strange state of terrors
TRANSCRIPT
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Some narrative fragments: aporias of who
To whoever wants to take interest in it!i
Abstract: Here are some narrative fragments, where some moves in
the spaces with its own differences, from place to place, to locate who is
there, in the labyrinth of states-societies-citizen-subject as a problmatique:
aporias of who, there theo-practice webs theory and practice together,
where difference of analysis and description becomes indescribable, at
least in a sense; these fragments, rather than ritual observance of
academic conventions, like quotation marks, citation so on, plays with them
to unfold the problmatique as the threads that nets multiplex ways a
specific case and a state of terror with its difference of style both of
medical and legal sense; perhaps it woks!
Keywords: subject, well-being, rights, power, resistance
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Perhaps one day one will no
longer knows
clearly what madness was.
Artaud will belong to the
ground of our language, and
not to its rupture .
Everything that we
experience today in the
mode of limit, or of
strangeness or of the
unbearable, will have joined
again with the serenity of the
positive. And what for us
currently designates this
Exterior stands a chance, one
day of designating us.
Madness is breaking its
kinship ties with mental
illness, madness and
mental illness are ceasing to
belong to the same
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anthropological entity.
(Michel Foucaultii)
Two or three years after
partition, the Governments of
India and Pakistan
remembered that, as in the
case of ordinary prisoners, an
exchange of the insane was
also called for. That is, that
the Muslim lunatics who were
in the lunatic asylums of
India should be sent to
Pakistan, and the Hindu and
Sikh lunatics who were in
lunatic asylums in Pakistan
should be handed over to
India. (Saadat Hasan Mantoiii)
Perhaps by tats
proccupants [translation of
the phrase states of
concern]-that is, states [and
also, persons or rather
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human] that give us reason
to be concerned, but also
states [and also, persons or
rather human] with which
we must be seriously
concerned, and with which
we must concern ourselves,
in order to treat their case
appropriately. Their case,
in the medical or legal sense.
(Jacques Derridaiv)
Sub: An unwanted internment-ship or becoming of a victim
as a patient of the regime of mental health in an Institute of
Mental Health at Lahore!
Neither its a representative casev, nor a typical or modal case, it is just
a specific case: sometimes ago I woke up, unusually, early in the morning
to complete a list of some French texts and let me find somebody who
could take responsibility to post that list and a small adjoining note to a
friend-who would like to waste his time to find these texts for me, from the
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sources accessible to him as a doctoral candidate, even he informed and
offered that his sister, who is doing a doctoral dissertation on translation of
French literature into another language, may also be helpful in the search for
these texts-and fortunately had completed the list and accompanying note,
after that made a flask of tea, ate some rice left over from last dinner and
drunk a cup of tea, and went out in search of someone who would like to
take the responsibility for the post of the letter (precisely, the enveloped
list and note with an address on the envelop), again luckily found another
friend, who was willing to take the responsibility to post the letter, and after
giving the letter to him with a request to post it today even without any
postage stamp on it with an expectation that the letter will arrive at its
destinationvi (latter, after returning from the institution, I came to know
that even after a month the letter does not arrive or reached at its
destination, while the friend claimed, and there is no reason to doubt it, he
had posted the letter though without stamps as it was a possible option to
post a letter without stamps and whoever will receive the letter also bears
the cost); mission accomplished, so bought some dalvii (a split pea of
gram) and chana ( gram) for the cooking of that days next meal, came
back with the bought stuff, cleaned the dal dipped it in water in a dish,
meanwhile the lady who used to clean the house had arrived, let her came
inside the ground floor of the house and locked the door again, where there
then, I was living in a state of terror from some unwanted attendants of an
institute, who took persons to Institute of Mental Health at Lahore
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(hereinafter institute) for the practice of the regime of metal health (for
the context of this state of terror see appendix A), and went to a wash
room; there then where, I had heard a bit of noise that resembled somebody
unlocked the door and some male voices whispered something and became
silent, it was not confirmed yet that the unwanted attendants arrived or
voices are just a hallucination(!) produced out of fear; when I came out of
the wash room and went to another room where I could dry my hands with
a towel, there they were really sitting, waiting to took a body in an
institute, perhaps a routine job, I asked them why they came again, why not
they let me talk on phone (and pick the cradle) with the authority who
authorized them to took me there where they practice their regime of
metal health, it seemed neither they are used to such arguments nor
interested in it, and they forced me with their push forward strokes of their
hands, that let my body moves forward in the direction, they wanted and
pushed forcefully to follow, and this way took the body inside an ambulance,
and it drove to its destined place(!); within an hour while making fun of me,
as it seemed to me, with such phrases I love you, koi ganan sunaun
(sing a song) and one of them started singing some parts of some songs,
everyone was/is laughing except me, koi latifa sunaun(share a joke) etc.,
while I stared at them shockingly, the ambulance, after passing through
some roads and crossing the gate of an institute arrived outside the out
patient unit of the institute; I had had to sit there, in the ambulance, while
they the attendants and so called guardian) had had to do some sort of
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preparation of the documents for another admission in the institute (the
previous institutionalization was also unwanted and force fully took place,
almost more or less four year before, and that experience heighten the state
of terror of the situation), unfortunately an urgent urge of urine demands the
body to have a slash and I asked for it, I had been told to wait unless and
until documents are prepared!, latter when I got permission to have a slash,
and may be usual procedure, used again, pushing forward the body with
their hands, even when the body was already moving in the same direction
and towards the same place, perhaps at the same time a doctor (i.e. a
psychiatrist) was prescribing emergency treatment and signing the
admission documents; I asked the psychiatrists for a hearing, to tell me
why and on what grounds this whole regime of mental health is coming in
action, and why not anybody listened to me, perhaps they dont have time
for such bullshit, again my body received push forward strokes for
emergency treatment even one cant stand at a place of ones choice for
ones turn for treatment, from where a poster could be read, a poster that
hanged there inside the out patient unit but outside the room where
treatment is going to be administer, a poster about schizophrenia by a
corporation who also produced and distribute treatment that could be
prescribed as one of the available remedies for it, claiming or rather
informing among other information that there is no tested remedy is
available for schizophrenia, just that much could be read in passing, before
receiving another push forward stroke, that seemed to be another routine
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procedure, in practice an injection that put a patient for some time (at least
two or three days) in a state of almost continuous doziness if not sleep,
there again it was asked repeatedly why and what you are administering on
my body, the nurse while staring at the face responded in an indifferent
voice and said something for you and in an ironic tone told the name of the
injection (such a stubborn still asked questions and while dont know what
to do with such information!); from there push forward strokes took the body
from one room to another, from one place to another, to complete the
remaining procedure to admit someone, now just became patient at least
after a psychiatrists prescription and emergency treatment, meanwhile
passing through the procedure in every room and place repeated his bullshit
