Fw: puria

[Guest guest]

Friday, May 4, 2000

Camp: Mental Ward, S.C.B. Medical College, Cuttack, Orissa

 

Dearest Family & Friends,

 

Hare Krishna! Jaya Jagannatha!

 

I do not know when this message will get transmitted, but I now have an

opportunity to at least write. This week the Lord has blessed me to see even

aspects of material nature I have not been privilieged to see before.

 

Early Monday morning a man whom I had never seen previously, claiming he was

the

marketing director, came to my room in Kalinga Hospital and announced "Pack

your

things. You have been discahrged and have thirty minutes to get out of the

hospital." I asked him to please show me the court order and the discharge

details, and told him that none of the doctors treating me had told me this.

He said that it had been decided by the mangagment without the consent of my

doctors. I walked downstairs to speak with the managing director and his

assistant. They told me I being sent to SCB Medical College in Cuttack where I

would have "better treatement". They said an airconditioned cabin had already

been arranged there.

 

A few hours went past, and a jeep from the Puri Jail arrived with five members

of the jail staff. These five, along with my five Puri Polce gaurds, my wife,

and my fried "Kalu", along with our large murti of Lord Jagannatha all piled

into the jeep and one taxi and took the thirty minute journey to Cuttack

arriving in the middle of the afternoon.

 

Arriving at SCB Medical College, no one knew anything about our coming, and thd

scene was total chaos. We first entered the emergency section, and the doctor

in

chargge looked at my papers and said "This is not an emergency, take him back

to

Puri jail and come back tomorrow." You may imagine how our heads started

spinning when we heard this. The jail staff called their boss and he told them

"Don't bring him back. Get him in the hospital somehow or other." I called my

friend Shymananda Mohapatra, a well-known advocate and polital figure in

Orissa.

He came some thirty minutes later, just as the sun was creepijng below the

horizon. He went from doctor to doctor, had some "private" discussions, and

finally convinced the doctor in charge to admit me for one night into the

emergeny ICU room! This room cost 100 Rupees for a night and had two ancietn

air-conditioners, and four old hosptial beds with rotting mattesses. There is

no

toilet or sink, no water at. There is a bath house two hundred meters away

where

you can rent a toilet and water spiggot for 3.5 Rupees for the "first class

room"... Pretty filthy place, I did not bother looking at the snd or 3rd class

rooms.

 

Anyway, we managed to take rest there, and in the morning we started searching

for a way to get admitted on a more permanent basis. We approached various

departments, but they will rejected us saying there were no significant

problems. All the high level doctors had gone to meetings in Bhubaneswar, so we

were only able to deal with the low ranking doctos who have little authority.

 

Finally we had no alternative except the psychiatric section, and after going

from desk to desk, doctor to doctor for three hours or more, we got admitted to

the mental health ward for "observation"...Now I do not wish to bore you with

the details of the living conditions in this state of the art facility, but

please, be assured it made the Puri jail look like heaven in comparison. I was

assinged to bed number 9. The bed is the steel frame only, no mattress or

padding of any kind. The staff kindly did give me a brand new sheet. I sat down

in a state of total shock, trying to picture how I would tolerate living in

this

ghastly horror chamber brim full with another 150 madmen.

 

My friend "Kuna" arrived from Bhubaneswar and he was horrified too. Kalu begged

Kuna to ask the manager if he chould not provide me with at least a small room

to my self. Kuna was doubtful, but under Kalu's prodding he did go and speak.

He

introduced himself as the editor of one local newspaper, and this sparked the

manager's interest. So, I was guided to a small room at the end of the ward

which had a cot, and ceiling fan, and two windows which provided nice air

circulation. On one door the words "Police Torture" had been engraved. There

was

no water or toilet, but at least there was some privacy and some fresh air.

Yashoda and I settled in, and our police guards were on the floor outside. This

was Tuesday afternoon. The daytime temperatures right now are 105 F plus every

day with humidity over 90%; very uncomfortable.

 

Tuesday and Wednesday Yashoda and I remained in this small cubicle. Wednesday

morning Shymananda Mohapatra arranged to have one of his friends, a "minister"

come to the hospital and meet the director of the psychiatric unit Dr. Gopal

Chandra Kar

 

Now it is Saturday afternoon and I have a phone connection for the first time

since last Monday morning. Tomorrow the police guard staff is changing, so I

have no idea how I will be treated. I am close with the current staff.

 

Love,

 

Bha ta dasa

 

 

 

 

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