World Mental Health Day- October 10

A learning Institution in Psychology, the P.G.Department of Psychology of Jammu University decided to celebrate the World Mental Health day in a unique way. First and third semester students of the department did an exemplary work on the day. They made a big mental health tree, the branches of which were filled with different kinds of messages on mental health. They placed it in front of the department not to avoid the eye catchers. It stood in a much visible place so that the passebys read the messages. Students were fabulous at their work. 6 girl students and one boy student wore the T shirts with very good messages on mental health. They decided to grow up in their programs every year.  I was the chief guest to deliver the extension lecture on mental health in the morning session. The Dean of Social Sciences passionately introduced the concept of depression highlighting his personal experiences. I talked about the  growing challenges in counselling to ensure mental health. After the talk, all of us participated in the mental health march in the university. I initiated the slogans and students and teachers loudly repeated them. We finally marched to the VC's office. He came out of his office and  congratulated the HOD and the rest for making the event a fruitful one. The Jammu TV covered the event in a big way. The news papers also gave good coverage for the event.  Students were thrilled to work together to make the day a worthwhile day. In the afternoon, the Psychiatrist delivered a lecture on Depression. We departed with the decision to make the world mental health day more meaningful in the next year. The students blended innovation, novelty and meaningfulness in organising the event. Congratulations for the HOD, faculty members, students, non teachihng staff and particularly the Dean, who was all along with the Departmental activities. He acted more than the role of a figure head. I appreciate his dedication to the mental health day.

We made a distinct and alternative style in our debut group march in popularising awareness for action to integrate mental and physical health for psychological well being, jamming live with meaningful slogans on mental health in the jammu university campus, and creating comfort to overcome the much prevalent social taboo on mental diseases . It was a humble attempt. The march turned to be a successful event from the side of theP.G. department of Psychology. I loved the day. The make over mode became very popular. Let next year bring more ideas, courage and enthusiasm to create more meaningfulness in the events on the World Mental Health Day! October 10 was one of my memorable days  in the Jammu trip.

         

KASHMIR- The wonderland

Way to Kashmir from Jammu 

National Highway connects Jammu with Srinagar.  Travelling 298 kiometres by car from Jammu Tawi  to Sree Nagar by road was an exquisite experience. Jamu Tawi is a major train station connected  to all major towns in India. 5 years ago, I travelled from Delhi to Sree Nagar by air with my husband Rajeevan. It took only 75 minutes to reach Sree Nagar.  

Traveling goats  

 With  the head of the department of Psychology and other teachers in Kashmir University

I visited the Kashmir university and delivered extension lecture  in the department of psychology on psychological empowerment of students.

I visited Sreenagar, the city of sights, smells, and sounds.

 




　

Visit to Govt. Dist hospital, Udhampur, Jammu

Visit to Govt. Dist hospital, Udhampur, Jammu

Thanks to Dr. sarita Sood. It was a pleasure for me to travel long distance with her. This daughter is very special to me. And she is a very good driver. Intrust her judgment on road safety for comfortable ride. She was counseling supervisor of the GFATM program who had to assess the counsellor at this hospital. I was interested to visit some of the District hospitals in Jammu & Kashmir to understand the state of affairs of the nursing personnel in the extreme north. When I got the chance, I opted to visit the Udhampur hospital, postponing certain other programs in Jammu. I visited four hospitals in Jammu and the conditions were more or less the same. Nurses were very much dedicated to the well being of the patients. Medical superintendent Dr. Chander Prakash and Deputy Superintendent Dr. Deepak greeted us in the hospital. Dr. Chander called the two nursing supervisors- Sr. Santhosh Sharma and Sr. Uma Pradhan who took me to a round trip to the whole hospital. There were only 25 nurses in the hospital. Under the Nursing supervisors, worked 7 senior nursing staff. There were five junior nursing staff and 2 were from National Rural Health mission. In addition to these 14 nurses, there were 9 multi purpose ANM staff in the hospital. The hospital had 146 in patients in different wards. I could not believe that nearly 200 patients visit the Gynaec OPD. On the average , 10-12 deliveries were taking place in the hospital out of which 3or 4 were Caesarian cases. Gynaec ward had 28 beds, Paediatric ward had 24 beds, Mdical ward had 40 beds for both Female and Male sub wards, Surgical ward had 20 beds, Ortho had 18, ENT 8 and Ophthal 8 beds. The superintendent told me that it was 200 bed hospital even though it is running short of capacity as the in patients were only 146 due to shortage of nurses. The in- patient to nurses ratio was 1:6. I could see many nursing students in the wards and in OPD.

