GOURI KUBAIR
“I am so happy that more and more people are becoming aware that Ayurveda brings benefits not just as medicine but as a way of life. I don’t think it is an accident that this increased awareness coincides with the same increase in awareness of the damage wrought by climate change.”
Gouri Kubair is third generation of the family that pioneered the essential oils industry in India. Her grandfather was the first person to cultivate vetiver (a long tall grass) on a commercial basis to extract the oils. From these beginnings has grown a successful family business called Holy Lama Naturals, which makes a natural body care range based on the ancient principles of Ayurveda and a unique range of highly concentrated natural extracts of herbs, spices flowers and fruits used in cooking called Holy Lama Spice Drops®.
Gouri (40) grew up in Kerala with her younger sister and parents who continued to develop and grow the business extending the range of essential oils they worked with and their uses. She watched as together they created the beauty range and began to experiment with oils for cooking. With success, more help was needed and it was Vijaya, Gouri’s mother, who set up the manufacturing unit as a Government-recognised women’s enterprise, supporting and empowering marginalised women in the local community, something the business still proudly does today.
Although naturally interested in the family firm, Gouri chose to spread her wings and trained to become a chartered accountant in India where she worked for Deloitte before moving with the company to the UK. For over a decade, she worked as an auditor and during this time met her husband, Anirudha, and had her two children, Neha and Ashwin.
Perhaps it was having children of her own, but the lure of working for the family business became too much and in 2013 Gouri left her comfortable job with Deloitte to further her family’s ethical business, bringing the natural skincare range and Holy Lama Spice Drops® to the European market.
During the last seven years, Gouri has worked hard to develop the reputation of the Holy Lama Naturals name. As a result, over half the 36-strong range of Spice Drops has been awarded either one or two stars at the Great Taste Awards and eminent chefs such as Nigella Lawson, Rachel Khoo, Tom Kerridge and Cyrus Todiwala have recommended using them. In 2016, Gouri gave Holy Lama Spice Drops® a whole new brand image, which is both contemporary and fun while maintaining its Indian roots and the quality of the product. Holy Lama Spice Drops® have continued to grow in popularity and some varieties have even made an appearance on the Great British Bake Off.
Holy Lama Spice Drops® are available online from Ocado and Amazon, as well as holylama.co.uk and in some Whole Foods Markets.
Follow Gouri:
Website: Holy Lama
Instagram: @holylamaspicedrops
Instagram: @holylamanatural
“Being mindful is how I try to fit Ayurveda into my routine. Mindful about my surroundings, about my thoughts, my words, about my body — what I put into it and onto it.”
What does Ayurveda mean to you?
Ayurveda is a way of life to me. It’s incorporating the wonderful herbs and natural resources freely available to all living beings into our routine either as part of our diet or for external use to help bring a balance to our body and daily life.
When did you discover it? How long have you been practising it?
Ayurveda was always present in Kerala all around me, as I was growing up. Every household has coconut trees and spices and herbs in the garden or growing in the wild. I became aware of it as a child when my mum gave me these very bitter and “smelly” herbal concoctions when I was unwell with a cough or a tummy upset. I hated them — it’s so much easier to swallow a sugary cough syrup, right?
However, I love milk. My mum would give me warm milk with turmeric and black pepper if I had congestion, cold, and cough, and I loved that. I give my kids the same but I use our Turmeric and Black Pepper Spice Drops instead of powder because it is so much easier. It’s quite popular in Europe and marketed as golden milk but for me, it has been and is part of the daily diet.
Back in 2000 when my mum started manufacturing the Ayurvedic skincare range, she would bring home little sample pots for my sister and me to try. We were her homegrown guinea pigs. But this also meant that I learnt a lot about essential oils and their use in Ayurveda.
What drew you to Ayurveda?
All the Indian Mythology stories that I heard and read as a child talked about using herbs for ailments or beautification of the skin. And seeing it actively being used all around me, there was no doubt in my mind that Ayurveda was the accepted way of healing the body and maintaining a balance in the body.
My grandfather was the pioneer in vetiver oil extraction in India and my father followed his footsteps into the essential oils business. My father has always been actively involved in Ayurveda because his brother, who is sadly no more, suffered from Parkinson’s disease for over 30 years. He was diagnosed in the late 1970s. My dad was determined that he would find some medication to help with his tremors and so he started studying Ayurveda. Mind you this was a period when there was hardly any information available about the disease and or life expectancy. My father developed a medicine for my uncle which helped him for 30 years to carry on his day-to-day life. My uncle founded the Parkinson’s Society of India and the medicine was later made available free of charge to the Society to help patients.
When you see so much good happening by using the right herbs and spices, that makes you aware that nature has everything you need really.
Has it helped you with anything major?
After I had my first child I developed very bad back pain. Ayurvedic massage and treatments significantly helped alleviate my back pain. And thus I started to pay more attention to Ayurveda. Post childbirth, my daughter and I were both given different concoctions to eat and drink to strengthen our bodies and build immunity. It is a tradition that new babies and mums do not do any work or step out of the house for the first 40 days. This allows the mum’s body to recover quickly and helps the baby to build strong immunity.
After both my deliveries I followed this strictly. Both my babies were given spice and herb mixes to help them build immunity. I can see the benefit of that even today as they rarely catch a cold or get a fever, touch wood.
I was given loads of ghee post-delivery, which even now we all continue to include in our diets. Ghee is considered very good for your joints and general health in Ayurveda. There is a saying in Malayalam – “Adhikam ayal amrutham, visham” – this means “Excess of even the divine nectar, can be a poison.” Always everything in moderation, be it ghee or anything else!
