Friday, November 16, 2007

Insanity can spring up anywhere

Yesterday was strangely disturbing. There was a lot of noise downstairs, far more than the usual chit-chat of the drivers and security guards. It sounded like one person shouting, really loudly. And that person was really angry. And/or really mad. The voice was familiar. I looked over the balcony railing- it was our building's resident electrician. A soft-spoken, gentle, hard working soul who lives in the compound and goes home maybe once a month. I hadn't heard him raise his voice in the year and a quarter I've been here. Here he was charging around the place in a rage, shouting something incomprehensible to me, as if possessed by some alien being.
He's gone home now. According to his assistant he has these bouts occasionally. When he's in these states he shouts in English, not in Bengali or Hindi. After he'd left my flat the other day, he came back to ask me the name of the President of India.

What really triggers off these episodes of insanity? If it is a malfunction of the brain's biochemistry, which is oftentimes triggered off by stress, I guess the really amazing thing is that despite all the stressors in the world, a vast majority of people do remain more or less sane.

Why is the world so unbearable for some people?

4 comments:

Savani said...

This is so sad...Dipali.. I hope he see a doctor who can fix this... I guess some people are just wired that way...to have a faulty brain chemistry..

Sue said...

DotMom has said the exact same thing I came to say -- they are wired differently. Ask my brother. Or father.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dipali! I didn't realise you had a blog! Glad I found it.
The human mind is so fragile and yet so resilient. I hope he can find his resilience.

dipali said...

Hi Broom, welcome!
I hope so too.