President Pratibha Patil (right) with her Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet in Santiago on Monday. (AFP)

Santiago, April 21: In the western hemisphere, ayurveda has a new celebrity follower.

President Pratibha Patil was bombarded with questions about the merits of ayurveda on Thursday when she met Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa, the Mexican President, on the second leg of her tour of Latin America.

At the end of his searching questions, Calderon announced that he wanted to try ayurveda, according to officials familiar with the conversation between the two Presidents.

The Indian embassy in Mexico City will now work out details of how the new VIP convert to the ancient system of medicine in India can be provided ayurvedic treatment either on an extended trip to India or in Mexico through physicians brought from across the Atlantic.

Calderon’s interest in ayurveda was sparked by Pratibha’s pitch for that system of medicine everywhere on her current tour of Brazil, Mexico and Chile.

Calderon told the Indian delegation that he would look at how ayurveda can be introduced into Mexico’s health system if he is personally satisfied with his own treatment.

Calderon has been under severe stress and pressure since he assumed office two years ago in a disputed election, which he won by 0.58 per cent, an election which had irregularities even by the admission of Mexico’s Federal Electoral Tribunal.

His presidency has been dogged by paralysis, which manifested itself last week when Pratibha’s address to Mexico’s parliament had to be cancelled because the Left parties seized the country’s parliament.

Calderon is said to have already tried yoga and meditation to soothe his nerves, according to the grapevine in Mexico City. He will now try his hand at ayurveda.

The Mexican President’s decision represents a global resurgence of Indian systems of personal care. Singer-songwriter Madonna, who took to yoga some years ago, described it as “a metaphor for life” while actress Meg Ryan said “it changed my life”.

In Brasilia, Pratibha presented a DVD on ayurveda to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Mexico’s President may have taken a personal interest in ayurveda, but it is in Brazil that Pratibha’s pitch for the system of medicine is likely to make headway.

Collaboration in health care and pharmaceuticals is already a priority between India and Brazil. Therefore, unlike in Mexico, Hardeep Puri, India’s ambassador in Brazil, will only have to expand an existing collaboration to introduce ayurveda.

That is unlikely to pose difficulties since the central theme of President Lula’s long-running battle against western multinational pharmaceutical companies is his declaration that “it is not possible for anyone to get rich on the misery of others” in his country.

Pratibha is expected to continue her promotion of ayurveda during the third leg of her tour in Chile today.

It is understood that when preparations for her Latin American trip began in Rashtrapati Bhavan several months ago, she told Christy Fernandes, secretary to the President, that aside from the predictable briefs, she wanted to do something special and tossed the idea of promoting ayurveda among her aides.

Fernandes, who is a native of Kerala with its celebrated tradition of ayurvedic treatments, immediately set about persuading the health ministry to look at how ayurveda can be promoted at the highest levels in the countries she is visiting.

Ayurveda has long had a place in Rashtrapati Bhavan, but no President has actively promoted it abroad so far.

Late President K.R. Narayanan took several weeks off from work every year to be rejuvenated with ayurvedic massages and other treatment in his native Kerala.

Pratibha began her visit to Chile today by laying wreaths at Plaza de la India in Santiago, which has statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore, all three in a single square.

The plaza was opened by Indira Gandhi during her prime ministerial visit here in 1968.