lives and problems 123
he says, “Someone is shooting at me and small pellets are in my body.” He says
things like this.Rajendran’s wife reiterated her concern about her husband not eating and
becoming thin later in our interview. Suspicion about food being unclean or
poisoned was seen in other male informants. One complained that his wife
was intentionally making bad food and not serving meals at the right time.
Problems related to food—refusing to eat, eating little, eating slowly and
being suspicious of food—were often reported by patients and their relatives.
Although the eating problems mentioned here are frequently seen among
people suff ering mental distress in Kerala, cases of anorexia and obesity are
extremely rare in this setting according to mental health practitioners and my
own observations of patients.
Rajendran’s wife explained that the fi rst time Rajendran’s problems emerged,
he was brought to the psychiatric hospital where he is now receiving treatment.
“Th en,” his wife recalled, “he reduced the medicine by himself and like that
stopped taking it. On his own, without the doctor’s approval, he said he is not ill
and stopped taking medicine. When he stopped taking medicine, the problem
came back.” About two years ago, Rajendran’s wife took him to see Father M.,
a church minister and psychiatrist. Like Sreedevi’s mother, who learned about
ayurvedic psychiatric specialists from a newspaper, Rajendran’s wife read about
Father M. in Mangalam, a popular magazine. Father M. hypnotized Rajendran
and gave him medicine. “He got lots of change, lots of relief from there,” his
wife recalled. As with other patients who crossed religious lines in pursuit of a
therapy that will give relief, Rajendran and his wife are Hindu, but this did not
inhibit them from seeking therapy from a Christian practitioner.
When asked to explain how Rajendran’s problems started, his wife traced
their origin to the death of his father with whom he and his wife had a special
relationship:
Th e fi rst time this happened is when his father died. He was very fond of his
father. He married me without his family’s permission. He is my cousin. My
uncle’s son. So his father and mother did not approve. I don’t have enough edu-
cation. I studied only until 7th [year of schooling]. So his family didn’t like it,
but we got married. My family also did not like the idea. So we got married
out of love. So we don’t go see our family. Only his father came to us and loved
us even after our marriage. He died after we had three children. So when his
father died he [Rajendran] probably thought that he did not have anyone to
love, that he lost his love. So then his father died, and when they took his body
he [Rajendran] too was taken to Medical College hospital. He was unconscious
so his friends took him. Th ey [the doctors] wrote that this was mental and gave