I thought: These nurses were working very hard and they said they were happy to do the work. They learned to experience happiness under extreme stress situations.

Again it is proved that happiness is a state of mind. It is prersent where ever we are and what ever we do. Happiness improves our mental health, and contributes to our psychological well being.

Dr. Chander invited me to address the medical students. The activity was postponed to next year due to lack of time and packed schedule of my programs in Jammu.

YAGNEOPAVIT CEREMONY AMONG THE PANDITS

This ceremony is also known as sacred thread ceremony done for the male child of a Pandit family at the age of 13. Pandits are brahmins. In Kerala, similar ceremony is done among hte brahmin community. The function will be for one or two days depending on "mahurat"which means good day for the ceremony. The  hair from head of the male child was shaved off. He wore saffron colour capand held a long stick on the right hand. He, with a large plate went for Bhiksha. At 4 pm on the evening of the first day, maternal relatives visited his house. The day is meant to offer a graceful welcome to all of his relatives. At night, the dinner will be served with the special item"damaloo'. It is made of mashed, spicy,round rapped fried potato. Damaloo was very tasty. For me, it was a little too much  spicy. But it was very tasty. Another tasty item was "Nadru" prepared from lotus stem.Paneerin yellow colour was also very tasty. There was red chilly paneer, which all of the guests loved to eat. All these are support dish for beautifully prepared Pulav, A dish from rice.Pulav were of 2 kinds: salty and sweety.One dish was mixed vegetable curry made out of mush room, green peas, and potatoes. Radish chutney was good. RAjma was a very popular dish served for dinner. Deserts like ice cream, cakes,rasgula, gulab jam attracted both children and elders alike. After dinner, Celebrations of "Mehndi raat" started. Maasi- mother's sister arrived with a decorated vesselwith water and soap to cleanly wash the hands & feetwhen all others loudly sang many songs.An unmarried girl came with another vessel containing rice and salt and with odd number of money and touched his shoulders three times. this is known as 'Shagun' or in Kashmiri community it is called 'Zaang'. Shagun was done on maasi by touching  Isband ( seeds) on her shoulders. Then isband is put  in a decorated vessel called" 'Kangri'. Bbuva (dad's sister) came with mehndi tilak on the forehead of the boy and his feet and hands got decorated.After this important ceremony, singing and dancing event started.Simultaneously, mehndi was distributed to all those women who were there for the ceremony. Gifts were given by women at this time. Singing and dancing continued until morning.

'Devgone' was conducted the next day in the morning. All of the family members of the boy, wearing new dresses, sat behind the 'Agnikund'.All ladies wore 'Athoor'- a  colourful dangle from ear chains and Sreechakra known as 'Takya- Taal' was attached to their clothes. The boy's dress was blessed by the poojari. The blessed dress was worn after the maternal uncle and aunt  bathed the boy.This event was known as Snan ceremony. Now the boy's face was veiled, maternal uncle lifted the boy and made him sit on his lap beside the haven Kund. The boy's veil was removed for darsan of Agni Devta. His hair was totally  shaved off. ladies danced with singing. At midnight, Dressed again on new clothes, aunts and uncles arrived at the Haven Kunt.Another ceremomy began which was known as 'Narivan Kharan.' narivan was the thread tied on the wrist of the boy.Tharpan was an interesting ceremony. All of those present there had to see their faces in the water kept in a vessel. The boy was given a mixture of honey and urine of the cow( gomoothru) for sudhikaran. The boy along with his parents sat beside the Haven Kunt all night while poojari chanted manthras for 'Yagneopavit'. In the next morning, after pooja, the sacred threads- three in number are twisted to make it one by poojari and his father. The thread was worne from the right side. Chanting continued. yagno Pavithram, paramam Pavitram was chanted continuously. Now the boy sought a beed as bhiksha. the first beed was given by maasi,which was the highest amount. Others also gave money. Till evening, he sougght Bhiksha from others. In the evening, samoothik( group) aartis were done. Finally the boy changed his  safron coloured clothes and wore new clothes. he was then decorated like a bride groom.He stepped on Rankoli. Others gave him sweets. the the boy was directly taken to the temple to seek blessings from god. The whole ceremony concluded after the boy and others returned to his house. All were given a huge feast  and after dinner, every body left the place.

