180 posts from 2007

Facebook. Whats the grand idea anyway? I have 12 pending requests at this time, asking questions such as-

- Are you a hottie?
      - Yes, thank you. There are no doubts in my head.
- What fruit are you?
      - I am not a fruit. I'm a human being. I like being a human being. If I eat you, will you go away?
- Are you lovable?
      - Yes. Its my middle name.
- Which f.r.i.e.n.d. (from the TV show) are you?
      -  I don't know what to say to this. Why is this even supposed to interest me?
- Predict your future
      - No thank you. I pay my tarot lady well, and she even gives me a free massage.
- Find your perfect match
      - I did. Three years ago. And I don't intend to try again.

Its moronic. I'm always afraid of turning these down, because they might show up in my friends' inbox as 'Ping! Purplesque refused your invitation!'. So they lie in the corner, collecting dust. I hate them.

 If I do find an interesting enough application, it will never show me any results until I forward a request to at least twenty people. I never do, and so I still don't know 'Are you left-brained or right-brained'?

And lets not even talk about the pokes, hugs and gifts.

Is the presence of a few good friends reason enough to maintain this account that attacks my sensibilities every time I log in?

The Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered minds, Colonial Williamsburg, VA, was the first mental hospital in America. The Hospital admitted its first patient in 1773. It had 24 cells, which were not all filled until the 1800s. James Galt, formerly the keeper of the Public Gaol, was appointed head administrator.

Hospital cell- 1773

This was the era of Restraints. The hospital had two missions. One, to cure the 'curable', and two, to confine the dangerous. The tools used to meet this purpose included a few medications, such as paregoric, ipecac and laudanum, certain old standards such as bloodletting, and free use of metal restraints.

Medicine chest

Tranquilizer Chair

Lancets, scarificators and cupping glasses

Manacles

The hospital closed down in 1781 due to wretched conditions, and reopened five years later with more innovations, including a fenced exercise yard. In 1793, the hospital acquired its first electrostatic machine, to 'shock patients out of their illness.'

The first electroshock machine

The hospital acquired new physicians including John Minson Galt, and continued to expand into the next century. In the 1840s, the Moral Management approach came about. Attempts were made to humanize the treatment methods and the living conditions.

The hospital was renamed Eastern Lunatic Asylum, a place of refuge for people unable to survive in the outside world.

Hospital room in 1845

This was also the era of Phrenology, or the study of the form of human brain to determine character.

Phrenology bust

 In 1841, the hospital acquired a new electrostatic machine.

ECT machine

In the Moral Management era, a non-restraint approach was pursued as far as possible, and patients were often 'rewarded' for good behavior. Treatment became more specialized, and the doctors were devoted to their patients full time.

John Minson Galt II, with twelve other superintendents of lunatic asylums across the US, formed the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, a forerunner of the APA. They also published the country's first psychiatric journal, The American Journal of Insanity.

Patient casebook- John M Galt II

The 1850s saw several changes under the supervision of John Minson Galt II. He publicly declared that the mentally ill were 'our brethren', started accepting slaves in the hospital, and proposed an overhaul of the system, suggesting placement of the mentally ill in the community as boarders. He was a man ahead of his time, and his plans were not well received.

The treatment of the mentally ill still centered around sedatives, and increasing use of Morphia frequently led to chronic constipation.

Enema syringe

In 1862, the Union army took over and the hospital was sacked. It was repaired and re-expanded in 1868. African American patients were segregated to a facility in Richmond. This was the era of Custodial Care. Patients were encouraged to get physically active and worked to maintain the hospital. The hospital housed about 300 patients.

Gradually, the hospital became more a facility for the chronically ill, with fewer and fewer people being 'restored to community' each year. The era of restraints came back.

Leather restraints

Straitjacket

Utica Crib/ Mesh bed

 In 1885, a fire destroyed most of the hospital. The hospital was rebuilt, renamed the Eastern State Hospital and moved to a new location in 1937. It housed almost 2000 patients at this time. The old building was razed down in 1960.

A patient's cup

A ceramic cup belonging to one of the patients was recovered by archaeologists during the site's excavation in 1972.
It said, simply, ' Think of me.'

The waitress brought me another drink. She wanted to light my hurricane lamp again. I wouldn't let her.

"Can you see anything in the dark, with your sunglasses on?", she asked me.

"The big show is inside my head," I said.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

To friends at home, the lone, the admired, the lost
The gracious old, the lovely young
To May the fair, December the beloved,
These from my blue horizon and green isles
These from this pinnacle of distances I,
The unforgetful, dedicate.

The best and the worst literary quotes of the year.

(Link via India Uncut)

What's the best book you read this year?

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Lynne Truss

The best thing about this book ( and its phenomenal sales record) was that it reassured me that I have kindred souls all over the world. There are people who care about grammar. My own writing (for example, this blog) is full of errors, both grammatical and syntactical, but thats besides the point. I CARE. When my eyes stray repeatedly to an errant apostrophe, I realize that I'm not alone, even if I do have a personality disorder. It feels a lot better.

The great feelings of harmony and peace aside, the book did answer some sticky questions about grammar that I forgot to ask about in school. Its not a handy reference, being written in a more-or-less loose style, but definitely a book that begs re-reading.

Read it, even if you don't buy it.

Aaloo-chane ki chaat

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked chickpeas (Soaked for a few hours and boiled, canned are fine, too)
1 big potato, boiled, peeled and cubed
1 fresh tomato, cubed ( I don't remove seeds and pulp..waste of food!)
1 green chilli pepper, chopped fine
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, julienned
1 tsp roasted cumin seeds, powdered if you like
1 tsp chaat masala
salt to taste
red chilli powder, as much as you dare
2-3 tbsp lime juice
a spare handful of cilantro, chopped

Mix em up and serve!

Chaat (related to chatkara, i.e. lip-smacking, to give you a hint) never tastes as good at home as it does by the roadside, served up by chatwallahs in 'donas' or bowls made of dried leaves, held together by twigs.

 I spent five years of college in Meerut, the chaat capital of North India, spending my money and my weekends in the chaat bazaar. My favorite chaat item was dahi-gujhia, dumplings made of lentil flour, stuffed with nuts and raisins, and served soaked in sour curds and hot tamarind chutney. Sigh..anyway, this is quite a toned down version. We had it with methi paranthas stuffed with radish and split gram daal.

chaat with paranthas