Cultural Pathology in India-4-SUPERSTITIONS

CULTURAL PATHOLOGY FOUR:
Lack of logic: To me, this is the biggest mental symptom in the Indians ( I am an Indian and so I may have the same symptom……. who knows???) A lack of logic and magical thinking is highly prevalent in the Indian population and seems to be unaffected by factors like education, intelligence and exposure to facts! To me this lack of logic or magical thinking or Denial as the Freudians call it is a huge barrier to successful and happy adjustment .

Let me tell you some examples of the unrealistic expectations, I came across in my clients:

Teens and their parents: Many parents dragged their teenage kids to me for counselling to improve their academic performances. They would ask/demand for pills to improve memory, pills to improve intelligence, hypnosis to improve their performance in exams.

On assessment, most of these kids were average or low average and their parents expected spectacular academic performances from them. They believed that if the kid only worked harder, he could get 100% in mathematics or 99 in physics or whatever. No amount of explaining or counselling would dispel the expectations they had of their kids. I was distressed to see a person who had a son with developmental delay who was giving him pills (from Himalayan Drug company) to improve his IQ as was promised by the person who prescribed it.

An illogical belief in prayers, worship, rituals, mantras, etc to cure mental illness: Many clients to the department of psychiatry, especially those from rural areas, lower socio-economic status, lower literacy levels usually took the family member suffering from mental or physical illness to black magicians, priests to get them cured as they believed the cause of the problems was black magic done by some jealous person and removing the black magic will cure them. What left me irritated was that a lot of literate people too held these beliefs. By literate I mean those with at least college level education and some with science majors!
Going in unprepared, in the belief that things will 'somehow' workout: This is another illogical practice I have observed in me, many Indian children and adults. Many Indians (and maybe people of other nationalities too but I do not know of them) go to many important events totally or partially unprepared and hope that  'luck' will get them good outcomes! I have seen students who whiled away their time and went unprepared for exams and expected some good fortune to happen to them to give them a pass with good marks! I have seen adults go to interviews without preparation, hoping that they will be 'lucky' and get the job! I have seen people expecting good luck to take care of them and they never try to take to do the logical thing to get a favourable outcome i.e.  planning ,doing what is needed  and by working hard!

CULTURAL PATHOLOGY 3- DIFFICULTLY WITH STUDIES TRIGGERING PSYCHOSIS?

CULTURAL PATHOLOGY THREE: 
Another phenomenon I observed while working in the Indian hospital is the onset of psychosis in one set of students i.e. students  taking the PUC ( PUC is Pre-University Certificate…it is the 11th & 12th grade equivalent)exams especially the science stream:

I worked for about 7 years in the psychiatry dept and came across more than 25-30 cases of 'first episode' psychosis/schizophrenia in youth aged about 17-18. The fact that it is a first episode psychosis is not unique. The age of onset is also not unique. What was unique was that all of these youth, were studying in the science stream (i.e. Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics as their main subjects) and were in the second year when they had their first episode of psychosis. This indicates to me that :

It is mostly the science stream who were stressed out enough to have a break down and not the arts or commerce students of PUC or other youth of the same age group.

It is only in the second year of PUC that the stress gets to them.

This indicates to me that many students taking the science stream are extremely stressed out and should not be stressing themselves out like this. They opt for science so as to study engineering, medicine, dental, and other professional courses after PUC

I am not talking of a cause-effect relationship between taking science and getting psychosis, but these are kids who got poor scores in school, have limited capacity to study tough subjects, yet opt for these subjects and then break down.

A major insane behaviour seen in south India and now I realize it is a behaviour seen in many east Asian countries as well……..is the insane need of parents to force kids to study science ; some parents  believe this is the only way to ensure future economic and job success/security for their kids. It is not just the parents who insist their kids to study science; many kids too opt for science even if they lack the interest or aptitude for science for insane reasons like, ‘All my friends are taking science and I have to take it too’; or ‘others will think I am dumb if I do not take science’.
Truth be told, I have seen parents who did not want their child to take science in college as they knew it would be too tough for their child to handle but their child insisted on taking science as "all his friends were taking science". I have also seen children who did not want to take science but were coerced by parents who assumed that their child's future would be bleak if he took arts or some other stream.