why, why, why and what you are doing(!) and received back responses
either like the psychiatrists arrogant no or the nurses irony or the
attendants strokes (!); from there, then they took the body that start feeling
drossiness into a rickshaw and took the body somewhere else in the
institute and hand over to another attendant the patient now with a file
and went away; there then here just became patient almost lost his temper
and start talking in a loud voice with the so called guardian and
attendants, such a piece of shit the patient, even become an ire, even
irate with the person -who on the behalf of another institution called joint
family just signed a medico-legal contract with the institute that implied
certain medico-juridical liabilities and responsibilities according to certain
codes between two institutions with regard to patients life course and also
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in case death occurred there, these codes that have a particular relation with
laws make possible that metamorphoses of a body into a patient-and asked
his cellular phone to contact with somebody though expecting little from
anybody (as a sort of SOS emails inability to stop this happening, the text of
the e-mail become appendix A in this narrative fragment), who would like to
do something for him in such circumstances, but of no avail(!); in the
meantime the bodys feeling of drossiness transformed into a demand for
sleep, he laid down in a nearby bench of concrete and immediately fall
asleep, soon the body was being woken up by two persons and asked to
come to another place, the body moved to another place with a strong desire
to sleep again because of the state of drossiness, it was difficult to stay
awake and there again found another bench (of concrete) laid down and fall
asleep; there again soon the body was awaken and after the searching ritual
is completed, the body was directed to first floor of what they named unit D
in practice that place is called Utte(upside)and sometime patients are
sent their as a punishment or just being terrorized by just mentioning it
alongside other threats like send you to a cell (solitarily confinement), send
you for bigali(literally mean electricity, a slang for ECT) etc.-in reality first
floor having patients from two wards from the ground floor namely D-ward
and R-ward, patients arrived there either because of their guardians are not
willing to stay with them (for a patient to stay at the ground floor of the
wards it has to fulfill a condition namely a guardian of the patient to live
with him in the ward to take the responsibility of patients surveillance and
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care)or as a punishment, the patient who ire Thalle(below means ground
floor of award) have to send to Utte(upside); the prescribed, authorized,
negotiated and governed destination for the body just became another
patient for a practice or rather treatment as they called it, that (Utte) is
another world behind locked and sealed grills, saying it economically a place
where there somebody experience a continues state of terror, torture,
humiliation and stink, more or less hundred patients lived there (actually the
place is architected for more or less sixty patient!) a life of their own twenty
hours a day, seven days a week and at least of a month by each patient (it
seemed current regime of metal health there is trying to taking arbitrarily
one month as cut off time for the completion of so called treatment, though
this rule is not rigidly observed, even there are patients who lived there of
many months or even years, for example, it is common knowledge there is a
patient who lived their almost all of his life from childhood onwards, when
once institute tried to discharge him and he the patient was sent to his
home his family was not willing to take in a made person inside their
home and he (the patient) told the attendant who accompany him
chaloo apne ghar chaliea(lets go back to home i.e. the institute), even he
knows that there he used to do bounded labor all day, unless and until a
patient is being discharged or as patients say it got rahai(released) from
that place now a days called itself the institute , even some patients who
also have the experience of prison used to say aih jail ton buri than ai(this
place is worse than prison or jail ), this may reminds someone
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Foucaults(1977 (Foucault)) formulation that prison (more precisely
panopticon though he just appropriated the expression for the prison and
deployed with ambivalence) serve as a diagram of most of other modern
[at the same time colonial too!] institution i.e. asylum, school, hospital
etc in a disciplinary society though patients assert literally close
connection between two institutions like Foucault but emphases more on
the comparison of suffering between the institutions; that place accessible
only to prescribed persons who performs regular scheduled visits there
(regularly and daily only to attendants and nurses and irregularly and
occasionally to donors who donates and want to distribute by themselves
some eatables to patients, that little donating act make a little difference of
taste in patients mouths, under the supervision of attendants) for
prescribed, scheduled activities like distributing food, medical treatment ,i.e.
mostly what there called dawai(medicine in the form of pills), taking
patients for check up, or for shave and hair dressing to barber, etc; there
behind the locked and sealed grills, the body just became patient received
first and last time Nan & Channea-because in a drowsy state just become
patient informed the attendant, who directed him towards the prescribed
location that I am hungry, and after sometime, dont know how much, the
body just entered the prescribed place and found a place i.e. a wooden
bench, lied down and fall asleep again-delivered by the attendant, there-
where I went inside that world almost cut off from the outside by the locked
and sealed grills and grille door, where there nobody could enter without
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permission and patient lived almost an independent life even from the
other parts of the institute in general, in a continuous state of terror,
torture, humiliation and stink, where there usually at prescribed time and for
specific activities others (other than patients as mentioned above)enter, and
whenever they enter there is a noise, as it seemed there, some voices talked
(only with patients) in a barking manner (not everyone excel in these
manner, even some tried other strategies like just loudness), when they put
their first feet on the step, in between the steps there is a grille door that
separates and behind that grille door there is a small space where many
scenes took place, from where other steps starts behind the grill in opposite
direction the inside space at the same time indivisible from the outside
where all those who forced to live there, behind the grills, share a more or
less similar and at once different destiny, with regard to ward and
patientness, within the divided prescribed space, with regards to certain
activities like shaving medical cheek up schedules, so on-start talking in
barking manner usually abusive and threatening remarks about patients in
general or sometime towards a specific patients in particular that could be
reinforced by actual practice of those threats(after opening and closing the
grille door behind) like Ton wich do rakkhna( punches you twice at
neck)or do chhittar pheran ga (hit you twice with sleepers), nothing
unusual, everything is just routine, there, it is a general assumption and
practice among attendants (it seems to be shared by psychiatrists, nurses
and even patients, that is the only possible and necessary course of action or
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practice) with some exception of frequency and intensity, some even excel
in these acts (one patient- another specific case, who used to come there i.e.
in the institute, almost and already over thirty years of suffering the institute
as he used to remind other patients, and this time came after thirteen
years, interestingly that patients daily recitation of certain poems and
repeating of certain slogans and political analyses-he is/was very critical of
current political regime of dictatorship of his state and often expressed his
irate feeling about it, seems to be more committed to democracy and critical
of dictators then leadership of his party (though some time latter the
leadership of the party trying to express the opinion like him, here not trying
to analyses the problematic rather just like to write the air patient breath
there and that show the complexity of the small set of individuals living
there, e.g. another socio-political problematic very pronounced there, is
called there Talban, mujahidin some with this marker too is/was there and
face fun and-or admiration according to someones choice and occasion!)
