Thursday, 28 March 2013

Its not Everyday that you receive a call with a wailing and hysterical mother on the other end pleading for your help regarding their son who has suffered a sudden bout of mental illness. That too when that young man was your junior in school and college and gradually through the years somehow we weren't in touch.

                                                                       lets call him Ravi, its difficult to proceed without describing in detail about this interesting person. slim and of medium height with expressive eyes, the only son of his parents,he was a excellent actor, painter and a part-time poet( which he confided in me to tk up as a profession once he was established in to his other love i.e films and the finer nuances of making them)
            Having being brought up in a govt housing society flats in a middle-class neighbourhood he had around him all his para(locality) friends,perhaps this was the reason why everyone liked him being around and his knack of making friends almost anywhere he went. My fondness and being protective about him was due to the fact that he was always there with intelligent and mature advice far beyond his years and bailing me out of tricky situations infinite times during college.
                                                                        On getting the call that day the first thing that his parents told was that he had left his house without any slippers or footwear and a final bow of his head towards his mother. On the road sometimes he would run ,sometimes he would walk , muttering , blabbering and seeing  hallucinating imaginary objects, beings and creatures. Sensing trouble his parents called me again fearing that their son had lost his sanity. Surprisingly he took my cl when his parents with great difficulty got near to him , (by now he had walked 5-6 km) He told me that he was fine but under stress which sounded to me like something was qt wrong as he was laughing while saying so.On the ph i tried my best to calm his mother and counsel his father to prevent any further shock and trauma and to act so that this spiralling crisis for them could be mitigated. Immediately I advised his parents to follow him lest he does any self-injury or physical harm and by any means get him back by force if possible to the flat.

(Contd in next part)