I suppose variations of this behaviour is seen in children and parents all over the world. For example, I have a Canadian colleague who says that ‘every Canadian parent seems to think that his kid is the next NHL player’ and that lots of parents put immense pressure on their kids to do well in sports, irrespective of the child’s skills or aptitude.
Putting pressure on one's children, controlling many aspects of their life is one common feature in many eastern cultures. This makes children feel powerless and resentful. They end up doing many things against their wishes and finally if they meet with failure, the blame-game starts and no one is willing to take responsibility. Children blame parents for not being allowed to make their own choices and parents blame children for failing in spite of the sacrifices they made for them.
Lots of adults do not have choices in eastern cultures and have to do their parents bidding. Parents dictate what the adult child wears, what he/she chooses to study. Even the career and spouse may be chosen by parents! With little autonomy over their lives, it is natural for a variety of pathological behavioiurs to develop.

Cultural pathology in India-2-POOR JUDGEMENT OR DELUSIONAL?

CULTURAL PATHOLOGY TWO:
Wild goose chasers: OR People with poor judgement OR unrealistic people OR  Delusional people.

If someone is persistent and succeeds their persistence is admired but if someone persists and fails they are labelled insane for persisting in something that was doomed to fail!

I know it is wrong to judge a person’s sanity by the results they achieve but I cant help it . This kind of doomed persistence and therefore insanity is seen in another set of people(cultural pathology-2) who try for roles in movies or television series in India. I have seen about 4 people in the dept of psychiatry and I am sure there are millions more in India who fit this type of madness. The symptoms they have include:

A strong, persistent, unshakable belief that they should be a movie actor

No training to reach their goal such as no efforts to enrol in an acting school, etc

Very average looks ( Believe me, in India, ‘looks, contacts & money’ are more important than acting skills, if you want to get a ‘break’ in movies or serials)

Refusing/not trying to develop skills to get alternate jobs if acting does not pan out.(there's no plan-B)

Hanging out near film shooting units, near directors and producers of movies at all times or as much as possible.

Doing odd chores for the movie people, working without payment in the hope that they will get a role, waiting for years without losing hope.

Neglecting all other areas of their lives such as family, education, job, hobbies, etc.

I have seen one who dropped out of college and was hanging around movie units till his 30s...he never completed his educaiton nor did he seek a job...his mother fed him daily and he spent his time hanging at movie shooting sites, hoping to get a role...for years and years!
There was another guy  who left his village to work in movies and never got a role but was hanging around the movie sets;
And one guy who wrote scripts without getting paid or even getting credit though his scripts werrre used.

No amount of counselling can make these people get out and seek a different goal in life.

In some ways they are like gamblers and people who buy the lottery…the firm, unshakable belief/delusion that one day, their day will come. But it never seems to come to many.

I do not even want to talk about the deluded young women who want to enter the film field in India.  In addition to all the  problems  the deluded film-crazy young men experience, these young women face sexual exploitation too.

My family have argued with me about including this wild goose chase as a pathology...my family members, think that there is nothing wrong about being passionate about something, that most Indians always play it safe and are conservative and want to only seek education which gaurentes them jobs...that most Indians are averse to risk and dont even attempt to do something they love, without worrying about earning. But I disagree. I have seen many people in India who are passionate about what they do and they do it knowing fully well that they may not earn much but they are enjoying what they are doing and they are passionate about thier work. I dont see these people as mentally ill ...I see them as passionate, perhaps not practical and worldly but they do know the consequences of their choices and still choose to do what they do. One example is a close friend of mine who is an artist...does minimalist works which are not really popular in India but she does it as it is her passion. She has exhibited abroad and has sold to museums but has little money to show for it. Though she is frustrated about the poor money she makes, she has accepted the low financial benefits and refuses to make art which is more commerically viable. I am writing this following in Feb 2016 while the rest of the article was written ages ago...This close friend, who is a minimalist artist, is doing great now! she has exhibited in art shows and museums all over the world including Japan, Vienna, France, Germany, Bangladesh, USA. She is now making lots of money! Her persistence has paid off and she is one of the few who stuck to her guns, though it was not what most people would chose to do...and succeeded! If you are interested check out Prabhavati Meppyial

Cultural pathology in India-1-LAZINESS ..CHARACTER TRAIT OR SYMPTOM?

Mental illnesses are universal i.e. found in all societies and cultures.

Mental illnesses existed in the past, exist now and will continue to exist later too.

The causes of mental illnesses such as environmental stresses and biological, psychological , genetic vulnerabilities are present everywhere.

However, the environmental stresses are unique to each culture and so the person’s manifestations of symptoms too will vary. A schizophrenic from Russia may suspect the KGB of following him, an Indian schizophrenic may believe his neighbour has put black magic on him….and so on. Though the underlying illness, e.g. Schizophrenia is the same in all countries, the manifestation of symptoms of schizophrenia varies as it is influenced by culture.

