Pongal is a few days away, but for persons undergoing treatment at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), the harvest festival celebrations are already on. In a bid to create a festive spirit on campus and engage them better, the IMH lined up a few traditional games for patients to celebrate Pongal.
Over the last two days, traditional games such as ‘uriyadi’, ‘bambaram’ (top) and ‘pandi attam’ (hopscotch) were being organised for patients on the IMH campus. Around 15 women and an equal number of men took part in the events, getting applause for both for their attempt and enthusiasm, the authorities said. Forty-year-old Meenal (name changed) was one of the participants for ‘uriyadi’ and ‘bambaram’. Undergoing treatment at the IMH for the last six years, Meenal enthusiastically took part in the games. Like her, Anandhi (name changed), in her early twenties, took part in the traditional games.
“We wanted to create the spirit of Pongal for the patients on our campus. We encouraged them to try the traditional games, and many of them were very happy. Some of them, who have been here for a number of years, took part enthusiastically and displayed their skills. For instance, one male patient balanced the top on his hand so well. This in fact surprised us,” said P. Poorna Chandrika, director of IMH.
New experience
In addition, the institute made arrangements to cook sweet Pongal at the women’s section of the campus. “It was a new experience on our campus. We cooked the Pongal along with the patients and shared it with them. When everybody gets a chance to be part of such a celebration, we thought why not our inmates too,” she added.