-gives an idea of his active political involvements, it comes to my mind, may
be he suffered another, previous, political regime of dictatorship of his state,
one day while he was passing by my bed, I asked him a strange question
about it, he stopped awhile, turned his face towards me and said in an
indifferent tone, bund te korea khadhea si(yes, got some lashes at the
ass)viii and turned his face away and went towards his search for some puffs
of smoke, if it could be available somewhere nearby- once told that ai bund
band kar denda wae, ehdea kolon bach ke raho, he named the attendant
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who is working there as old as the patient used to came, (he does not left
any way open, beware of him), that barking voice, usually followed by
hailing (even sometime patient just saw an attendant, or even more than
this without his coming, and starts hailing or mimicking the act by false ritual
performances, or even mimicking attendants manners), either recognized or
not unofficially named as a nambardar (chief) by attendants, do a
attendance function with most of its flavors as a substitute, attendants
explicitly asked for such acts or legitimized it by such phrases littar nah
pherea te nambardari nahe honde (if chief does not use torture, he could
not become or remain chief), it may hint towards the authoritarian
tendencies prevail in the state and society in general , these (barking-
hailing) are usual way to inform patients, why an attendant or someone else
care to put feet in the inside space-of continuous terror, torture, humiliation
and stink called wards- I was eating nan-channe, even some patient gather
together around me and asking for bass ikk burki (just one bite please) to
taste something other than what is distributed regularly for eating, even
some took liberty and took their (presumed) share of a bite without
permission(!) though others just asked for it, even after repeatedly asking for
it, didnt received a bite, just ate some bites or a little part of it in such
circumstances, kid not yet used to the wardly manners inside that space(!),
and causally took a cigarette out of the pocket and tried to smoke but other
(patients) wants their share of ikk kash (one puff please, a very popular
slogan or demand there, whoever lit a cigarette inside that place, even
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outside but visible space, even a nambardar, have to share this ritualized
shared smoking, it reminds certain practices of communal form of using
hash, even some explicitly give that reference); without realizing the
severity of the situation, that one could recognized from all those who
gather together around me, after unwilling sharing of puffs, again fall
asleep but now they (the patients) who smoked there, know that I had
cigarettes, and, one after another came ,wake me up and asked for to lit a
cigarette and he himself only wants one puff only or just the filter (i.e. the
last parts of tobacco just above the filter that rarely consumed by me and
many other smokers because of difficulty to take a puff because of the heat
that heated the fingers) that I could not smoked but some could, even some
got name for it, soon, in-between my attempts to get some sleep and their
demands that wake me up, again and again, to smoke another cigarette, all
the remaining cigarette was consumed by me together with some other
(patients) who got one or two puffs or a filter, now a smokers own problem
arrived at the scene, where and how get puffs for himself, first naively asked
to the attendant who brought nan-channe and confiscated some bucks while
searched my clothes and body, at first he informed me the bucks was
delivered to my guardian, though I explicitly asked him, when he
confiscated my bucks with a claim that other patients will took these bucks
while I will asleep, dont give him (to so called guardian) the bucks, for
almost more than two days he deferred my requests for cigarette of the
brand, used to smoke; meanwhile, had learn the art of asking for one puff
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please request to get some puffs even luckily sometime a cigarette too from
some generous other (patient), until I got out of injections effectivity and
realized a bit of my conditions a bit latter, ; although that very day or more
properly at dinner time, I had realized the eating conditions, I prefer rice
over roti(bread) and the rice was only for old (in age) patients, or-and could
be distributed maximally to eight to ten patients out of , more or less,
hundred and when I asked for rice instead of roti, I was told that they
were already distributed, so had had a first officially distributed meal with
another disappointment that even I could not got rice, though for later
lunches and dinners there, more or less I got rice after continuous
reminders that I used to eat rice, even became among those privileged
few old patients who because of their teeths diminished strength, daily
received the rice, only privilege I got after continuous struggle, yet
sometime, when a new attendant arrived that struggle started again, even
some other (patients)give strength to my voice by saying that ai rozana
chaul khanda aie( he daily ate rice give him some); after dinner slept again
on the bench , a bit latter awoken again and told that dowai(medicine or
rather treatment as it was written on the tray and on the register from
where each ones name and treatment was read and delivered) had arrived,
when a page turn up with my name and treatment written on it, three pills
of different colors and shapes delivered to me; while standing there, in a
state of drowsiness and an urge to fall asleep again, realized that delivered
pills could be put somewhere else than of my mouth and latter they usually
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went into a flush or somewhere else than my mouth except one day, by
chance an attendant looking at me became suspicious that I did not took
pills in my mouth and I had to take pills that day in my mouth, at other
times fortunately I tricked the system; in reality it was impossible for an
attendant to check each and every patient, he had or hadnt taken his
treatment, except, patients themselves take treatment either only
because of assumed authority of medical wisdom (this presumed authority
seems to be related more with wisdom of authority in general and thus
authoritarianism, rather than any trust on its scientific claim!) or terror of
attendants watchful gaze , some used to tricked the system, or in the case
treatment is an injection rather than pills that a nurse has administered
herself on each and every prescribed body; interestingly, there the
treatment is/was also used as punishment even attendants know the
effects of certain pills and injections and whoever defy them or irate with
them or-and some time because of other reason, either they asked a nurse
to do it or some (attendents) himself administer the treatment as
punishment, sometime because of unknown reason the treatment book i.e.
the register where name and treatment of every patient is inscribed, was not
opened or consulted and either a nurse or an attendant distribute the
treatment, the pills, to patients, perhaps they remember all the patients
and their treatment, though I received different pills with consultation of
treatment book from without consultation, or it does not make much
difference to give treatment according to psychiatrists prescription or
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self-prescription (by an attendant or a nurse), if a patient put some medical
complaint either he is deferred to other nurses time or scheduled visit, or
abusively denied the validity or severity of symptom or sometime
occasionally abusively give him some treatment, in practice mostly it is
deferred or denial of the validity or severity of symptom; after treatment or
dawaiagain fall asleep, two or three time woke up because of the
uncomforting of the wooden bench, when tried to search for alternative,
found out that there are other patients who was sleeping on a table or on the
floor around me, and could not found enough strength to stand up and
perform a through search inside the wards, the place where there was some
beds and some other patients was sleeping on them, and slept again there
on the bench;
If you want to reach there, where, individual subjects just become patient by
the practice of a regime of mental health, someway take the Jail Road of
the city on the right side of one way, and reach the institute of cardiology
and turn left, also left side of the institute of cardiology, follow the road and
there, where, a gate as divider of boundary starts and above that there is a
mark marks the name of the institute beneath the regularly and officially
appointed guard is sitting with his register to record the number plates of
incoming and outgoing vehchicals as well as details from the file of filed
individual just departing from in-patient status of the institute, after the
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gate road goes ahead straight to another gate, in between on right side
there was newly architected and erected building perhaps for emergency
treatment, that time just finished not in use status, after that building
another one on the same side called out-patient also there where
individual become patients, after it a mosque (perhaps minorities either
do not need a place to observe the rituals of their faith or they are being
supposed could not observe or look for such a place, or less plausibly it is
presumed a single space is sufficient for all Faithful, or more plausibly it
could be presumed to be hear from the administration the funds produce
the lack !) and after it there is a wall, on the other or-and left side of the
road after the outside boundary wall comes a small grassy piece of land
perhaps waiting for another architectural marvel, after it a cage for some
birds and behind the cage a building called administration block after it a
parking area then a check post for the guard just not touched the wall and
in the wall another gate and another guard not relatively more open like the
earlier one, here started the boundary of in-patient part of the space
occupied when for something later to become an institute, there somewhere
near the edge of mosques corner you may find a map of the space if it is still
there, that could give an incomplete and incorrect idea of division and names
of the space and buildings in it, e-g., when you would cross the second gate,
if permitted though practically it is easy to go inside rather come out of it
especially if you are unwilling to become a patient there and just become
one among the others, there after the gate on the left side a building on the
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map it is labeled a library, on the board outside the building it is special
space for drug addicts and inside that building a functioning store for
medicine if still that is the case, other than a board outside that building
there is a small disinfecting apparatus if you have time and interest to see
and read what is inscribed on it then something like a date of late 19th
century and name of the city Bombay and its producer still readable, after
it there is a small lawn some flowers of gardeners labor and in the same plot