There is a fascinating chapter in the CTP (Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry by Kaplan & Sadock) about mental illnesses unique to different cultures. There are also new diagnosis of new mental illnesses being published in medical literature . Some of the new disorders which did not exist a few years ago include internet addiction, video game addictions, Hoarding,etc. This indicates that  new changes in lifestyles, for example the invention and wide-spread use of computers brought about these new disorders.

Here, I am writing about my observations of the oddities unique to Indian culture  I came across in the patients of a department of psychiatry  I worked in India in late 90s till 2003.

These patients of the outpatient department  of psychiatry had odd behaviours, personality traits, style of thinking, unique to Indian culture which

(a)are definitely MALADAPTIVE.

(b)Do not add up to a full diagnosis of a mental illness or a personality disorder or a neurosis

(c) have not been recognized as a mental disorder by the medical field as yet

(d) but are sufficient to warrant attention, sufficient to prevent the person from spending life as a happy, well adjusted, productive person.

Let me add here that I observed  these behaviours  not only in clients who came into the psychiatry dept seeking help but also  in Indian society.

These are not full blown mental illnesses but behaviours which I came across in my practice…these behaviours cannot be given any existing diagnostic label either from the ICD-10 or the DSM-IV R as they don’t fit the criteria. I strongly believe that most of these behaviours also exist as the Indian culture encourage or at least do not actively discourage these behaviours. Also the extremely schizophrenic nature of Indian society itself may be contributing for the development of unhealthy behaviours to cope with this society.

The “odd but not odd enough for a clinical diagnosis” behaviours and personality traits intrigue me and as I neither have the interest or energy to do more research, I have  blogged my thoughts below.

I do realize that these behaviours may not be unique to India,; they may be present in other societies too....but my experience is restricted to India. I also think that any culture with similar patterns in the  roles of parents, similar interaction patterns in the society, similar power structure, similar hierrarchy, similar role of religion, etc may produce the similar patterns of behaviour.

CULTURAL PATHOLOGY ONE: 
The lazy person: These are young men of say 20-30 years of age brought to the psychiatrist by their parents, who are usually village or small town folks, usually from farming families. They are of middle class or lower middle class. These young men are not working, they are either married or single, with at least  grade 10  level of education or a bit higher. The parents main concern when they land in the outpatients department of psychiatry is that their son work on the family owned agricultural land or get a job.

Interviews, mental status examinations, psychological testing yield no answers to the person’s lack of interest in finding work or working. They do not seem to have depression, anxiety or schizophrenia and there is no disturbance of biological functions. The biggest issue/?symptom is the lack of motivation and lack of interest to work. These youth do not mind idling away the days, either visiting the town, gambling with friends, going to movies, etc. If they happen to be married, they do not have a sense of responsibility about their wife or kids .
To some extent, the Indian society contributes to this behaviour. The youth are brought up dependent on their parents. When these youth enter their teens and refuse to participate in the house or field work, their parents are easy-going and dont push them to work; marriages are arranged for them when they are in their twenties…(there is no courtship as these marriages are arranted by parents) . The  girl  chosen to marry one of these youth, usually has little or no choice about marrying the youth.

Once married, the girl lives with her husband and parents-in-law in a joint family. She does the housework while her parents in law and brothers-in-law continue to work in the fields. The lazy person’s wife continues to look after him such as cooking for him, doing his laundry, etc. As it is a joint family, there is no danger of economic problems and this lazy person continues his idle lifestyle. The lazy person is supported by the joint family system adequately and he even has children who are looked after by his wife, brothers, his parents while he takes little or no responsibility. When brought to the psychiatry department, some report a few somatic symptoms for their ‘inability’ to work. However most of these people, lead lives in the villages and rarely are considered as needing psychological or psychiatric help.

A few of them get some sense of satisfaction or the feeling of achievement by doing very light chores and also doing chores of their choice. If a chore involves visits to the city or another village or meeting someone interesting, they offer to do it, but decline to do any task which is hard or mundane !

