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Charmed
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From Germany, the psychology students came, to take in the Indian experience. They tell K.PRADEEP all about it.
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Photo by Vipin Chandran.
Julia Reinhardt (left) and Anusri Katharina Bette.
THEY WERE there on the hot sand banks of the Periyar when the sun rose. It was Sivarathri and people had just begun trickling in to this holy place. Anusri Katharina Bette and Julia Reinhardt were slowly becoming part of this huge spiritual-cultural convergence. On a two-month internship at the Department of Psychology, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, these two girls found themselves being drawn into a different world, a world of temples, poojas, noise, music, incense and shops selling everything under the sun. By the time it was time for them to get back they were mesmerised by the whole experience.
"This firm belief in religion, in spirituality here has always fascinated me," says Ms. Bette who has been coming to India every year since 2000. "This belief seems to heal most of their mental agonies. It is some sort of defence mechanism that really helps. But, of course, in the case of serious sickness like schizophrenia religion may not help," adds Ms. Bette who was given the name Anusiri by Mata Amritanadamayi.
If there is one thing that binds people more than religion it must be the family. "This, I feel, is one characteristic feature that I have noticed here. The family bonds are very strong. In Germany, when compared to other countries, the family is very important. Not big families as you have here but small ones. And despite this sometimes members of a family hardly get to meet and talk to each other," says Ms. Reinhardt in fluent English.
City of Trier
Both these psychology students are into their sixth semester at the University of Trier. They take some time, glance at each other when asked to say something about Trier, which is incidentally the oldest city in Germany. "It is bordered by Belgium, Luxemburg and France. The university is in a modern designed campus. We have around 100 students for the theories and a few more when we get to our practical sessions. Trier is a beautiful university city with old architecture and a lovely treasure of antiquities," Ms. Reinhardt remarks.
They have managed to squeeze some time out of their daily routine at the hospital to visit Varkala, the lovely beaches there and also stayed awake the whole night at the Valikkavu ashram singing bhajans with the crowd of devotees on the night of Sivaratri. "After we finish our internship there is some time left for us to visit a few places. We have plans to see Madurai, Munnar, perhaps the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary and if time permits, Rameswaram. Madurai is a must. That was the first place we read about when we opened a travel book in a small bookstore back home," reveals Ms. Reinhardt.
But for now both of them are fully into their training at the hospital. "It is compulsory to have at least three months internship before we complete our diploma. Many of our friends have opted for internship in different countries; one of them has even come to Rajasthan, while we decided to take it up here. The expenses for the trip are borne by us, but it was really worth coming all the way. Here, in these two weeks we have been taught statistics, we had classes in psychology and a lot of related subjects. We were allowed to take part in different areas concerned with our subject, gained practical experience moving along with the doctors and even participated in the consultations and evaluation of patients," says Ms. Bette.
Virtual eye-opener
This experience has been a virtual eye-opener to the difference in the doctor-patient relationship here. "What really surprised us was the complete freedom in the relationship between the patients, doctors, internees and nurses. Back home a patient would talk of his psychological problems only to his doctor. There is less of this stifling privacy here. We would never get such an experience there," observes Ms. Reinhardt. And would they be willing to come back after their diploma and work here? "We'd love to. The people are so friendly, so helpful. But the language can be a barrier. Malayalam is not easy," says Ms. Bette.
Confirmed vegetarians, who decided when they were schoolgirls that they would not eat anything that was `dead', they have really gorged on the spicy, hot vegetarian fare here. "The iddlies, dosas, uppuma, the thali meals are simply wonderful. What a rich variety of vegetarian food! We will be carrying some of them back home, those crunchy banana chips along with a lot of colourful lungies and dresses, and other mementoes," they say in unison.
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