behind the lawn and on the other edge of plot there is another institute for
something like a facility for blood transfusion presumably autonomous entity
from the institute in which it functions, opposite this institute a building
sometime before not operating but now or rather then an operational
private ward , in front of private ward there is the building where meals are
cooked and distributed for patients of the institute, next to kitchen on the
left side of road, there is another gated-walled-guarded boundary for females
as in-patient how it is build, divided and functioned never visited that you
could if you like with due course of procedure dont know what that is!, next
to that boundary there is a remains of a demolished building as it seemed
once, after that road just disappeared and there two building face-a-face, on
the right side of the road after the second guarded gate in front of Lawn
there are cells, cubical for solitary confinement and some taste it as
punishment to some undesirable, irenic type of patients, behind the cell
other blocks with their own name, architectural specifity and patients,
opposite and next to these blocks is another block left to road, opposite to
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that block is another where there is a special ward for emergency
treatments, and behind it the boundary wall, in between the blocks there is
a grassy plot with some trees where birds come to sit, sing and go at liberty,
opposite to road and grassy plot another block that block accommodate
barber shop, ECT facility and if not wrong something would like to function a
sort of teaching facility for whom dont know perhaps Para-medical and
medical staffs in-house training facility, that makes a u-shape of blocks in
between the grassy plot where also then, lately made a cage for a pair of
dears, the block opposite to emergency block is divided in two wards with
two section each, on ground floor of the block there are one-section of each
ward namely D- and Razi-ward in each wards ground section there are
there patients, nurses, attendants and off-course psychiatrist unofficially
called dactors by patients and other staff though for most patient that word
dactor (a variation from doctor) have an inflated use even an attendant
could be called and nurses usually called by this name, other than patient
who stay on the ground floor patient from the first floor comes down for
regular, mostly for scheduled check-ups, though each ward has its own
schedules, and each ward have its section on the first floor though the
division remains and someway activities functioned differently for each floor
of the same ward and converge on rule of floor rather than ward, also the
proportion of patients or rather disproportion between ground floor and first
floor is very pronounced if not wrong just 1/4th of patient found place on the
ground floor though the space and capacity does not have that proportion,
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also patient on the ground floor could walk outside of their ward in the
grassy plot or sit there for a while but there is another boundary of grill with
its own gate that separate ground floor from first floor, and the first floor
there you find patient living alone with nurses and attendants and I never
saw a doctor there during the forced stay I had there, behind the gate that
is mid-way between inverted stairs, and in between the inverting joint of
stairs there is a more or less eight by ten floor on roof, one side is where
one part of stair goes down after the gate other part goes up to first floor,
opposite side a small locked room never saw being used, other on the other
two side grills that let air and light pass through the place where some
patient tired sit, chat and call the attendant for some reason or wait there
arrival to inform other, and more probably go there to find a passer by to ask
for a spare cigarette or eatable, and some time fight with each other as they
on the first floor do too, among other activities, where the stair ends there is
a long corridor that have many name there, on the left side of stairs fall or
stay there a section of d-ward, next to it another covered square shape
space on the three side of it is grill within it two tables and some wooden
benches for what, dont know, once an attendant want to train and
demonstrate how patient supposed to eat arranged these two for a dinner
and half of the patient could not find a place on it, latter he himself
discouraged patient to use it for that purpose!, regularly nurses used to
perform treatment from delivering pills to using as a couch for injecting
something in someones ass, and patient used it for sleeping ( and those
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who even do not find a place on the table there are benches and floor in
abundance to enjoy the sleep, and some time sitting on it and singing, joking
or chit-chatting while waiting for their share of a puff of the cigarette circling
in-between with its own codes of distribution of puffs, where the half part of
square space touch the wards wall other half leads to the corridor, going
straight where the d-wards sections ends and stairs starts, after stairs, a
small passage, more or less five feet width, goes to washing area, there the
architectural design of floor on roof repeats just one variation here is a
washing space rather than small locked didnt see to be used, in the washing
area after the door four more or less four by five rectangular shape two on
each side for the purpose of shitting and slash more than sufficient for more
or less hundred patients, and inside it people even do bath who feel
comfortable because of privacy or other reason, other even paint shit on the
walls there, there are/were some interesting drawings there waiting for a
Lang to recognize it interpret, theorize and use it for cure, behind these
room-with-door to shit, a more or less eight to sixteen feet space with three
taps at the height of roughly four feet used as compulsory and non-
compulsory baths, cleaning the treys, and some think it is more appropriate
to have a slash or shit there too, and a reminder once may be a wash basin,
next to passage for washing area there is another first floor section of razi
ward, just that much is still remembered!
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There, then, just become patient was/is being awaken by another patient
and ordered him edhar au (come on this side mean in the corridor), that
was a call for the Ginti (counting), if cow expresses someway something
essential of Nuer culture to Evans-Pritchard as he describe and analysis it, he
may like to take Ginti for this institution, here, in the corridor, every
patient have to sit in a queue being counted down by an attendant again and
again until and unless he is being satisfied with the number he expected
and patients sitting there correspond to it, otherwise a state of emergency
have to be announced and all the available means will be employed to
check the discrepancy and-or if it still prevail then another procedure is
going to be employed, like call an other attendant to tally the figure,
correlates the file and patient to see who is missing, and if there is still a
discrepancy then report the runway patient in a certain book and face the
consequence, so on, and from that cage like space someones escape is
always an act of real determination to go away by anyway, and usually the
escaped individual brought back not because they lack determination but
they rarely have a place to find an outside from their reach or-and they
usually go back to the place from where previously sent there, and mostly
once a patient means always a patient for any reason it become possible to
activate the procedure again and again, most of the patients are regular
visitor of the institution, and kinds of reason are so numerous and strange it
seems anyone could be a patient and there they have no way to determine
the difference between white and black, e.g. when he asked again on his
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first check up why he is there the psychiatrist gave the reason your family
said you act angrily and fight with them he gave his version of story, and
asked why not they listen to him at the time of admission and why not he is
going to have access to his books and means to write something because he
is working on a small piece of work of his interest, while they are not willing
to let him go and have their on procedure to follow on which they pretend to
have more trust the psychiatrist needs some time to think and consult the
guardians or-and family, he continue in his stubborn ways and asking
again and again even dare to ask what they actually think in between time
according to their professional assessment what is the diagnoses that make
the suffering of this institution a must be, rarely find an answer, these two
minutes session usually terminated or the request is deferred, when he
asked again to psychiatrist after a month, that was turn up to be the last
session, he got the response they are not yet sure of diagnosis, the
psychiatrist said one month is not sufficient time, and they still have to
think he could be allowed the books and writing stuff, so on; there, they
counted more than six time a day every day, each attendant at least twice
and there are three shifts each day, when he took charge and before
leaving the charge and in between whenever he desire everyone must be sit
in the queue without delay or face the attendant, and to face an attendant is
the least desirable thing any patient wanted still some have to face him
anyway, it seems most of the time the way attendant act themselves or
persuade, delegate others to act , some sort of state of terror is desirable,
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even some time they express as it has curative value, so rarely there is a
counting act when someone someway does not face an attendant, so he
went there without knowing that he is going to face all this at least a month
and ordered to sit in a queue, even one cant sit on a nearby bench though
latter he got that exception because of some problem in his ass he feel pain
whereas trying to sit on the floor, that too some time become intolerable
because of attendants mood swings, so sitting there in a state of
drowsiness, and attendant is counting again and again to confirm the
number until his satisfaction, patients are anxiously waiting to be counted
and either go to bed again and wait desperately for the breakfast, or
meanwhile find someone smoking there to have an early puff, after counting
attendant pick some patient of his choice to brought and distribute the
breakfast, attendant with his hand picked patients, usually every attendants
have his own team to do the chorus, and these patients in return received
some extra food stuff and rarely some cigarettes if confiscated from another
patient, this extra food always already seems problematic as it convey that
the food provided to each patient is not sufficient and that extra or little bit
more is an incentive to do the act, because when patient was/is employed
for other activities neither they are compensated with food, if it is for the
recovery of the energy consumed, nor usually get any other compensation,
expect where they used to work there they can have more walking space
outside the cage-like-first-floor but inside the arbitrary boundaries of block,
