In The Bonesetter’s Waiting Room

Indian Medicine is a fascinating mix of the ancient and the modern. From Ayurvedic treatments, which predate the Common Era, to the allopathic (Western) medicine which now operates in parallel. Aarathi Prasad takes us through the myriad medicinal worlds: from a bonesetters’ clinic in Hyderabad, where breaks but not fractures are reset; to a shrine in the Dharavi megaslum (just outside of Mumbai) where the goddess Kali rules; to a fish doctor in Secunderabad who makes patients swallow live fish; and a remarkable neuroscientist, Pawan Sinha, whose venture ‘Project Prakash’ has helped thousands of Indian children to see for the first time.

• More on the writer Aarathi Prasad