lives and problems 97
she began working on her Pre-Degree Certifi cate (PDC—a prerequisite to
enter a university) in commerce, but as her illness developed she discontinued
her studies.^3 At the time of our interview, she was training to be certifi ed as a
typist, a less prestigious educational accomplishment than what she had been
striving for earlier. Sreedevi’s mother is a school teacher, which may explain
why Sreedevi went as far as she did with her education and why her mother
is distressed about her loss of interest in studies. But such accomplishments
and concerns about education are not unusual in Kerala where 90 percent
of the population is literate and the state has the highest average number of
years of schooling per capita in India.^4 Young men and women are under great
pressure to excel in school, and they push themselves—or are pushed by their
families—to outdo their peers by hiring tutors or attending supplementary
educational “coaching” classes.
We inquired further about the development of Sreedevi’s problem, which
began with what may have been a somatic expression of distress in the form
of stomach pain:
Sreedevi’s Mother: For the fi rst treatment, we consulted a doctor for stomach
pain. Th at doctor is a specialist in this area, so she gave this medicine. Th en
after seeing her [Sreedevi] continue like this, we started consulting another doc-
tor. Th at doctor referred us to a psychiatrist, a senior psychiatrist. We went to
his house at Medical College [referring to a neighborhood of the city near the
allopathic Medical College], though he’s not connected to Medical College. He
gave treatment right in his home. She was taking a pill called Hexidol.^5 It was
going on like this [she was just carrying on with treatment and things were
uneventful] until fi nally she asked the doctor, “Will I be able to get married?”
So the doctor said, “Yes, you can marry,” and he said, “You should inform the
husband’s family when you get married.”Biju: Now are you using a diff erent treatment?Mother: Afterwards, she had the problem again.Biju: Why did you change treatments? Why did you change to ayurveda?Mother: Well, it was a few days ago that we “discontinued.” After that, again...
Th en fi nally we didn’t see the doctor for several days. Th en we used ayurveda.
Ayurveda is a good treatment. Treatment is like this in ayurveda, but as for the
other one [allopathy], there are some “side eff ects.” Because this is a mental
problem [manassikamāyittulla vishamam], we have been coming here.Biju: Who told you about ayurvedic treatment?