We are halfway through our time here in India, and Bangalore is treating us nicely. The weather here is still very warm as Bangalore is located in the state of Karnataka (in the south of India). Unfortunately, the few words of Tamil we had been learning in the earlier part of the trip aren't much use here because the local language is Kannada (sounds like Canada if you don’t speak any of India’s 100s of languages).
Monday we had the opportunity to visit the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Science (NIMHANS) at two of their different locations. NIMHANS is the largest mental health institution in Asia. Originally called “the Lunatic Asylum,” NIMHANS has transformed itself into a leading rehabilitative treatment center for those with severe mental illness. Clients received treatment either as inpatients or through daily visits to the facility. We were able to tour the building and see the many different types of activities and occupational therapies available to the patients. They worked to teach vocational skills and crafts in order to empower the patients, in addition to their treatment.
The NIMHANS Center for Wellbeing (NCWB) is an outpatient service
center that works to promote mental health through training and outreach. Most
of their clients are dealing with mild mental health illness and do not require
serious interventions. The center helps to spread information, awareness, and
non-judgmental support, as well as offering preventative services. Some of
their more popular clinics include Stress and Lifestyle, Clinic for Youth and
Wellbeing, Trauma Recovery, Marital Enrichment, and Psychiatric Social Work. It
was really cool to see how NIMHANS combated the stigma surrounding mental
health in India by embedding this center into the community.
We ended the day with entertainment and dinner at the Saint
Marks Hotel. The entertainment featured many traditional dances from different
regions in India. Each region in India has its own distinctive culture and art
forms. There are far too many to count but the dancers gave us a wonderful sampling
of just a few! In particular, we were all amazed by one form wherein the dancer
balanced a live flame on his head while dancing with his feet on the ridge of a
copper pot. At the end of the show, we
got to join the dancers on the stage to learn another dance, called ‘the doll
dance.’ This dance is supposed to replicate the movements of a tanjore doll
(Indian bobblehead from Tamil Nadu). The food consisted of traditional dishes
from the Karnataka state. All in all, we had an eye-opening morning and an
enthralling evening, followed by a good night’s sleep!