I have seen a similar pattern of behaviour in the cities too in the  males of joint families who run family-owned businesses such as retail shops. While one 'responsible' son or two sons are  hardworking and slog away at the family business , one or more sons may work in a very cursory manner and get away by whiling their time indulging themselves. The eldest or the most assertive brother may control the money. Here  again there is a lot of unfairness regarding how much money each son or his family can  access. The assertive ones get more from the pot while the less assertive ones get little and this leads to a lot of frustration for  wife and kids of the unassertive son(the guy who works and takes little from the pot does not feel disturbed but his wife and kids surely do!)
 Several women from such joint families(usually of the Marwadi families from north or Shetty families from south) have approached the psychiatry department for counselling and expressed their bitterness and frustration. But the problems of the joint family system in India is another huge can of worms altogether.

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Another similar set of  people are  the unemployed youth in India... at least the few I have seen in my village and taluk: They are either college or school drop outs, unemployed and  who tend to hang about ‘important’ people such as politicians or people in the political field and 'obey' these big shots.. Most of these youth are not really employed by these politicians but they seem to enjoy hanging around these men and whiling away their years. They seem to derive a sense of satisfaction and importance by being associated to these politicians who are mostly thugs. The politicians too make use of them and also manage to attract them by providing them, not consistently  but on & off, things like alcohol, food & money  and also  (as I recently discovered) sex trade workers/prostitutes especially at election time. Though there is no consistent salary or work,  these youth tend to hang around these people.
I bet there are a few people out there who may find me judgemental....that "to spend life, in a way one likes is okay and who am I to judge?" But I find this way of life parasitic, where the lazy person, seems to live off others, without guilt or any qualms. They are young, able-bodied and idle. There are millions of youth in India who are struggling to find a job and earn a living but unable to do so. However these youth are those who smply do not want to work. Not wanting to work, (a)when one is able,(b) when work is available, (c)when one is dependent on others (for food, etc) is a kind of pathological behaviour according to me.
The consistent failure of the monsoons in Tumkur has now increased the number of such youth...i.e. those who while away their time. But is this a  mental illness or a disease of society and circumstances...circumstances such as poor rains, failed crops, poor skills dervided from a lacklustrre education system, poor opportunities for jobs?
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I am not sure whether I would call the young, able-bodied people begging on the roads or the saffron-clad people, who lead their life praying and wandering as having pathological behaviours. Many beggers identify begging as a profession and so I do not find begging pathological. Being Indian and a Hindu, I have empathy for monks, mendicants, sanyasis, sadhus, etc and I don't find the behaviour of those who have given up family and work to search God,  pathological.
I must relate an interesting  case here. I had attended the case conference of a young man, who belonged to a rich business family in India. He had left his home and wanted to become a Monk. He was an only son, heir to heaps of property and businesses and his father was growing crazy trying to get his son to come back home! He had dragged his son to this psychiatric hospital and wanted the psychiatrists to cure him. Lots of mental status examinations, psychological testing, physical examinations later, the shrinks could not find anything wrong with him! Other than wanting to become a Sanyasi, this guy was perfectly normal! However, to his family's thinking, giving up home and property and wanting to become a monk was 'crazy'.
Swami Vivekananda is another example of a person who gave up home life to become a monk.

 I have heard of a few men who gave up family and  jobs and everything in their life and went in search of God or Nirvana or whatever at different points in their life. These men usually went to temples or Ashrams in the Himalayas and did not return. Let me explain here that none of these men were running away from difficulties in life, none were mentally ill, none were doing it on the sly. They had this inner urge to find God (or whatever) and left their safe, comfortable homes. They spent the reminder of their lives in these ashrams till they died.
Many of these men were deeply knowledgable about philosophy and were good debaters and teachers about their school of philosophy , their religion and rituals. Today, one finds such people in smaller numbers than in the past, but they do exist. These people  renounce the usual way of living....the usual way of living is  going through the life cycle of studies, marriage & children, work, retirement...or the 4 Ashramas i.e. Brahmacharya, Gruhasta, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa;
 These people jump into the Sanyasa ashram very early in their life, maybe without ever entering either the Gruhasta or Vanaprastha Ashramas. Having met a few of these men, I am full of admiration for their knowledge, calmness and their wisdom and though they have sought this life style, one can never accuse them of any sort of pathology. They derive meaning in life through their search for God, serving people by teaching philosophy, working in the Ashrams, doing social service. Many have left grieving wives and parents behind but this does not seem to affect them. (Hindu philosophy says that "you come into this world  alone  and you leave this world alone". These monks seem to follow this and experience no sadness when they leave  their family members). This life style is seen all over the world...the Catholic  priests who dedicate their lives to God, the nuns, The Buddhist monks in different parts of the world and so on.
But in today's very materialistic world, these people stick out like sore thumbs at times. It would be wonderful if these people were looked after by the governments of their countries so that they could dedicate their lives to Philosophy, which would benefit all mankind. In India, these monks can survive due to the alms given by people, as people have faith in the monks. But I think it would be very difficult for these men to survive in countries where  everyone is expected to earn and not beg for a living. A begging monk would look definitly odd/pathological in some places.

