Another world

Oh his Adam’s apple was so disturbingly attractive! For quite some time, I wasn’t able to concentrate on what he was trying to say. It moved up and down, like the face of a peacock hiding behind the bush and then peeking again, from the well groomed white formal shirt’s collar holding a silk blue stripe tie that went so well with a formal gray pair of trousers; I could see his pomme d’Adam appear and disappear in every second mellowing the sound that was originating from his well-defined broad gorge. Undoubtedly, he was gorgeous! While his shoulders, muscles and postures told me he dates with the gym every single day, his English was another reason any girl my age would fall for. Good morning young lady, this is Dr Makhon Mukherjee, I feel fortunate to be in your company for some time. Outrageously flirtatious, he laughed when he knew the purpose of my visiting the place, a 650 acre protected space for those unfortunate men and women on whom I wanted to write my lines.

Yes they move freely here, there aren’t any restrictions for as long as they are not hurting themselves or anybody else. I would like to give a background first of what we think of them and then take you around, we do this with all visitors so they can at least empathize, some of them eve have a cathartic experience thinking they could have been here too! The line between sanity and insanity is so marginal miss?

Vaijayanthi, I said.

Vajayanthi, (it felt good to hear my name from a husky voice, he must be in his mid-forties, else how’d he get this affectionate way of talking I wondered)… that we could also lose it anytime if we are not conscious.

True!

Come with me.

I followed him. Saw a lady in front of a mirror plucking her eye-brows. The background was that she was about to leave with her husband to celebrate, for the first time, their ninth wedding anniversary; her husband had booked the most expensive seat of a well-known five-star hotel that became famous introducing a space called lover-corner, the most cherished space for lovers to spend some romantic moments. The husband, on his return from office was supposed to pick her up from home in the evening; his metallic grey Merc met with an accident, he died on the spot because of a reckless young brat who was on the high driving with friends. Vaijayanthi saw a long stick made of polystyrene lying on her bed. In a minute she saw her taking the stick and hitting a young boy, an appointed servant whom Vaiayanthi thought was no less than an activist, who would act as the reckless driver. Vaijayanthi saw Bhavin (the boy) take the beatings from Swati and bleed tomato sauce from his head, shoulders, everywhere. She heard her cry Shantanu, a sound that would stay with her until it found an expression on the pages, she promised to herself. Now this would be enacted then on every alternate days, doctors thought it was a remarkable improvement because earlier it was done twice a day, Swati is slowly losing her tenacity which, in clinical terms meant she was gaining more and more on sanity, they observed.

Out of nervousness, I held the doctor’s hand, he sheltered me for a moment and left it slowly saying easy young lady…easy.

I visited rapists and the rape victims, the tortured and the torturers all deranged in their own ways, talking to people seeking forgiveness, pelting specially designed stones for Bhavins to absorb. Felt an excruciating pain running up and down my nerves while I was taking notes and recording his voice, but I was also happy to know of the existence of such a healing place that was taking care of the sinners and the sinned in the same way.

Suhas was thrown out of his job on grounds of sexual harassment. He was innocent because Susmitha, the one who complained against him, had come later and confessed Suhas saying the case was orchestrated by their common manager Asif Iqbal who wanted him out because Suhas appeared to be a potential threat to him. Asif also influenced senior leaders like Lakshmi, Shubha, to team up against Suhas. He was not only thrown out, he was escorted out by their HR, like a convict. No, but this was all enacted to heal Suhas, shocked into derangement; whether he was innocent or not was not know because Susmitha certainly did not come and confess! Neither did the other stakeholders; they were far too occupied moving out on the loose in society as normal human beings, to engage themselves in healing Suhas, all this was staged regularly to heal a deranged soul. Suhas would laugh and say, 'Look they are escorting me out, I am an important person you see. They love me, they take care of...and in another moment...'you brutes...for heaven's sake... didn't you know you were teaming up against me? You did that because my salary was too high? Didn't I ask you to reduce my salary...just to be there with you...you need to be brought to book for my character assassination..

After spending hours with the doctor, in his company, with his kind of vivid and engaging description, he points out to me a fat and bulky Dr Sen, who was smiling and watching us from the first floor’s balcony. He said Dr Sen would walk me through the remaining area that was at the other end of an open compound. Not fair, I thought. I felt Dr Sen coming down the steps and Dr Mukherjee leaving... telling me he wished he could accompany me till the end, but he wouldn’t be able to do so as that would mean him crossing the compound exposed to the scorching sun, despite the umbrella he always carries with him, his throat would surely melt as it was made of butter. I was in the middle, feeling the dancing footsteps of Dr Sen emerging from another world and Dr Mukherjee’s steps disappearing into his own.