Since having children, I have become more conscious about using natural skincare healthy food habits. I used to do baby massages every day with the extra virgin coconut oil my father developed, especially for my daughter when she was born. He used to add a tiny drop of pure rose oil in it. I still remember the lovely aroma that lingered on her.
Is Ayurveda part of your everyday life or just for your medicine cabinet or fall-back routine?
It is part of our lives, but it is not an obsession, it is just omnipresent. Because Ayurveda is being in harmony with nature and in a sense, being one with it. By taking only what we need and taking care of what we are offered.
The natural skincare range that my family manufactures is based on Ayurveda. I use the hair oil, the soaps, and the creams every day for myself and for my family. The use of spices and spice extracts in our food and drink just comes naturally. This helps incorporate Ayurveda in our daily life much easier.
What are your top 3 Ayurvedic tips that have worked for you?
1. Understand your body type — which of the Doshas are strongest? This will help understand what is good and what isn’t good for your body, especially with food or medicine.
2. Understand the difference between “cooling” and “warming” spices and herbs so you use the right ones best suited for your body and the seasons. For example, cardamom is a cooling spice, mint a cooling herb, so both are great in summer. When I start seeing pimples break out on my skin I know that there is heat in my body and therefore I need to calm the Pitta Dosha by taking cooling spices and avoiding oily food. Similarly when I start feeling the onset of a cold or cough I look to increase the warmth in my body to calm the Kapha Dosha and therefore ingest more of the warming spices like black pepper, clove and others.
3. Igniting the “Agni” (ingestion fire) before eating helps digestion. Spices like ginger, cumin, turmeric should feature strongly in your daily diet. And remember everything in moderation!
What surprised you most about Ayurveda?
When I got married and moved to the UK in 2003, I was really surprised that Ayurveda was barely recognised as a system to support wellbeing. At that time, there were very few clinical trials, and people like science to underpin their choices. It is only when pharmaceutical medicines do not help that people look to medicine “from nature,” Ayurveda being one such. I am so happy that more and more people are becoming aware that Ayurveda brings benefits not just as medicine but as a way of life. I don’t think it is an accident that this increased awareness coincides with the same increase in awareness of the damage wrought by climate change.
Did you integrate it gradually or overnight for any particular reason?
It has been part of my life since birth. I may have taken it for granted but for the special interest my father developed and the growth of our family business.
One of my earliest memories of my dad is him coming home all yellow — because he would extract curcumin from turmeric roots. My poor mother would try to wash off the stains. Did you know that soap makes curcumin stains on clothes go red? It’s such a colourful memory of spices for me.
We manufacture Ayurvedic skincare products and natural extracts of spices and herbs called Holy Lama Spice Drops. In 2013, I left my job as an accountant to set up the distribution of these products in the UK, compelled by the belief that nature has the answer for many of our health problems. Ayurveda has become cornerstone of my life.
In March 2020, my parents completed the construction of a small Ayurvedic Wellness centre on the banks of river Periyar in Kerala called Lhasa. This commitment reflects the value of Ayurveda in our lives and how we can bring that expertise to others.
Do your children/family eat an Ayurvedic diet? And if they do, do they know it’s Ayurveda or do they just think of it as home cooking?
We don’t follow a strict Ayurvedic diet but we follow Ayurvedic principles by using a lot of spices and we don’t mix foods that may upset your tummy. For example, we don’t mix milk and orange juice since this may lead to a tummy upset.
We do practise respecting nature, which also stems from Hinduism. We are vegetarians so an Ayurvedic diet comes much more easily. Kids are aware to avoid banana when they have a cold or cough for example. So again it is not followed as an exact science, more as a better way of doing something.
We also aim to have all the different tastes in our food: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent. This comes naturally to traditional Indian food as there are spices, a squeeze or lime, a little jaggery in most meals.
What is your favourite Ayurvedic recipe or go-to ingredient?
Tulsi — I love Tulsi in my tea — just hot water with Tulsi spice drops or leaves. We use the plant in our prayers and also the leaves for cuts. The Yogi soap with Neem and Tulsi is such a calming healing soap; I grew up using it in my shower every day and I have not found anything that compares.
Tulsi is like the panacea for all ailments in Ayurveda. Use the oils of the leaves to heal a cut, drink Tulsi tea when you have a fever or cold — that’s what we did when I was a child and now I do the same for my husband and children.
How does Ayurveda fit into your day-to-day routines?
Being mindful is how I try to fit Ayurveda into my routine. Mindful about my surroundings, about my thoughts, my words, about my body — what I put into it and onto it.
What do you wish was easier in our society to make an Ayurvedic lifestyle more accessible?
I think if we all practised more mindfulness and realised that eating right can contribute to a healthier and more balanced life, we probably wouldn’t need to be dependent on all the medicines we currently do depend on. If we can all be aware of the spices and herbs around us and how they benefit us, we could incorporate them in our food and drink to balance the three Doshas too.
Do people around you/in your circle of friends know about Ayurveda?
Yes, all my Indian friends already know about Ayurveda by default. Other friends know more and more about it due to my family business as well. Those who don’t already know about it find it fascinating. I love talking about it as I have always taken it for granted thus it becomes fascinating for me to find a renewed respect for Ayurveda when I see their reactions and curiosity.
What’s the one thing you would encourage everyone to try or you think would benefit the majority of people’s health for the better?
It is important that we really think about the food we eat and try to include herbs and spices in your food and drink. There is a reason why these delicious ingredients are available so easily to us! Try to use seasonal fruit and vegetables alongside other ingredients so as to also work in harmony with nature.