Female feticide in Mandya

Here is a disgusting tidbit of information. A recent census revealed that the ratio of girls born in Mandya district has reduced in recent times. Also, in Mandya, there has been an increase in the  number of 'scanning centres' which determine the sex of the unborn fetus.
Exploring the reasons for this, it was discovered that it is linked to a decision made by the Indian government a few years ago. The Indian government decided that daughters are entitled to inherit property too.

Mandya is a district of Karnataka with rich, river water-fed fertile agricultural land growing sugarcane, rice, etc. Traditionally the daughters of farmers were married off  and their wedding was paid for by the bride's father. The bride received jewels and dowry and that was her 'share of the property'. Now that the government has tried to help women of India by ruling that they too should be given a share in the property of the family, the agriculturists have started aborting their own daughters even before they are born!

I do understand the problems of sharing agricultural property with an outsider i.e. a 'son-in-law' but aborting the girls even before they are born is shameful. 

These agriculturists are definitely 'better off' and I assume more 'educated' than the Lambani tribe in Karnataka. Yet, even the Lambani tribe folks, to whom sons are important, don't abort the first two children whether they are boys or girls. It is only if they have two girls the first two times that they may check the gender during the third pregnancy. 

What is appalling is that every single tool meant to be used for good is twisted in India and used for evil. Scanning of the unborn fetus was meant to detect problems in the unborn fetus. Instead it's used in India to determine the gender of the fetus and abort female fetus, even if it's healthy.
 I always believed that education will lead to positive values and greater ethics, morals, decency. Instead, the reduction of females being born is seen more in the educated than the illiterate. Of course, this more even sex ratio among the illiterates may be, because the illiterate are also poorer and cannot afford the cost of screening the fetus for gender or afford the cost of abortions.
A census done in Bombay showed that the number of females born in affluent areas of Bombay were much lesser than the number of girls born in the poorer sections of Bombay. This indicates that higher socio-economic status does not necessarily bode well for females.
I thought that the government ruling that daughters should inherit property would help women. Even this 'women-friendly' decision is leading to abortion of female fetus!

India is indeed incredible! Incredibly sick!


NOTE: I have written about Mandya in this article; However, this is not a problem only in Mandya. Female feticide is a major problem  in several other parts of India and in many other countries too such as China.

DENIAL

DENIAL

Denial is one of the defence mechanisms postulated by Freud. Denial helps a person cope with a distressing reality and like all defence mechanisms postulated by Freud, it operates at the unconscious level.

Many people rely on this coping strategy, beyond the time it's beneficial; they stay in a state of denial far too long and end up with disastrous consequences. Here is a list of situations where people are in denial of reality and remain there for long periods of time. Some never ever come out of denial & deal with reality in a practical way. Denial makes them take counter-productive decisions which leads to failure. Failure makes some people lean even more heavily on denial....a vicious cycle.
 Some people, fortunately, are shaken out of denial after a while.

Denial is a frequently used defence. I have seen two types of denial. One is the classic Freudian defence mechanism, operating at the unconscious level, where the person who's in denial is unaware of being in denial. The other is where the person is aware of the truth or reality, yet denies it to ‘other people’ or even to self for a number of reasons.

Below are samples of denial I have come across in many people. Denial in certain situations occurs in millions of people who share a culture; This to me indicates that certain anxieties  are common in those cultures and so many people share the anxiety and all react in the same way i.e. denial. Worry about droughts in the arid regions of the world, worries about crime in certain cities of the world are a couple of anxieties shared by the people who live in those regions.

Problem 1)Hundreds of thousands of parents of high school and pre-university students in India, since the last 30 years at least, force their children to study courses such as medicine,  engineering, dental, etc. even if their children show no aptitude for these courses. The lack of ability to study for these courses is obvious even when they are in high school by their low scores in relevant subjects such as mathematics and science, yet the parents force them to take science & mathematics in grade 11 and 12 as they want their kids to study one of these courses. These parents and in some instances, the students themselves are in denial of the reality of their lack of ability to study these courses. They delude themselves by stating, ‘if he works hard, he will do well;’ “He is interested and if I send him to extra tutions and put him in a good college, he is bound to do well’.  These parents and students refuse to accept that they don’t have the capacity to study these courses and do a good job when they finish. Refuse to accept that if one’s basics in science & mathematics are shaky, then one cannot grasp, at the necessary speed to cope with the course. This denial has lead to India producing hundreds of thousands of ‘unemployable’ engineers and other tech-related people. It is the anticipatory anxiety related to unemployment and future of the children, the desire for a ‘job which is respectable and job which gives status’ which are the driving forces of parents and students choices.

