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Dedicated to the Gods above and Their last disciples on the face of this earth, vestiges of human existence, the mentally ill wandering aimlessly on the streets, in this beloved world of ours On the back page of a book 'The Buddha and his Dhamma' by the renowned activist and the drafter of the Constitution of India Dr B.R. Ambedkar is printed 'If you are finished with it (the book), please pass it on to others or offer it to a monastery, school or public library. Thanks for your cooperation.' In a world where privacy of rights is enshrined and fought for, I felt that this passage was brilliant. It allowed the propagation and dissemination of a thought. A thought cannot and should not have any reservation of rights. While an autobiography may give importance to the journey of a person, ultimately the person passes away and so does his autobiography. All that sustains is a thought, an idea and the goodness (if at all any) within that thought and the idea. I would like the people who read my book to treat it as such. A thought in the direction of a cause. The cause of the wandering mentally ill roadside destitute. And I hold a personal solemn belief that if the thought has some innate inherent goodness in it, it might/will be communicated and propagated, but if the thought does not, then it deserves to die its silent death. Ultimately, truth is Truth only when it has the capacity to stretch beyond the limits of all endurance, light is Light only when it has the capacity to pierce the darkness. There has to be a perseverance of belief to outlast all beliefs that Good and God shall prevail. Foreword by Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi Foreword by Dr. Prakash & Dr. Mandakini Amte 1 Musings 1 2 A Dream 5 3 Childhood Angst 7 4 College Upheavals 11 5 First Few Encounters with the Wandering Mentally ill 21 6 The JJ School of Arts Gold Medallist Lecturer 35 7 The Jehangir Art Gallery Exhibition October 1993 40 8 The Dahisar Project Turbulence 47 9 A Personal Tryst with Destiny – August 1998 61 10 Preface to the book of poems – Alone, Isolated & Lonely 65 11 The Meeting with Baba Amte – June 2004 71 12 Baba Amte’s Letter 85 13 Tears of Joy - Stories of Trials, Tribulations 89 14 Sheru Mistry Contribution 97 15 The Background of Shraddha as a NGO 101 16 The Distance of Life’s Journey Bourne 109 17 The ValueLabs Involvement 133 18 Difficulties Faced 139 19 THE RAMON MAGSAYSAY AWARD 153 20 Shattering the Stigma of Mental Illness Through Empathy 167 21 Questions posed by Journalists Post Award 183 22 Excerpts from Speeches Post Award 211 23 Keynote Speaker Address - ICA Conclave, San Francisco 225 24 The Modern - Day Gestalt of Urban Psychiatry 231 25 Developments after the Award 235 26 Personal Thoughts 241 27 An Ode to a Roadside Schizophrenic 243 28 The Cornerstone of Shraddha 247 29 The Final Ode to a Roadside Schizophrenic 253 Acknowledgements Foreword by Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi Many years ago, a Western country giving funds to India decided to put their money into mental health. I remember the debate that followed when government servants tried to talk them out of it, saying the money should be put into “more productive” areas. Government decides policy and money allocation. Since Independence all ministries have been divided by invisible silos into hard, soft and very soft. The money and attention, the best administrators, go to the hard areas: finance, commerce, steel, heavy industry, medium industry, aviation etc. The soft areas get the leftovers: health, education for instance and the very soft get the leftovers of the leftovers: culture, women and child development, Ayurveda, statistics. Within these soft ministries, there are soft areas: for instance the health ministry concentrates on the eradication of specific diseases and on building hospitals. There is absolutely no attention to mental health at all. But it is the softest of the soft areas that feed into the hard. If the soft goes bad, there is no way the hard areas can do well. Mental health problems need to be prioritized, diagnosed, prevented and treated. And those mentally ill who are destitute need to have institutions that can help them. So far all that government offers are “lunatic asylums” which have been built during the British era and are extremely patient unfriendly and old fashioned in their treatment. I had heard of Dr Vatwani from friends who admired his work and we started corresponding before he and I met. My heroes in India are people who do good in unusual ways, ranging from people who make seed banks, to water restoration geniuses, forest builders, organic food promoters, animal welfarists, people who provide free legal help to the poor, people who dig out and preserve village folk cultures: the list is long but it encompasses all those who tread where government does not. Dr Vatwani is unique in what he does. You and I have, over the years, seen many people lying unconscious on the street. Whenever I have remarked on it, the answer is invariably that they are “drunk” and to my shame, I have always let it go at that. It is Dr Vatwani’s work that opened my eyes – that these poor unfortunates were probably not sleeping off a night of binging on alcohol but needed immediate help. What they get instead is a stick on their backs from an unsympathetic policeman. It takes a profound level of empathy to ‘see’ these ‘invisible’ people on the street, treat them and nurture them back to health. Dr Vatwani and his dedicated team at Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation, have treated thousands of mentally-ill destitutes. They have also reunited thousands of recovered patients with their families, some after decades of separation. This is the most difficult part: as someone who has been involved for many years with institutions that reunite runaway children with their parents, I know how difficult it is to extract the necessary information that leads to the parental home. Mentally ill and destitute – these people are considered the most valueless of all society in India. Many of them are not runaways or people who have lost their way but have actually been abandoned by their families as being a burden. Government policies ignore them and so does civil society. Dr Vatwani’s efforts and the Magsaysay Award 2018 that acknowledges its profound impact, has gone a long way in changing our attitude and that is the true value of his work. When I became minister for Women and Child Development, one of the first things I did was to order an enquiry into the state of women in “mental asylums”. One of the findings was that many women had not suffered from any mental health problems. They were widows with property who had been dumped there after bribing staff members. They had lived there for years, gradually losing their memories. Many women had been abandoned after an epileptic seizure (often mistaken for “Devi aa gayee”) and had undergone procedures that should not have been allowed. Many women who had had actual problems had recovered many years ago but had no idea how to leave as they had no money. When Dr Vatwani met me, it was for an unusual request: that his team be allowed to meet the destitute female patients in government mental health hospitals. If they had recovered, could his team be allowed to help them reunite with their families? Even this request – which would have lightened the load of the mental hospitals (“lunatic asylums”) was met with grave suspicion by our bureaucrats and after weeks of quibbling, they finally gave some lukewarm meaningless acceptance. So I decided, as minister, to write the letter to institutions and states myself. I hope it has helped these women find new lives or go back to their old ones. We are all inspired by Dr. Vatwani’s energy and enthusiasm. If you have not met him, this book is sure to move you and galvanize you into action. Good people form a chain, a Lakshman Rekha of social change that protects all. Dr. Vatwani himself was inspired by Baba Amte, whom he met early on in his career as a psychiatrist. This book summarises his life, career and work in the field, the many challenges he faced and his evolution. He talks about his patients and their reintegration into society. Some have even gone on to have successful careers and are giving back to their communities. It also provides an in- depth look at the mental health situation in India. I can’t think of anyone with more grassroot-level experience to write on this subject. Anyone can suffer from a mental illness. Depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia is not uncommon. And these illnesses are just as real as a broken bone or a tumour. People suffering from mental health problems need as much support as those suffering from any other illness. This book dispels many of the common beliefs surrounding mental illness. I hope the next time you come across a wandering mentally-ill person on the streets, you will take a few minutes to offer them food and water, and will call your local mental health NGO to see what help is possible. It could have been you. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi Member of Parliament, Former Union Minister, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India, New Delhi Foreword by Dr. Prakash & Dr. Mandakini Amte प्रतावना डॉ प्रकाश आमटे, डॉ मंदाककनी आमटे भरत मला भेटला ती रात्र मला चा車गली आठवते.