The idea is to avoid all foods that clog the system and convert it to a toxic sewer. Prime offenders include tea and coffee, alcohol, sugar, meat, wheat, dairy products, nuts, plus anything that is refined and processed.

The arrival of spring! Traditionally, this is when we are instructed to slough off the year’s dross and get down to the task of spring-cleaning body, mind and spirit, advises Farah Baria

There’s a tree outside my bedroom window, the single, solitary sign of vegetation in the brick and mortar jungle that surrounds our house. It’s an unremarkable, hardy specimen, not a majestic banyan or elegant palm. Just a tree. But for some reason, this quiet, almost reclusive neighbour has become my inner guide. I watch it through the seasons, full and lusty in summer, sighing voluptuously in the rains, whispering conspiratorially to the winter breeze.

In February, it strips off its outdated green garment and stands naked, bare branches brazenly exposed to indifferent spectators in concrete boxes. Then, just as I have given it up for dead, the first hint of life appears – tiny shoots like bright caterpillars, that, within a week, burst into fluorescent green butterflies. And I know for sure that spring is here. Time to salute nature’s inexhaustible capacity for renewal.

In Ayurveda, the ancient Science of Life, it’s called the ‘king of seasons’. Traditionally this is when we are instructed to slough off the year’s dross and get down to the task of spring-cleaning body, mind and spirit. Beginning at the gross, physical level, Ayurveda offers a purification programme called panchkarma ( literally, ‘five actions’.) It’s actually a scientific, professional procedure, administered under strict medical supervision, but you can settle for this modified, week-long, DIY version formulated by Dr Vasant Lad, one of Ayurveda’s brilliant new breed of modern practitioners.

• Panchkarma begins with snehana or internal ‘oleation’. For three days in a row, take about three tablespoons of warm, liquefied ghee. This lubricates inner body tissues, dislodging deep-seated toxins from the organs and directing them to the gastrointestinal tract for elimination. It is followed by four days of external ‘oleation’. Warm about a quarter litre of organic, cold pressed sesame oil and massage it all over the body, starting with the feet and working towards the head. The massage softens superficial and deep tissues, relieves stress and nourishes the nervous system.

Verve columnist, Farah Baria, has been a full-time journalist for the last 11 years. Earlier principal correspondent with India Today, the mother of two writes a regular parenting column for Sunday Mid Day.