This ceremony was an eventful one in the life of a pandit boy.                 

Visiting GFATM office of Dr. Chand In the Jammu university

I went to see Dr. Chand at her office. Shwe was busy with the forthcoming refresher course for master trainers. She wished to accommodate me too in the faculy panel, but I had to return to Kerala on 12th of October. I went to her house, spent 4 hours with her, and dr. chand and her husbandColonalji drove me back to my home stay place. I like the couple a lot.

      

Thanks to Prana Rena of Jagti Township

Rena is an energetic lady with adequate level of hope in everything she does. Her bhajans are very attractive to listen and enjoy. I wanted to study a bhajan about Vaishnov Devi.  She taught me very quickly a bhajan wich I enjoyed singing. The language was Hindi.

Jai, jai, Vaishnov mata ki jai, Jai jai Vaishnov mata ki jai(2)
Meri pyari pyari mayya, Meri shero vali mayya
Meri choodi vali mayya, lal chunari vali mayya
Mera kehna sunulomeri, meri pyari meri mayya
Meri gufa vali mayya, meri shero vali mayya
Meri sher savari mayya, Meri pyari, pyari mayya
Meri dukh ko door karona
Meri vinthi sunulo meri, meri shero vali mayya
Meri pyari pyari mayaya,meri sheo vali mayya
Bahuth dino se mene kiya, inth sar thera meri
Meri pyari pyari mayaya, lal chunari vali mayaya.
Bhaktho ko  ma darsan de do, meri pyari pyari mayaya
Ad kuvari vali meri, jai jai meri meri mayya
Meri Vaishnaov devi mayya, jai jai mehro vali mayya
Jai jai Vaishnov matha ki jai, Jai jai Vaishnov mata ki jai
Bolo samchai darbar ki ------------jai,
Jotha vali matha ki ---------------   jai.

Thank you Rena.

I am with Prerna's mom and Rena

Visiting Amit Singh

At 11 am on Tuesday, Amit entered the room of the HOD of P.G.D. Psy. of Jammu University, where I was discussing some important matters with the team of office bearers of the Women Studies. I, after finishing my work, walked to the coffee shop with Amit. We takled for sometime. He fixed a date for visiting his house, but he was very particular to drive me to his house in their new Volks Wagen car. I agreed to his request.
I am with Amit, Jassy, her brother and step mom

I had a lot of opportunity to talk to Amit. I did not so far stayed in a Sikh family, but when I did, I enjoyed it very much. September 29 was, therefore, a good day for me. he finished undergraduate program in Physiotherapy from Jammu Medical college. Amit is a very good person with lot of affection to his family members and friends. He described his pain while his mom was bedridden due to severe stroke. He was a beautiful son, looking after his mom. His mom entrusted Jassy, the little daughter of his brother, who lost her mom with him to take care, which he does with happiness. She is a very smart girl and a fortunate one since she got the love and care of Amit. I wish he gets a good job and settle in his life. I met his dad, 2 brothers and sisters in law. I prepared Masala Dosha, coconut chatney and sambar which all of them liked very much. He told me he will join the certificate course in French at the Jammu university. I Hope he will
do the course. I have great regards for this young son.