I must have been in class seven or eight, when I have heard Hansa Dai, the most shy and hard working guy in his studies had some problem in his head. In fact, the problem in his head meant that there was insect crawling inside his head.
Even today it really nags my intelligence even trying to understand how come the insects crawling in his brain was detected ? See, it was 80s Nepal and we did not have that much state-of-the-art instruments to find out those crawling insects inside our head, I bet MRI or CAT Scans which could detect anything in our head, were developed bit later and was in medical practice long after that. Lets leave that now but it was not what I had thought about it when I was about 14 year old girls who have heard this news.
Because, he was one of the best student during my time in Bal Mandir and he was pretty good at his studies and on top of that he was a good boy also. So one day I wonder loudly “how come a guy who has insects in the brain is good in his studies ?” Is not his brains are chewed up by those creepy crowing insects. Hearing this Radha didi counter questioned me me, rather blunt question if that has to be believed then, “why are you not a good student even though you have a brain which is not infected by harmful insects?” I looked at her in bank way. True. I was kind of very average student and he on the other had was very bright student.
How come it was possible ? But then in my adult years I came across an article that was on the National geographic the mystical power of brain, when a doctor had removed his left side of the brain to cease the seizure which was troubling this boy, when he was about six years old. What is so interesting is even though his half brain was removed his brain function was in fully active and the boy had not lost his personality as well. Of course, there was a slight defect on his one leg rest all his learning math, English and science was never affected much as expected including his creative power. Oh yes, the boy had nothing to worry about the seizure. We keep watching in classic Indian movies that when a person encounters a serious accident hitting his/her head the person forgets the past life totally even though there is whole brain inside the skull. In the same kind of accident it has also been seen that the person loses his/her prior personality and they emerge as completely new person, again there is no loss of brain part just the strong hit on head during the accident. Sometimes they come back to the normal self as of before and sometimes they never come back to the old self.
I have read in one article which have appeared in the famous international magazine Reader's Digest under the title, ‘the boy could not stop running’. One day a man took a gun and shot at his head, because he just could not control the movement of his hand that used to go on holding things and places despite his conscience telling him that it should not have been that way. To his and his loved ones delight even after taking a bullet on his head the man did not died but his compulsive disorder vanished just like that. No one could explain it, why ? not even the doctors who were treating him.
A little more than a year ago I had a chance to talk with him over the phone. We were supposed to meet personally, but our schedule did not allowed us to meet thus the phone call. It was my first time talking with him over the years. I have never ever spoken with him when he was in Bal Mandir. He had been the principal of a school in remote area Humla [ it could be Jumla also], which is his home town. He was talking about the retirement which is very near and was thinking of what to do next after completing his tenure at the school where he taught for many years in various positions over the year. But the most interesting thing for me is the man who had insect in his brain was now had ranked up to the position of principal of a school and I never ever made anywhere close to that position when I have the healthy brain.
It is said that every day about 250 million brain tissue die and almost the same number will be developed. Is not this interesting we don't even change much of our personality when there is so much changing in our brain ?
No comments:
Post a Comment