‘Vimla to Pagal Hai!’: [Vimla is a Lunatic!]

And then there is the mind — that invisible unknown or less-known part of us, the state and status of which often makes or breaks our lives, but which still continues to occupy only the margins and periphery of our attention and concerns. A small physical injury on a finger gets more attention and care from us than something that happens inside our heads, that shows no physical aberration on the outside, but shows plenty of behavioural symptoms that suggest something is fundamentally wrong. All kinds of events and incidents occur in a person’s life, affecting the mind in different ways, some effects being acutely damaging and debilitating, but then it is assumed that the person will be able to ‘get over it’, ‘overcome it’, ‘put it behind him/her and move on’ and so on. Unfortunately, our own experiences and the observation of the experiences of others indicate sufficiently that this is not how it works and that some remedial measures are needed to address any wound in the mind too. And no other place demonstrates this fact more than the opaque, mysterious structure surrounded by stone walls, studded on top with pieces of glass, sometimes with electrically charged barbed wires running around the perimeters, and iron grills and enormous big gates — all aptly referred to as ‘bricks of shame’. The structure seems meticulously designed to overawe, intimidate, frighten and almost terrorise all those imprisoned within it.