CAST AWAY

How ignorant are we of the needs of our mentally ill languishing in hospitals or abandoned to the streets?

-  ANJULY MATHAI

VOICES IN MY HEAD

"Madam, are you Priyanka Gandhi?" asks Selvi, a paranoid schizophrenic at Udhavum Ullangal, a home for the homeless mentally ill in Tirupattur, Tamil Nadu. The question would have been comical, except that I have realised that in the world of the insane, everything is serious business. That is why Selvi believes that Sonia and Rahul Gandhi talk with her, and that superstar Rajinikanth is going to stop the voices in her head.

"Someone has changed my mind," she says, "I want to know why they changed my mind." Her expression is one of intense concentration, as though she is painstakingly trying to catch up with her thoughts.

There are 137 rescued people at the Tirupattur home, run by C. Ramesh and his wife, Prema. Each of them has their own story. There is Suresh Singh who has been in the home since 2014. He was found on the street in a dishevelled state, muttering to himself and feeding on garbage. He was carrying a flag and thought he was a soldier. Although the home traced his family, they refused to take him back. "I do patrol work for the railway CBI," he tells me with conviction.

Then there is another Selvi and her nine-year-old daughter, Dhanushree. Selvi was found around 30 weeks pregnant on the streets of Vaniyambedi 10 years ago. She was diagnosed with formal thought disorder and psychosis. She does not remember her life before she ended up on the street, except for a vague memory of a chicken shed near her mother's home. Now, her daughter is everything to her. When asked what she wants Dhanushree to become when she grows up, Selvi says: "I only want her to be with me as long as I live." Dhanushree lives in the women's home and studies in a convent school nearby. Her favourite pastime is playing kannambochi (hide and seek) with Krishnaveni, one of the residents.