18th July 2014

Courtesy: The Hindu

A comeback story

Depression was five times more in A. Subramanian’s life till a decade ago. Today, he is a changed man having overcome every odd with grit

With some hesitation, A. Subramanian says that he is “successful”. For a decade, life wreaked havoc on him. But today he has taken himself and his four sons out of insanity and hopelessness on to the road of recovery with the help of lot of good people. “My faith in humanity is intact,” he says.

As the owner of a goshala recognised by the Animal Welfare Board (AWB), Subramanian has also turned into an ambassador for people suffering from mental disabilities. His is a heartwarming story of overcoming the fear of living and now he goes door-to-door advocating timely medical intervention and the importance of regular medication for mentally ill patients.

Nearly two decades after his wife, Seeniammal’s death, he laments that he failed to see the signs of depression in her. She used to work in the Child Welfare Department in Kadayanallur. “She was the central force of the family and always happy in the midst of children,” he says.

Subramanian thinks he had empowered his wife by allowing her to work and run the family but what he was not able to see was how she was slowly losing grip after giving birth to their fourth son in 1992. She never complained about anything and he never took her to a doctor. And suddenly one day in 1996 she was gone.

The boys ranged from four to 11, 15 and 19 years then were deeply attached to the mother. They all went into shock unable to reconcile to the loss. Now that she was gone, there would be no love and no food either, they believed.

Subramanian’s world fell apart. He too lost his sleep and appetite as one by one, the boys dropped out of school.

“They started exhibiting similar symptoms of restlessness, anger bursts, violent behaviour,” he says. “There were days when I would return from work in the farmer’s market to find them all dishevelled and if I tried to feed them, they would beat me up.” The deterioration in behaviour of his children added to Subramanian’s worries and he too went into depression and a state of forgetfulness.

He never thought his family would survive the emotional turmoil till a neighbour advised him to go to a free medical camp in Sivakasi. This one journey that he took from Kadayanallur to Sivakasi with his paranoia sons, changed the course of their lives.

All five of them were diagnosed with various types of mental disorders from schizophrenia to bipolar mood disorder, hyperactivity with borderline mental retardation and depression. Luckily, they were taken under the fold of Madurai-based M.S.Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation and have been under treatment for the last 12 years.

Today, none of them shows any trace of what they went through barely a decade ago. They are on lifelong medication, but each of them feels better now and that is what is important. Subramanian has made himself self-sufficient.

Few years ago, he started an NGO, Amma Trust, to maintain cattle of various temples and landlords in the region and also to take care of stray cattle. His work was recognised by the AWB and the Centre allotted him land for running a goshala. Now, he makes his income from the cowdung and the milk selling 1,000 litres to Aavin daily.

But, he asserts, whenever I find time I go around telling people my story and refer patients to medical camps run by the Trust. Though he also dreams of starting a research centre for dairy products, to help mentally challenged people is what he wants to do always and foremost. “I see some purpose in life if I am able to help the vulnerable,” he says.

In his own little way he tries to rehabilitate some of the mentally challenged individuals in his village who are under medication by giving each of them a cow free of cost. “They will have some source of income,” he says.

(Making a difference is a fortnightly column about ordinary people and events that leave an extraordinary impact on us. E-mail soma.basu@thehindu.co.in to tell her about someone you know who is making a difference)