so the break fast is/was arrived and before its arrival some patient comes
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with mugs and most of the patient trying to catch one and sit in queue again
if do not want to wait for an other patient to finish his break first and
handover the mug to him, and receive two toast and tea in the mug, so
after break fast the patients who distributes have to eat their break fast and
latter collect the mugs and other kitchen wear clean in the washing space
and cry for the attendant to take it down, after finishing his breakfast he
start a search for a bed and find one empty in a corner, it might be empty
because there for the fan it is hard to demonstrate its presence, and lay
and slept again, soon some one awaken him and ask to come in the corridor,
now what, he has to change the clothes, what some attendant calls vardi
(uniform), he refused without recognizing the consequence, they smell in
the hands of attendant, he had got quick slap on the face and he is laying
on the ground, again being asked, again he refused with the reason of non
acceptance, again received the slap and he is/was on the floor, while he
is/was trying to stand another patient jump on him and he is again on the
floor, an usual scene there , with this encounter of reason and slap he had to
wore the cloths, and later his ass face the consequence as he think, within
a day some irritating activity he felt at his ass and there was an infection
that took more time to heal and left some permanent black marks on the ass
than the course of treatment in the institution, latter one day when he
remind the attendant because of these filthy clothes he got an infection he
said with self confidence, doctors are here to cure, when he argue why he
have to become sick first to get doctors treatment he repeat with an ironic
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smile last reply, and when asked the doctor he really had a remedy some
anti-biotic without paying any attention to change the clothes that may be
the cause of infection, so he have to wore that clothes more or less three
week with growing infection on his ass and its multiple irritations; a bit latter
came a nurse with the attendant to treat the patients every patient have to
assemble in the square space at the edge of corridor where two tables and
benches are present , even if some patient do not have any treatment for a
schedule visit of a nurse as some realized after some time even then some
time they are forced to go there because attendant wanted or face the
attendant , there no patient can sit on the same bench where the nurses sits
because they were the only one other than patient themselves who smells
the stink of their clothes and afraid of being infected by some dieses, there
the nurse(s) have to deliver the treatment and newcomer like him have to
receive a small plastic boatel to fill with their urine and hand over to
another patient who collect it and deliver it to a destined place, and if that
moment some could not produce the urine he must face the attendant, also
a blood sample, so attendants third visit with a third act is completed with
its usual funfair and he could again have some time to sleep, while he is
sleeping someone came with his equipment and chose his patient of choice
and all of them try to clean the first floor for a day, if it was a day for check
up he could not sleep he have to go down in a queue with a counting before
and after to have a privilege of two minute session for that have to sit there
in the ward under the watchful gaze of an appointed patients and attendant
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they could brought some eatables and smoking stuff depending upon the
visitor, in practice virtually any time some visitor can come and ask for a
mulakat and usually patients desired this activity it give them an
opportunity to taste something other than officially provided eatables, get
some cigarettes or money to buy some cigarettes at inflated price, have a
chance to go out of that cage like space for the time of mulakat and to
know their (admitters) desire when they are willing to take them back, so
on, as that happened more or less same time after two days though then
he came out of the efectivity of injection and was not sleeping there, and
there then he talked and asked during mulakat for the reason of the
admission, and they (admitters) had to communicate the virtually chronic
unemployed the other presumed privileges inside or outside they are
going to take back, without having any sufficient reason to give for the
admission, a bore encounter for him, though the attendant on duty who
over hear the dialogue thought he presented his case rightly even willing
to gave him a cigarette out of what, though he did not get the cigarette,
latter he refused to participate in any such encounter as he denied
another visitor the mulakat he (visitor) asked for, so that very day he was
awaken again for a launch some patients brought the food and after
attendants counting ritual food is/was distributed, food too seems to have a
weekly schedule and usually on a particular day of week a particular
vegetable or dal is being cooked, and he realized latter at least there are
three days when there is something he never like to eat so just rice or a bit
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of gravy if the distributing patient and attendant is willing, other wise eat the
rice at your choice, as one attendant used to remind on such occasion athea
teri bhabhie nahi bhathi (here you dont have your mother to serve you)
or-and other aphorism or scrams of his choice with a smile on lips, after the
launch he slept again until someone call again for another counting,
another attendant arrived and have to count the patient, after counting
again sleep and again someone awaken him later, for what, tea time, he
was not interested let be sleep, this is only act patient do by themselves
from bringing and distributing the tea to cleaning and sending down the
kitchen wear, more or less successful, isnt strange no big problem in a
month took place while patients do it by themselves!, so again being
awaken for another treatment have to go to square space and receive his
medicine and think where to put them other then mouth and did the bit,
there he recognize the attendant and remind him of cigarettes that he
promised to manage for him and he (attendant) again deferred until he
(just become patient) almost lost any interest to repeat that again and
request being deferred again, after some days other demands too he put
forward to more then one attendant like soap, tooth brush, ball point and
note book, even a chapel (a kind of sandal) when his chapal he wore
become unusable but no one interested in such minor affairs they always
have to do some other more important stuff to do, as when after three days
without a chapal, and even before when chapal was close to lost the
threshold of usability, he asked the psychiatrist he said it is not a serious
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thing one can live without it, so again sleep yet the injections effect let him
sleep without much ado, so again being awaken for the dinner sitting in a
queue, and after counting, distributer distributes eatables, after that again
he went to sleep, being awaken again for another treatment session that
square space full of patient want to sleep have to sit there in that square
space full of stink , just become a lack in space because of more or less
hundred patient sitting there, and going to receive some other sedatives
perhaps, even there some already sleeping being awaken by an
attendants punch or patents call to take the medicine and go to bed and
sleep there, after that every patient have to go to some place to sleep
some on bed some on the table, some on the benches and other on the floor,
until then, when another attendant arrive and bark again wake up and sit in
queue I have to count, here neither have much space nor time nor interested
to exploit your patience with a narrative of a month in a institute, just in
passing it could be added those rare moments when after a struggle with the
patients and attendants he could enjoy a scene behind the grill what he
called look like a landscape yet to be painted, about those birds comes at
there will fly around sits there sings and pass there time and go away, may
be come again for another day either he will or will not be there, so how
these fragments weaving together to net a narrative seems to have any
coherence or not, pointed towards how many violation of human right, it is
up to you read that with as much rigor as you want to useix, lying there on
the bench while watching birds games and hearing their songs on the tree
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outside in the plot at the same time inside block sometime he think may
be Basaglia, like others, rightly demonstrated another time and another
place all the rigor of assessment regime and curative value of these kind of
institution, what else could be added when already there are so many
con-/text like this daily happen and other asked is there anything serious in
it!, may be someone mconnaisse this description as Kafkaesque Trails
opening scene, perhaps it seems to resemble more with Mistryesque scene
of family planning in A Fine balance!
Here are some words creating poems there you may find little more joy, who
knows, how they relate with this narrative there is no justification other than
they are here putting a claim on the critical reader to see is there any
relation in it or-and any monologocentrism is operative in it called itself some
narrative fragment: aporias of who!
XXXII.
There was a Door to which I found no Key:
There was a Veil past which I could not see:
Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE
There seemed--and then no more of THEE and ME.
LXXVIII.
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What! out of senseless Nothing to provoke
A conscious Something to resent the yoke
Of unpermitted Pleasure, under pain
Of Everlasting Penalties, if broke!
LXXIII.
Ah, Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits--and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!
(Khayyam)
LA BEAUTE
Je suis belle, mortels! comme un rve de pierre,
Et mon sein, o chacun s'est meurtri tour tour,
Est fait pour inspirer au pote un amour
Eternel et muet ainsi que la matire.
Je trne dans l'azur comme un sphinx incompris;
J'unis un cur de neige la blancheur des cygnes;
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Je hais le mouvement qui dplace les lignes,
Et jamais je ne pleure et jamais je ne ris.
Ainsi donc la question ;
Cet enfant
il nest pas l,
il nest quun angle,
un angle venir,
et il ny a pas dangle.
or ce monde du pre-mre est justement ce qui doit sen aller,
cest ce monde ddoubl-doubl,
en tat de dsunion constante,
en volont dunification constante aussi.
autour duquel tourne tout le systme de ce monde
malignement soutenu par la plus sombre organisation.
(Artaud)
LA BEAUTE ()
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Les potes, devant mes grandes attitudes.
Que j'ai l'air d'emprunter aux plus fiers monuments,
Consumeront leurs jours en d'austres tudes;
Car j'ai, pour fasciner ces dociles amants,
De purs miroirs qui font toutes choses plus belles:
Mes yeux, mes larges yeux aux clarts ternelles!
(Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal)
Beauty
I am as lovely as a dream in stone,
And this my heart where each finds death in turn,
Inspires the poet with a love as lone
As clay eternal and as taciturn.
Swan white of heart, a sphinx no mortal knows,
My throne is in the heavens azure deep;
I hate all movements that disturb my pose,
I smile not ever, neither do I weep.
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This child
he is not there,
he is but an angle,
an angle to come,
and there is no angle.
and yet it is precisely this world, of father-mother which must go away,
it is this world, spilt in two-doubled,
in a state of constant disunion, also willing a constant unification.
around which turns the entire system of this world
maliciously sustained by somber organization.
(Artaud, 1983)
Beauty ()
Before my monumental attitudes,
That breath a soul into the plastic arts,
My poets pray in austere studious mood,
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coming out of matter
all eternity all alone
such a crap
where is commode
put this in it
just a flush
nothing there
nothing more
no trace behind
just that
nothing much
who knows
perhaps u
(Likhat Sialani, unpublished)
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caught my hands, pulled me up from the chair, turned my arms round and
later backwards, I felt impulsive waves of strains and pains in my body
especially joints of my shoulders, forearms and at the back; for a while, I
tried to resist but it seems to me, there was no getting away from their grip
and force, at the same time, I was asking, even if they want to bring me back
in that institution, whatever reason there was/is (if any) that authorize this
act, let my body free, and I could go with them; even if neither I want it, nor
feel any need of it, also have to do some work, so dont interested to waste
my time!
However, neither they had been interested to listen these idiocies of a
lunatic fringe, nor let those arms and a body free, even if, to go there, just
otherwise then the way they was acting, probably they thought the only
appropriate way to do such act was the way they was doing; they intensified
the pressure on the arms and dragged the body to another place , given
without giving there efforts over to idiots yapping -- like I could go with you
if my body could be freed sandals could be again on my feet, as some dare
to ask for such stupid things!--instead of that they demanded a rope, without
more ado got it too, and tied the hands behind the back of the body, dragged
the body out of a house in bare feet, hand-coughed at the back and forced
the body into a vehicle they called ambulance: there, everybody at its place,
inside the ambulance, feel relaxed and chatting with a sense of
accomplishment visible on the face of smiling ones; again and again, on the
way to destined place, irksome irks by reminding, there is an untimely thirst
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of water, wherever that seems available, if they would like to provide it, that
untimely need had to be defer with excuses of one kind or other; at last
ambulance reached there, renowned Institute of Mental Health, in front of
so called out-patient block, the body had been taken out of the ambulance
and brought in, inside the place of Out-Patient!
In short, Someway it was being happened to escape from a place called Out-
Patient, and now in a social-psychological state of terrorone sign of it is
that, all the time, all the possible ways to come in a place, where I came
back are being locked-- and shock, thinking that what could be done in such
a situation!
Therefore, I would like to know, you or the organization-- at least those who
are working for the Rights, in general, or for the Consumer, in particular
have any-way-out for such impasses! I dont know, still sharing these words
with you; though dont have the ability to do it in a proper way! May be, out
there, somewhere, some think it valuable; at least to read it and think over
it, there may be a way out!
Just a victim!
Whos body
and rights
are being
violated
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and
abused
(Signature omitted)
P.S.: Presently, neither I have Internet access nor bucks, energy and strength
to come to a cyber-caf, and checks emails: Only way seems plausible, if any
want and think of it, to contact me is by a way of phoning at: (omitted) or-
and reaching at (omitted); if and only if, the phone is working or-and
someway a letter or a person may reached there, and it could be received by
me! Sorry for bothering your patience for such yaps, dont mind, if it reached
you unwanted, just do your bit, bits- it- away- with- recycle-bin!
Below/beneath is some stanzas taken from some poems of Baudelaire, P.
Charles (1857) Fleurs du Mal. (tr.) F. P. Sturm
The temptation
The harmony is far too great,
That governs all her body fair,
For Impotence to analyze
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And say which note is sweetest there.
The Owls
From their still attitude the wise
Will learn with terror to despise
All tumult, movement, and unrest.
Correspondences
In Natures temple living pillars rise,
And Words are murmured none have understood,
And man must wonder through a tangled wood
Of symbols watching him with friendly eyes.
As long-drawn echoes heard far-off and dim
Mingle to one deep sound and fade away:
Vast as the night and brilliant as the day,
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Color and sound and perfume speak to him.
Notes
For a reader of Derrida ( 2005), it may [e]cho thus lets be heard by whoever
wants to hear it, whoever might love hearing it, something, other than what
seems to be saying from the Preface: Veni of two lectures later became a
book with the title rogues: two essays on reason, though that line occurred
without, or rather before, reading the above cited text
This epigraph was cited as a part of a footnote in Deleuze & Guattari (2000)
Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and schizophrenia, itself a citation from Foucault
(1964), La Folie, labsence doeuvre
This epigraph appears as an epigraph in Pandeys The Prose of Otherness,
itself a citation from Mantos (1981) Toba Tek Singh. Interestingly the author
of Afsana (Short story) like the protagonist of theAfsana had been admitted
as an lunatic or patient even in contemporary vocabulary used in the
institution no more asylum ( I-see note v for pronouns use-am not sure
the institution ever officially named as an asylum though some of the steal
trays still patients used for eating in the institute have a monogram
engraved in them somewhat like G M H 1993 may be an abbreviation of
General Mental Hospital, and official discourse including one of the
psychiatrist I had had to meet there usually emphasis on its being an
institute as it seems to be renamed lately, what was the name when the
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author of the Afsana lived there in mid twenties centaury or rather when it
was coming out as a colonial erection in late nineteen centaury and
itinerary of its naming and re-naming again and again its contingent
operative mental health regime of each time, lets leave this for
researchers to search it as recently there is some interest in another
contemporaries colonial erection of a school of art in the same city may
be one night some one like to write a thesis on this institution too,
something like Mental health regime: from colonial time to now, although
unofficially almost everyone except some psychiatrist perhaps called it
pagal khana and patients as pagal including most of the patients
themselves, one Punjabi-English Dictionary (1983) have only the meaning
of the word pagal i.e. [m]ad; insane; foolish; there is no entry of pagal
khana however there is an entry of khana that publish its meaning i.e. [a]
house; a receptacle, a drawer; a compartment, a partition, especially in a
box; a square in chess or draught, divisions or square in other games; a
column of a tabular statement, so it could be said quickly it means
something like mad house or house for insane, foolish or-and mad, other
than a house, a compartment, a partition or even a receptacle seems to
make sense with the translation of the word pagal that mean they could be
considered as a substitute for the word a house or and augment and
gloss over the complexities of translating that compound in another
language and unfortunately I have neither a lexicographers competence
nor enough time to look this problematic of translating the compound word
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in detail here (!), usually some consider it a synonym for mental hospital,
while altogether leaving aside the problematic of this dictionary itself, first
published in 1895 under the aegis of the Education Department with the
approval of the Punjab Text Book Committee of that time and had to take
into account what the then Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, was inclined
to think that in the new book should be adequately treated and later a
publishers publish it in 1983, there where here Foreword of Reprint [publish
that ] the present dictionary still remains the best available the
Dictionary [must also be made!] suitable for use in this country, what these
long citations said or remains many things unsaid like the governmentality
from colonial to dictatorial time, or the translation of the Afsana translate
it as asylum and patients as lunatic for some time (why? dont know)
there, where, here in the institution where the narrator within these
