy of life? Devoid of the present and now, aimlessly lugging the baggage of “life”, I thought this was a completely wrong way of looking at life. Life need not be so complex?

As my “work” and responsibilities called, we soon returned to Delhi. Before we knew it Kavann’s health problems bounced back and we knew it was time to change.

Moving away from city life

In April 2018, along with my family, I shifted base to Dharmashala where I had my ancestral home. We had moved to consuming organic produce but in terms of food, Kavann was still having ice creams, dairy, wheat etc. This was still affecting him and building up mucus in his body leading to colds, coughs and asthma.

In June 2018, not only was he quite sick but my health suffered a setback too. I was hospitalized with a severe asthma attack, a fungal infection and other issues. I was collapsing. This was the final straw, I decided that I would have to find ways to go medicine free not only for myself but also for Kavann.

Stopping medicines

During my visit to Punjab, I had seen the deterioration in the agricultural sector due to the green revolution, the rampant use of pesticides which had blown up cancer rates, the frustration of farmers and unemployment and drug addiction among the youth. This led me to start a non-profit Mool Foundation to propagate chemical-free farming and provide natural farm produce directly to people through “Safe Food Communities”. We run awareness campaigns/workshops and are building a network of farmers, NGO’s and farmer collectives. Through my contacts in Mool foundation, I started looking for natural healing ways. I knew nature had all the answers.

My search led me to a person - Parameswaran who was an expert in natural healing and herbal remedies. He taught me how to replace allopathic medicines with homemade remedies using garlic juice, onion juice, turmeric, black pepper, steaming, oil pulling etc. He also advised us to start intermittent fasting and to delay breakfast as late as possible to allow the body detox time and also have a lot of citrus juices in winter to alkalize the body. We also stopped all refined flours, oil, salt, sugar, reduced wheat and shifted to millets, reduced legumes and dairy too. We changed our diet to have only one main meal in a day and an almost 70% organic diet.

Kavann experienced magical healing. In 1 month, we got a lot of mucus out. He could breathe easily now. The pristine mountain air, lot of nature time and abundance of fruits changed him into a boy full of energy and vibe.

I too experienced a lot of healing from asthma, fungal infection and diabetes. The days of sickness finally seemed to be a thing of the past.

Unschooling and learning from nature

We also felt the need to start growing our own food. Along with 35 other people, we visited a place called Aranya to learn about permaculture. During the visit, Kavann experienced his happiest days. He would interact with ladies in the kitchen and other adults, walk with us on the farm, observe nature and interact with the animals on the farm and make friends with them. He was learning and absorbing so many things. It opened my eyes to what parenting was. We don’t need to teach children anything. They learn all that they need to with exposure to diverse environments, through observations and interactions with people and nature.

Kavann was expressing a deep desire to be free from the shackles of schooling and be free just like the dancing trees, birds and animals he was seeing all around him. In Feb 2019, when he was almost 5 years old, we made a decision to take him out of formal schooling.

Nature is his school now – He walks barefoot, touches all kinds of insects, is full of curiosity, fearless and is also teaching me to look at everything through his eyes.

Moving away from herbal remedies

The next step in our health journey was moving away from herbal remedies. My diet was more of raw foods and I had seen a great improvement in my health. Kavann would imitate me in my habits. His shift in diet has been organic. He would eat by instinct when hungry and pick and choose what he wanted – he had his own personal relationship with food. Even when we visited Delhi once, he was not tempted to eat the sweets and other dishes at parties. We were consuming more fruits but I was getting fed up with the herbal concoctions we had to prepare if we fell sick. I didn’t want to solve problems, instead, I wanted to focus on prevention. As I was learning more about natural lifestyle, I realized that all organisms are self-healing and that these herbs were just suppressing problems. I shifted completely to raw foods and became a raw vegan fruitarian.

Healing crisis

By stopping herbal medicines which were suppressing his issues and eating more raw, his body was getting into a detox cycle. In June 2019, he started coughing continuously for 15 days which was a signal from his body that it wanted to throw out accumulated toxins. Soon he fell sick - He had loose motions, vomiting, bad odour from his body and developed a high fever.

I did not want to suppress this healing cycle with herbs or allopathic medication. His fever increased and he even had seizures and delirium. It was a trying time for us. We managed with cold packs on his head and tummy and was also received continuous guidance from my friend Shanu – a raw vegan fruitarian and also well versed in natural healing who helped us sail through this healing cycle.

Nature is so skilled, so liberating. He emerged out of this healing cycle as a new person. There was a glow to him – his eyes and body shone.

Kavann is as free as a bird now. He runs around in the cold mountain air with minimal clothes, sunbathes naked and takes cold water baths – he is that strong. He is so sensitive and sharp and full of vitality. He has no insecurities –he believes his family is animals and nature. He makes his own songs and poems about nature and raw foods. His next project with me is to build an open mud house in nature and grow a food forest!

Conclusion

The changes in him, the learnings he has imbibed on his own by observing is now permanent in him. Even when we go to Delhi, he still talks the same language of nature. We continue to follow the same routine of no cooked food before 12:00 p.m. and a lot of raw, organic food. Though I am a fully raw fruitarian, Kavann still eats a bit of cooked food as my wife Kiran still cooks for herself. As Kiran transitions to more raw food, I know he will too. Everyone has their own journey to holistic health. I have learnt so much from Kavann and am continuing to do so.

Children learn a lot through observation. All parents should focus first on bringing change in their own lives and live life connected to nature and her cycles.

I realize that when we are one with nature, there is no fear of ailments like chest infections, asthma, sneezing etc. It is all false information we learnt from society that cold air, rain and other elements of nature make us sick. We can live a thriving life when we are connected with her in all ways.

(About Prabhpreet – Kavanns father: I am an observer, a learner, trying to learn from Nature and live a Nature connected life moment by moment – the purpose of my life. I spend a lot of time with my son. We together indulge in our whims like hiking in the mountains/nature, experiment with tempting Raw Food recipes, carpentry, music, singing and whatnot. Having started on a beautiful journey of unlearning and healing through Nature I am now spreading this awareness among others. I also run a non-profit called Mool Foundation (www.moolfoundation.co.in) that is working on chemical-free farming, farmer transition & support and safe food communities in cities to provide direct access to chemical-free farm produce (Mool Conscious Living – www.mool.co.in). I am now also working to set up Food Forest-based residential communities. These would be sustainable communities that grown own food through diverse food forests and reside in hand-built natural houses. Further, they shall be platforms to work on local ecology, micro rural economies, “unlearning” and self-guided learning platforms especially for kids and provide detox healing retreats. You can reach me at [email protected])