My reminiscences of age 14: SHEELA PANICKER
I was born on 21 December 1950. I vividly remember my birthdays from age 3. My mom’s eldest sister was an ardent devotee of Lords Krishna and Vinayaka. I used to accompany her in all the nearby temples when she visited our house. After few days, in every morning at 5 30 am, after taking shower, I started running to the temple of Vinayaka, which was very near to our house at Kollam. There was no need to fear about the surroundings as many people walked through the same road I walked. I was fearless to walk alone as my dad used to over rule the apprehensions of my mom regarding my safety. The first day I wore only a brief. The Poojari of the temple told me to wear good dress while I visited the temple. The next day on wards, I wore my dress. After the temple visit, I used to see the gardener of the collectorate of Kollam. He gave me plants and seeds because my dad was a popular advocate in the district court. I loved gardening and had a very big garden in front of our house. After hard work in the garden, I took shower and spent half hour for prayers, starting at 6 15 pm. After prayers, I took a text book with an earnest intention to study. Text books were my sleeping pills! When my dad saw me in sleep mode, he would call my mom to give me dinner. My mom was very particular that I had to at least read a page of the book before dinner. I did what she told but without attempting to understand anything on the page. Sometime I slept without dinner. I was really astonished when I was told by my very close friend Justi that only five of us from forty students of our class passed in the 10th standard examination. I scored only 269 marks out of 500. But all students who passed from the Government girl’s high school, who represented less than 10 percent passed students out of the total students of the 10th standard were garlanded by the head mistress with gifts on our hands! It was an unforgettable moment in my life. I felt that I was also a bright student who brought fame to my school. That ecstatic moment helped me to decide to seriously study from the 11 th standard. I joined at the age of 14 the third group with Economics, Indian History and World history as the three main subjects. I underwent the Pre- degree two year course at the Sree Narayana College for Women at Kollam where I met Sheela Panicker, a very beautiful girl, wearing full saree, looking much older than I as I was so puny in size, wearing full skirt and blouse! She was the only one student out of 70, who conversed in English in our class as she was educated in North India. She sat on the third row on the bench in our class and I sat always at the front row. In addition to Vijayalakshmi teacher who taught us grammar in English, Sheela was also my teacher in English. Soon we became very good friends. Sheela was selected to represent our college in the Independence Day parade at New Delhi in 1966. She abstained from attending classes for a month. When she returned to our class, I gave her a copy of what happened in each class for the whole month. Will she forget it? Never. Will I forget her English lessons? Never!
As a clinical psychologist, I am thinking of reminiscence therapy for older adults. The use of life experiences gives tremendous opportunities to enhance the psychological well – being, the focus of the mental health personnel. I am reminded of Ericson, Webster, Watt, Lewi, Butler, Comana and several others for their invaluable contributions to the theory of reminiscence and reminiscence therapy.
Intra- personal (with in the person) and inter- personal (between persons) reminiscences are the two types of reminiscences. Individual and group reminiscence therapies are very promising therapeutic interventions to enrich the psychological well – being of older adults.
Please talk to your old friends, listen to them, enjoy your friendship, enrich your memory and stay away from the ill - effects of potential Dementia and Alzheimer. I am trying. Will you? All the best!
Intra- personal (with in the person) and inter- personal (between persons) reminiscences are the two types of reminiscences. Individual and group reminiscence therapies are very promising therapeutic interventions to enrich the psychological well – being of older adults.
Please talk to your old friends, listen to them, enjoy your friendship, enrich your memory and stay away from the ill - effects of potential Dementia and Alzheimer. I am trying. Will you? All the best!
We successfully completed 51 years of good friendship. We decided to celebrate our friendship on 18 July, 2016 at Kollam. Now I am just 65, intensely involved in developing clinical interventions for treating mentally unhealthy clients. I value my reminiscences at the age of 14! Why? Because they are my gurus guiding me in my interventions.
