Sonia Molina Jiménez is in love with India and has made the journey from Madrid in Spain to India many times. She is a tourism specialist and has worked all her life at luxury hotels in the commercial department.
She says that India and her people have been an integral part of her life. “My attraction to this country has always been a constant in my life. I can't explain why. I even once dreamed of having a natural child and adopting an Indian girl to start a family. But the time never came.” Sonia loves listenting to mantras and relaxing music.
Her initial interaction came through a friend regarding with a Spanish organization in Calcutta. “Through a personal contact of mine, I suggested to a friend to start collaborating from Spain with a Spanish Foundation in Calcutta. She was due to visit the Foundation in February 2009 and I asked myself why I should not accompany her on that trip? It was done. And so I arrived in Calcutta and for the first time in my dream India.”
India can be confusing at first. Sonia says that landing in Calcutta and leaving the airport at dawn was a like entering a new “world of sensations. In an overcast sky between pollution, clouds and an incipient sunrise, it was very special light.
Sonia spent 16 days in Calcutta in 2009 Calcutta traveling with her best friend Sabera and working for a foundation started by a Spanish man that took in abandoned girls or girls from families with extreme needs. She took a South India tour in 2014 travelling across Chennai, Madurai, Cochin for 10 days on a holiday with her husband.
While she was travelling alone in January 2015 to Udupi she started studying Ayurveda and doing Panchakarma. She did panchakarma with the 5 steps for 45 days. That September she spent time at Vaidyagama in Coimbatore as well as in Bangalore for 21 days. A friend she had met in Udupi convinced her to live in Vaidyagrama and experience it together. She stayed with her friend in Bangalore for a few days.
About Ayurveda, she says, “Ayurvedic medicine fascinates me. It is a pity not to be able to follow all its advice when we go back home with our daily routines. On the other hand it angers me deeply to know that many ailments can be cured with this type of natural treatments and yet we are poisoned by the economic interests of big pharma.”
Sonia had wanted to open a small Ayurveda therapy centre in Madrid and from there organize trips to India for treatment. But seeing how complicated the process was, she did not pursue it.