fragments forcefully made a patient, so lets return to the citation as an
epigraph, the irony of this citation is not only the themes of partition and
exchange as a historical event wherever that could be breached in, even to
lunatics asylums and prisons, rather later when another partition or rather
independence happened after another civil war many exchanges even of
citizens itself still have to take place, if ever that is going to take place(!),
those (before, during and after civil war of independence ) who considered
themselves citizens of Pakistan whose majority of citizenry whiter away
and another citizenship has been arrive at its place, there, where, they still
lived alongside their children, who born in other circumstances, in refugee-
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like camps, and called stranded Pakistanis since 1971, Refugee
International (2006) reported that they are Citizens of Nowhere: The
Stateless Biharis of Bangladesh, and [n]ither [ state whos reminder of
citizenry they considered themselves they are, there, where another
citizenship of another state arrive after a withering away effect and they did
not go for it,] country offered citizenship or aid; again I am not going into
details here, the problematic of that particular state with its multiple
dimensions like the name of minority the claimed cause of the birth of a
nation where later in its hi-s-tory neither minorities nor majorities feel
satisfied from the state, a majority secede[d] and became another state
where that reminder of citizenry is still reminding one aspect of the problem
namely chronic military dictatorships and dictatorial regimes aversion to
let the citizens have a voice and vote to determine the states affairs,
another aspect of it is, not only relatively well constituted already
established minorities, considered in terms of ethnicity or religion, faces
problems, the state and also societies constituted new minorities on the
name of religion or other names like above example some citizen considered
themselves citizen of a state and that state recognized that as a real claim
awhile and then what happened they become citizens of nowhere, that
state constituted a new minority in second instances of its state formation,
after second partition, out of its religious majority by defining a certain
sense of a religious faith mean non-faith and that implies they no more
belong to the religious faith to whom that newly formed minority think it still
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belongs faithfully(!), so then onward they becomes minority of a religion at
the same time outside of it and inside of it, and story goes on lets return to
narrative of who lets see that here, where, there in the institute, one day
a fellow patient found out that I am an atheist, he became interested in
me, and soon we develop a rapport, of more than just a communal
smoking, and start discussing a lot of matters from Nietzsches God is dead
to magic and science, even he think he too becomes an ateat (initially, I
mconnaisse it as atit a bit latter through the context of his talk I
recognized that perhaps he pronounced atheist this way!) and advised me
dont tell others that you are an atheist because it is dangerous, and to
some extent he was right, being a minority means to expect discrimination
or censor one-self in public, in their society being an atheist considered
more un-expectable than a Hindu, Sikh or Christian even from a Mirzai the
newly born minority just mentioned above, and during those chit-chat I
come to know that he even did not know Bangladesh once part of his state,
and many stranded Pakistanis are still living there in refugee-like camps,
may be because of his age, he seems to be born in eighties!
This epigraph cited from Derridas (2005) Rogues: two essays on reason,
though in this epigraph here Derrida is explicitly discussing states only, and
in particular rogue state or etate vouys, but as the text bring in the debate
of rogue and vouys as a person, individual and to some extent rogue or
vouys organization (or institution) in general, as a specific formation of
these words rogue or vouys historically in France and their theoretical link
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to democracy with regard to Greece, and their contemporary deployment in
inter-state relations, and drawing from it so many consequences and
conclusions or rather indicating in passing so many aporias and things
related to democracy, peace and human rights so on
Here, where, there, you are reading, or-and writing at once, this case both in
the medical and legal sense, keep in sight, that it (the case) was narrated in
a manner and style, where, there, here an I, me and other subject
positions that narrates the narrator as a character-actor of the narrative
and it, he and other positions may play a play at once or by turn,
alternatively, also the narrative departed from the traditional style and
manner of narrating, making, presenting a case both in the medical and legal
sense; so it demands a bit care to read the heterogeneous senses, even
non-senses, produced here!
Just an allusion to a late debate between Lacan-Derrida about a letter would
either arrived or not arrived to its destination, for details see Muller &
Richardson (1988) The purloined poe...
Here and elsewhere the Punjabi words and phrases being translated toconvey at least one sense they usually have in the Punjabi, the linguafranca there, and mostly follow the Punjabi-English dictionary,May be someone like to write another thesis like Mental health regime and
its relation with socio-political struggles: from colonial time to now
In passing it could be mentioned the (anti-)psychiatrist regime of Mental
Health and its normative conditions could found so many exception here of
their functioning, for example an overview of one contemporary debate
-
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within WHOs framework could be read in The Resource Book on Mental
Health, Human Rights and Legislation and other documents available at the
website or otherwise, for deconstruction of Human Rights and related
themes Derridas many texts could be cited, one is mentioned in the
narrative fragment Rogues: two essays on reason, for the
genealogical/archeological working out of the problematic Foucaults
Madness and Civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason, for a
critique of the notion of mental illness Szaszs The Myth of Mental Illness,
for its relation with the family institution and its critique, works of R. D.
Lang, D. Cooper, A. Esterson, and so many others works, so on, how these
are related with this text and in this specific context, there are some places
where they frame these fragments, for more rigorous works that could
describe and analysis it better latter perhaps!
Selected Bibliography
Artaud, A. (1967). Ainsi donc la question.Tel Quel, 30. Cited in G. Deleuze
and F. Guattari. (1984). Anti-oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
London :The Athlone Press. P.122
Baudelaire, C. (2004). Les Fleurs du Mal. EBook #6099. The Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive, [WWW document]http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6099 (accessed 09 September 2007)
Cooper, D. (1970).Psychiatry and Anti-psychiatry. London: Paladin
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6099http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6099 -
8/8/2019 Strange State of Terrors
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Derrida, J. (2005). Rouges: two essays on Reason. Trans. Pascale-Anne Brault
and Michael Nass. California: Stanford University Press
Foucault, M. (1964). La Folie, labsence duvre. Cited in G. Deleuze and F.
Guattari. (1984). Anti-oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London:The
Athlone Press.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punishment: The Birth of Prison. London:
Penguin Books
Foucault, M. (1977). Madness and Civilization: A history of insanity in the age
of reason. London: Tavistock (abridged version of original French text).
Kafka, F. (2005). Trail. EBook #7849. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive,
[WWW document] http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7849(accessed 09 September
2007)
Khayyam, O. (1995). Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.Trans. Edward Fitzgerald.
EBook #22535. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive, [WWW document]
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/246(accessed 09 September 2007)
Laing, R. D. & Esterson, A. (1964). Sanity, madness and the family. London:
Tavistock Publications
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7849http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/246http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7849http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/246 -
8/8/2019 Strange State of Terrors
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Lynch M.& Cook, T. (2006). Citizen of Nowhere: The Stateless Biharis of
Bangladesh. Washington: Refugees International. [WWW document]
http://www.refintl.org/content/publication/detail/7828/ (accessed 09 September
2007)
Mistry, R. (1995). A Fine Balance. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart
Muller, J . & Richardson, W. (1988). (eds). The purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida,
and Psychoanalytical reading. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Pandey, G. (1994). Prose of Otherness. In D. Arnold and D. Hardiman (eds.).
