November 14

Knowing that I like unusual rituals, our guide, Sheik, mentions that on Thursday nights there is a ceremony at a local mosque that would interest me, called LOBAN.  We arrive at  6 pm, just as the sun is setting.  Already hundreds of families are seated on blankets, while others are milling about. Inside the mosque an attendant has lit copal incense and the smoke is thick and pungent.  The mood is electric as people are walking around the perimeter of the mosque with their mentally ill family members.  Women and  young girls, with hair disheveled and clothing in disarray, are alternately shrieking and rolling on the ground in fits.  They come with the hope that they will be blessed and cured by the sacred smoke.  Sheik says that this can have an opposite effect on some people who lead otherwise normal lives, and become possessed during the ceremony, encouraged by the fervour of the crowd.  Although there are some men, the “crazy ones” are mostly female. Some very likely have easily treatable illnesses like epilepsy, but I fear that many are victims of abuse. Women have a low status in Asia are often subjected to verbal  and physical violence, especially the poorest ones.

I don’t dare take any photos, it’s too intimate and personal and I feel like a voyeur.

The next day, on our drive to Palitana, we pass a building and see men dressed in red shirts and black shorts, walking trance like in a circle around the courtyard. I am told this is a government mental institution.  Several years ago G read me the headline of an article in an Indian newspaper “INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO REHABILITATE WANDERING LUNATICS”.  We both laughed and thought it was a joke.  Apparently not.

Later that same day we see a modern, clean, complex where mentally ill people  are doing various chores.  This place is run by a charitable organization and seems a little more “pleasant”. Three places in two days- a coincidence?

I don’t know if all this is some kind of sign, but I will try my best to keep my wits together, at least until I get back home.