Twenty years ago, when I stood before the official who asked me how old I was so he could enter it on my visa for Germany, I answered truthfully: “About 26 years old.” “No, no…,” he said, “When exactly were you born?” I looked him calmly in the eye as I thought for a moment: “My mother told me it was raining.” The city official looked at me in disbelief. On that day, I was born again on paper—more precisely than the first time, or at least in a way that was more useful for a passport.

Where I come from, birthdays weren’t important. South India, my homeland, my village of Kadambadi, three kilometers from the Bay of Bengal—a marginal sea of the Indian Ocean—roughly halfway between Chennai and Pondicherry. Our village is more than five hundred years old and was renamed by one of my direct great-great-great-grandfathers, who danced on a stake balanced on the tip of a knife, thereby earning the right to rename it. The environment in which I grew up was—and still is—characterized by its unspoiled nature, closeness to the natural world, Hinduism, rice paddies, Siddha medicine, and a strong sense of village community. There, in South India, I was introduced to the ancient healing traditions of Ayurveda and Siddha; there, I learned the fundamentals of what I practice today from various doctors, masters, and healers. To this day, I use my trips back to my homeland to further my education and to gather the herbs and roots for my treatments myself, so that I can guarantee their high quality and healing power.

In my youth, I worked as a temple guard for nine years; my wages consisted of the food that temple visitors brought me. My love for music and sacred chants—the mantras—stems from that time. I play a wide variety of instruments and used to perform my music. After arriving in Germany, my love for wood as a natural material led me to train as a carpenter. Today, I build my own instruments and sound beds, on which I treat you. I am a devoted father of four children, and for many years I taught percussion, yoga, and stick fighting at various schools for children and teenagers—an experience that brought great joy to both me and the enthusiastic students.

In 2015, I met my wife, Ronja. Thanks to her creativity, motivation, support, and collaboration, my practice—Palani Ayurveda—has grown into what I had always dreamed of: a professional practice offering authentic Ayurveda, Siddha, and yoga of the highest quality, where my guests feel comfortable and well cared for.

Namaste!

Palani

Ronja is your first point of contact at Palani Ayurveda. Whether it’s communicating with guests, handling accounting, or managing the website—she ensures that everything runs smoothly behind the scenes. With over ten years of yoga experience and a master’s degree in South Asian Studies, she brings not only organizational talent but also deep knowledge to the practice. She dedicated her master’s thesis to an aspect of South Indian Siddha medicine—a further expression of her passion for traditional Indian healing methods.