To treat the mentally ill, one has to be patient and tolerant as they need love and affection
THEY walk. They talk. They See. But they walk in the streets of their own world, talk with a person invisible to all others and their sight is of their own imagination and making.
They form part of us yet make no mark. They are the ‘mad’, mentally retarded persons who we see wandering here and there in our society with no purpose — no destination to reach and no aim to set for; and no aim to approach. Nonetheless, they are an integral part of our society and their existence should not be taken lightly.
A number of them are affected by the socio-economic treatment of the society. The complexities and ambiguities of social behaviour that they are confronted with, eventually affects their mind.
“He only laughs. You talk to him and he only laughs”, says the father of Zahido, a cart-pusher. “They call him pagal because he only laughs. He is mad by birth but he is my son and I love him like my other offspring”, Zahido’s father said with a desperate tone to his voice. I see Zahido play with the children in my neighbourhood; I have never found worries and sorrows on his face. He always looks happy and playful, laughing as he does.
He is indifferent to the worldly regularities, struck in a cult of anomaly that is strange to what a normally fittest does. His laughter tell a story of his innocence that plays upon his existence. His symbolizes love and jettisons the bout of hatred in society. His being is in fact a piece of nature that forms one part of a normal person as well. Meaning that those who are fittest, are unfittest in one manifestation of nature as the fittest also tame the feelings of love in themselves as does Zahido but his are of extreme degree.
“These all, are my cars”, said Farhan referring to the fast moving vehicles on road. “I have also bought a train” he utters. Farhan is a young man 20. He became mentally retarded when he was a student of first year intermediate. Those close to him say that he became this way because he was hindered and condemned in all his activities by his parents and was a neglected and rejected member of his family. His friends still mourn his sad story of dejection and depression crafted upon him by his parents and other family members.
When I spoke to him I could find on his face the lost hopes and wishes he once had. “He longed to jump into the upper-class and so he designed his personalities in such a style. But his father condemned him consistently and abused him for his manners,” says Zeeshan, an old friend of his. “And now he talks of cars and vehicles only ... nothing else.”
“Life is a zigzag. It is puzzling,” Wazir, a post-graduate in Physics from Sindh University responded to my query. He lives in Larkana and regularly attends Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto Library with bundles of heavy books in his hands. His is a peculiar and strange style of studying that attracts the attention of every reader seated beside him. I have always found him surrounded by number of students asking him questions and this routine entertains them and Wazir equally enjoys answering them.
“I want to be the Vice-Chancellor of Sindh University,” he replied when I asked him of his future plans.
No one knows what exactly caused Wazir to be out of his wit. “Perhaps, he failed in romance while in University,” Allah Wadhayo, who was close to him in University said. “He loved a girl and she didn’t. He used to talk about her but he was all right there!”
The mound of stones stored in the corner of a petrol pump situated in the heart of Larkana is a common sight. This is all the accumulated wealth of Mohammad Bukhsh Mandool a middle-aged, half-naked man. He is always seen transporting the big sized stones on his back all along the way from railway lines to the petrol pump. No one knows what he has to do with these stones but every one knowing Mohammad Bukhsh takes care to be out of his way from the fear that he may shower the stones at them!
Every child and grownup of Lahori Mohalla, Larkana, knows Qamar Soomro very well. He visits almost every hotel of the neighbourhood every now and then. The other day when I was going about my business, somebody threw a fist at me. Luckily I took evasive action just in time. A friend told me that he was Qamar chario.
“Qamar who was once a student of Degree College Larkana and a political activist, is no more same as he was in past. He will frighten you, throwing fists and kicks at you,” says Nadir Shah a neighbour of Qamar.
Meem Diglo is another mentally retarded case. He is a dangerous pagal I came across. If you are going past him he will catch and grip your hand until you gave him a bill of five rupees denomination. Sometimes he spits at the passerby. He will abuse you and you will be dumbstruck as to what you had done to him until you come to know the fact that he is mad.
“Once I gave him Rs10/-. In return, he slapped me,” recalled Alam with a smile. “He is a ‘moody mad’ man.”
Imitating the role of a police man, Imam Ali is always found, marching along a road in Larkana. He wields a stick in his hands, passes orders to the passerby to move aside from his way otherwise. If they don’t, they are hit. And when Imam Ali catches sight of a policeman, he salutes him.
“Imam Ali was once a celebrated bodybuilder of the city. He wanted to be a police officer but fate contravened”, said Ali Hassan, a relative of Imam Ali.
Life on earth is exposed to many calamities. Some people overcome them and others become their prey. The savageries encountered by different people in their own way are but man-made. Nature has never been hostile to a man. But man has alienated himself from nature. It goes pretty right that “you will be broken if you are not part of nature”. It is not that the cases quoted above are undergoing the ultimate outcome of being not friendly to the nature. But one thing is clear, that this society is not friendly to them.
To treat the mentally ill, one has to be patient and tolerant as they need love and affection 
