Here’s a thing no one warns you about: your digestion will humiliate you in public in your late 20s. You can’t predict it. You can’t reason with it. Foods you ate for years will suddenly turn on you. Suddenly, digestion is a game of Russian roulette. One day you’re invincible, the next you’re bloated enough to earn a seat on a crowded train—no pregnancy required. I lost the battle and eventually gave up non-elastic waistbands. You know you’ve reached this stage when the parties you attend stock Alka-Seltzer, Eno and prebiotics as party favours. If you’re nodding along, stay with me. The rest of you can log off and enjoy being God’s favourites.
I don’t eat squeaky clean. I eat late. I eat emotionally. This is (sadly) not a story about discipline. This is about one small thing that has managed to weasel itself into a wobbly routine and magically work despite everything else. I tried all the usual suspects: probiotics, peppermint teas, questionable Instagram science. Nothing quite stuck or soothed. Then, like most good things, I stumbled backwards into salvation. It was something that had always been lurking at the back of my pantry, a godsend from my ancestral hometown: Kerala’s pink Pathimugam water.
Known locally as Pathimugam, it’s made by boiling slivers of sappanwood in water. The result is a clear pink liquid; the intensity of the hue depends on how much you use. As a child, I harboured a mild distaste for it. As an adult, I’ve returned to it the way you return to your mother’s advice: quietly and without making eye contact. Back then, it was always served warm and tasted vaguely like a forest floor in my opinion. But in all honesty, it barely tastes like anything, which is precisely why it works for me now.
I tend to have Pathimugam water as soon as I get up or after my meals. I like that I can enjoy it throughout the day, since it doesn’t contain caffeine and isn’t a kind of green tea. I even find it ending up on my nightstand before bed, and I must say, the pink translucent liquid in a cute cup perched upon my book stack makes for a pretty and cosy image.
What it does is very unglamorous but very convincing. I noticed the difference within days: less bloating, a clearer head, better sleep. I would like to clarify that it does not promote sleep; what it does is help alleviate my tummy issues so I can sleep better. Mornings became predictable in the best way (if you catch my drift). My digestion, once a chaotic freelance operation, was now unionised. This pink potion is my Ctrl+Alt+Del. I pass it along to loved ones the way you pass along anything useful. Because, as we all know—and if the memes are to be believed—all hot girls have digestion issues.