Baskadia

I am 37 years old and live in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I had been dealing with high blood pressure for several years and was on regular medication. In mid-2023, I was also diagnosed with high diabetes. When I measured my blood sugar after fasting in October 2023 at Square Hospital, Dhaka, the result was 23.6! The doctor prescribed medication and a strict diet plan. On November 28, 2023, after 12 years of service, my company informed me that I had lost my job. This news was surprising and heartbreaking since I had built the branch office and led the Dhaka office for the past 5 years. However, upon receiving this news, I decided to take a break from everything and embark on a 4-month journey with 'Tabligh Jamat', during which I stayed in mosques in various villages outside Dhaka.

Our journey began on November 30th from Dhaka, and my first destination was the village of Chuadanga District where I joined a group of 18 people for 40 days.

That night, during the 5-hour bus journey from Dhaka to Chuadanga, I felt so unwell due to my high blood pressure that I couldn't sit properly. I moved to the last row of empty seats, lay down, and slept. Chuadanga was beautiful; we enjoyed fresh date palm sap collected from plum trees early in the morning, and freshly made liquid date palm jaggery. The taste of Chuadanga's date palm jaggery was incredible.

After spending 40 wonderful days in Chuadanga, I traveled to Kurigram with a group of 12 people for 28 days. Kurigram was very cold, with temperatures dropping to 7 degrees Celsius, which was unimaginable for someone from Dhaka. However, the natural beauty was breathtaking. I noticed that Kurigram had many elderly people, some over 100 years old, who walked without assistance. It seemed that the people of Kurigram had a longer life expectancy, possibly due to their close connection with nature, with village houses made of soil and tin, and very limited use of mobile phones and the internet.

During my time in Chuadanga, I started to feel improvements in my health, and in Kurigram, I realized that my issues with high blood pressure were almost gone. After spending around 65-70 days on my journey, I stopped taking all medications and found that even without them, my blood pressure remained stable and my blood sugar rarely went above 7. One of my companions in Kurigram, a 55-year-old man who had undergone heart surgery and could not walk for long periods, walked nearly 4 kilometers with me one day. He marveled at how I had managed to make him walk so far when he struggled to walk half a kilometer at home.

After Kurigram, our group of 13 people traveled to a village in Feni, Chittagong, which was the most beautiful place among the three districts we visited. We spent time in a mosque overlooking endless paddy fields. From the middle of my journey until the end, I did not face any issues with diabetes or high blood pressure, even without medication. My diabetes remained below 7, regardless of how much rice or sugar I consumed, and I experienced no symptoms or discomfort.

I kept thinking how I had managed to recover from diabetes and high blood pressure after years of medication. One reason that came to mind was our disciplined schedule during the Tabligh Jamat tour. We slept early, from 10 to 10:30 PM, and woke up early, around 3:30 to 4:00 AM, which was a stark contrast to my irregular sleep patterns in Dhaka. We ate breakfast by 8 AM and took short naps of 60 to 90 minutes. The fresh village food, surrounded by natural beauty, bathing in ponds, walking under starlit or moonlit skies—experiences rarely found in Dhaka—refreshed my physical and mental health. We rarely used smartphones or the internet, cooked our own food in turns, and walked long distances, sometimes 5 to 10 kilometers.

During this journey, I was free from office responsibilities, phone calls, and emails, which allowed me to completely relax. If you are struggling with health issues, I encourage you to consider taking a 30 to 60-day break from work and everything else, and spend time in a natural environment, eat fresh food, maintain a structured sleep schedule, and enjoy quality time with friends and family. I hope it proves as beneficial for you as it did for me. However, remember not to opt for expensive options; worrying about money can disturb your mental peace. In my case, my monthly expenses were between USD 100 to USD 120 as we lived in mosques, cooked our own simple yet delicious meals.