Subaltern Studies VIII: Essays in Honour of Ranajit Guha. Delhi: Oxford
University Press
Szasz,T. S. (1961) The myth of metal illness. New York: Hoeber-Harper
The Vanguard Punjabi-English Dictionary. (1983). Lahore: Vanguard Books
WHO (2005). The Resource Book on Mental Health, Human Rights and
Legislation. Geneva, World Health Organization. [WWW document]
http://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/legislation/policy/en/index.html
(accessed 09 September 2007)
http://www.refintl.org/content/publication/detail/7828/http://www.refintl.org/content/publication/detail/7828/http://www.refintl.org/content/publication/detail/7828/http://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/legislation/policy/en/index.htmlhttp://www.refintl.org/content/publication/detail/7828/http://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/legislation/policy/en/index.html -
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Some related websites:
The Antipsychiatry Coalition
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/
Ethical Principal of Psychiatrist Practice
http://www.wpanet.org/home.html
IAAPA - International Association Against Psychiatric Assault
http://www.iaapa.ch/
OHCHR - Committee against Torture
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cat/index.html
The Society for Laingian Studies
http://laingsociety.org/
The Thomas S. Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility
http://www.szasz.com/
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
http://www.tavi-port.org/
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/http://www.wpanet.org/home.htmlhttp://www.iaapa.ch/http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cat/index.htmlhttp://www.szasz.com/http://www.tavi-port.org/http://www.antipsychiatry.org/http://www.wpanet.org/home.htmlhttp://www.iaapa.ch/http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cat/index.htmlhttp://www.szasz.com/http://www.tavi-port.org/ -
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write a thesis on this institution too, something like Mental health regime: from
colonial time to now, although unofficially almost everyone except some
psychiatrist perhaps called it pagal khana and patients as pagal including
most of the patients themselves, one Punjabi-English Dictionary (1983) have
only the meaning of the word pagal i.e. [m]ad; insane; foolish; there is no entry
of pagal khana however there is an entry of khana that publish its meaning i.e.
[a] house; a receptacle, a drawer; a compartment, a partition, especially in a
box; a square in chess or draught, divisions or square in other games; a column of
a tabular statement, so it could be said quickly it means something like mad
house or house for insane, foolish or-and mad, other than a house, a
compartment, a partition or even a receptacle seems to make sense with the
translation of the word pagal that mean they could be considered as a substitute
for the word a house or and augment and gloss over the complexities of
translating that compound in another language and unfortunately I have neither a
lexicographers competence nor enough time to look this problematic of
translating the compound word in detail here (!), usually some consider it a
synonym for mental hospital, while altogether leaving aside the problematic of
this dictionary itself, first published in 1895 under the aegis of the Education
Department with the approval of the Punjab Text Book Committee of that time
and had to take into account what the then Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab,
was inclined to think that in the new book should be adequately treated and
later a publishers publish it in 1983, there where here Foreword of Reprint
[publish that ] the present dictionary still remains the best available the
Dictionary [must also be made!] suitable for use in this country, what these long
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citations said or remains many things unsaid like the governmentality from
colonial to dictatorial time, or the translation of the Afsana translate it as
asylum and patients as lunatic for some time (why? dont know) there,
where, here in the institution where the narrator within these fragments
forcefully made a patient, so lets return to the citation as an epigraph, the irony
of this citation is not only the themes of partition and exchange as a historical
event wherever that could be breached in, even to lunatics asylums and prisons,
rather later when another partition or rather independence happened after
another civil war many exchanges even of citizens itself still have to take place,
if ever that is going to take place(!), those (before, during and after civil war of
independence ) who considered themselves citizens of Pakistan whose
majority of citizenry whiter away and another citizenship has been arrive at its
place, there, where, they still lived alongside their children, who born in other
circumstances, in refugee-like camps, and called stranded Pakistanis since
1971, Refugee International (2006) reported that they are Citizens of Nowhere:
The Stateless Biharis of Bangladesh, and [n]ither [ state whos reminder of
citizenry they considered themselves they are, there, where another citizenship
of another state arrive after a withering away effect and they did not go for it,]
country offered citizenship or aid; again I am not going into details here, the
problematic of that particular state with its multiple dimensions like the name of
minority the claimed cause of the birth of a nation where later in its hi-s-tory
neither minorities nor majorities feel satisfied from the state, a majority
secede[d] and became another state where that reminder of citizenry is still
reminding one aspect of the problem namely chronic military dictatorships and
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dictatorial regimes aversion to let the citizens have a voice and vote to
determine the states affairs, another aspect of it is, not only relatively well
constituted already established minorities, considered in terms of ethnicity or
religion, faces problems, the state and also societies constituted new minorities
on the name of religion or other names like above example some citizen
considered themselves citizen of a state and that state recognized that as a real
claim awhile and then what happened they become citizens of nowhere, that
state constituted a new minority in second instances of its state formation, after
second partition, out of its religious majority by defining a certain sense of a
religious faith mean non-faith and that implies they no more belong to the
religious faith to whom that newly formed minority think it still belongs
faithfully(!), so then onward they becomes minority of a religion at the same time
outside of it and inside of it, and story goes on lets return to narrative of who lets
see that here, where, there in the institute, one day a fellow patient found out
that I am an atheist, he became interested in me, and soon we develop a
rapport, of more than just a communal smoking, and start discussing a lot of
matters from Nietzsches God is dead to magic and science, even he think he
too becomes an ateat (initially, I mconnaisse it as atit a bit latter through the
context of his talk I recognized that perhaps he pronounced atheist this way!)
and advised me dont tell others that you are an atheist because it is
dangerous, and to some extent he was right, being a minority means to expect
discrimination or censor one-self in public, in their society being an atheist
considered more un-expectable than a Hindu, Sikh or Christian even from a
Mirzai the newly born minority just mentioned above, and during those chit-chat
-
8/8/2019 Strange State of Terrors
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I come to know that he even did not know Bangladesh once part of his state,
and many stranded Pakistanis are still living there in refugee-like camps, may
be because of his age, he seems to be born in eighties!
iv
This epigraph cited from Derridas (2005) Rogues: two essays on reason, though
in this epigraph here Derrida is explicitly discussing states only, and in particular
rogue state or etate vouys, but as the text bring in the debate of rogue and
vouys as a person, individual and to some extent rogue or vouys
organization (or institution) in general, as a specific formation of these words
rogue or vouys historically in France and their theoretical link to democracy
with regard to Greece, and their contemporary deployment in inter-state
relations, and drawing from it so many consequences and conclusions or rather
indicating in passing so many aporias and things related to democracy, peace
and human rights so on
v Here, where, there, you are reading, or-and writing at once, this case both in the
medical and legal sense, keep in sight, that it (the case) was narrated in a
manner and style, where, there, here an I, me and other subject positions
that narrates the narrator as a character-actor of the narrative and it, he and
other positions may play a play at once or by turn, alternatively, also the
narrative departed from the traditional style and manner of narrating, making,
presenting a case both in the medical and legal sense; so it demands a bit care
to read the heterogeneous senses, even non-senses, produced here!
vi Just an allusion to a late debate between Lacan-Derrida about a letter would
either arrived or not arrived to its destination, for details see Muller & Richardson
-
8/8/2019 Strange State of Terrors
60/60
(1988) The purloined poe...
vii Here and elsewhere the Punjabi words and phrases being translated to conveyat least one sense they usually have in the Punjabi, the lingua franca there, andmostly follow the Punjabi-English dictionary,viii May be someone like to write another thesis like Mental health regime and its
relation with socio-political struggles: from colonial time to now
ix In passing it could be mentioned the (anti-)psychiatrist regime of Mental Health
and its normative conditions could found so many exception here of their
functioning, for example an overview of one contemporary debate within WHOs
framework could be read in The Resource Book on Mental Health, Human Rights
and Legislation and other documents available at the website or otherwise, for
deconstruction of Human Rights and related themes Derridas many texts could
be cited, one is mentioned in the narrative fragment Rogues: two essays on
reason, for the genealogical/archeological working out of the problematic
Foucaults Madness and Civilization: A history of insanity in the age of reason, for
a critique of the notion of mental illness Szaszs The Myth of Mental Illness, for
its relation with the family institution and its critique, works of R. D. Lang, D.
Cooper, A. Esterson, and so many others works, so on, how these are related with
this text and in this specific context, there are some places where they frame
these fragments, for more rigorous works that could describ