Problem 2) Denial of abuse: wives beaten by their husbands, children by their parents, daughter-in-laws by their husbands or parents in laws is all too common in India and many other countries. The victims if abuse deny the abuse for many reasons. Sometimes, it is the defence mechanism of denial that is, the victim, truly believes that he or she is not being abused. There are women who have been beaten by their husbands but state, ‘He’s not a bad person, he hit me only because he’s angry. He cried and apologized later.’

Often the victims are aware they are being  abused and the denial is only to ‘other people’. They deny being abused when asked because they want to maintain the image of a ‘happy family’ in the eyes of their society or eyes of their relatives. Many don’t report the abuse due to fear of repercussions, lack of support by society or others, not being believed when they do report the abuse, being forced to continue to live with the abuser after reporting the abuse as there is no other alternative, etc.

Problem 3) India is a difficult country to live in for many reasons such as lack of safety for women and many vulnerable sections of society such as the lower castes, handicapped, the poor, etc. These are the things which make India unlivable for majority of the population: The lack of drinking water, lack of continual supply of electricity, lack of  toilets in villages and small towns, lack of  quality school education in villages, poor transport in rural areas, lack of affordable nutrition to all, lack of health facilities, lack of employment, lack of empowerment for several sections of society, the presence of corruption, the widening gap between the rich and poor, between the rural and urban, between the English speaking and non-English speaking, between the literate and the illiterate.  Yet, there is a country-wide denial of the evils in Indian society by many upper class privileged Indians! They argue that India is wonderful, India is great and when problems are pointed out, they argue that such things happen in all countries! They deny the magnitude of the problems and state that the ‘foreign’ press is biased! This denial reflects the complete absence of empathy among the privileged Indians  and also their schizophrenic lack of touch about Indian reality.

Problem 4) Many addicts are in denial of their addiction. Hoarders, smokers, alcoholics, gamblers, drug users are in denial. They say things like, I am not a hoarder. I use these things and so I have them. But they may have 3 cellphones in use or 5 different DVDs of the same show, same season, etc. I can manage without drinking. I drink but I am in control. I smoke only when I want; I am not dependent.  Denial of these problems is seen all over the world and has nothing to do with the society or culture.

Problem 5) As a therapist, I have seen many families and clients who are in denial of their psychological or psychiatric problem. The denial is not a 'bad' thing if it lasts for a few days or weeks or even months. Denial has many protective qualities and helps a person face terrible things, without breaking down. But denial is not protective but counter-productive if it continues for several months or years.
There are parents who deny that their child has autism or ADHD or DD or whatever. They refuse to get appropriate help and insist on having the child attend ‘regular’ school with ‘typical’ peers. The poor child with the diagnosis/problem, has difficulty fitting in with the 'regular' class or with the regular peers and can suffer. Sometimes parental denial of the child's diagnosis may persist, even when the child turns into an adult. The child with the problem, has lived, without getting any help for the problem and is now an adult and unable to function in society as he was denied help to treat the problem.

There are also adult clients who remain in a state of denial and refuse to accept their diagnosis such as OCD, depression, personality disorder, etc.

I can understand a schizophrenic denying his mental illness and being in denial for long period of time. Not in touch with reality is the nature of the illness. But to deal with denial when I am  counseling clients with non-psychotic illnesses for months or years is challenging to say the least! Valuable time is lost due to denial.  A client will accept  treatment or the next step, only after accepting that he has a problem. The longer the person denies that he has a problem, the less likely is he to accept treatment or take the next step.

Problem 6) People who refuse to see good in a person whom they dislike or refuse to see bad in the persons they like are two frequently occurring types of denial! This is also highly exasperating to all of us who have seen this! 
I have seen parents who  so blindly  love their ‘first-born child’, ‘last-born child’ or ‘an only child’ and fail to see the terrible behaviours the ‘beloved child’ repeatedly shows. These parents have excuses for these behaviours and some even go so far as to blame the victims of their child’s behaviour! I have seen a lady who loved her son so blindly that she  blames the person who loaned her son money to help him! She's in total denial  about her son's reckless borrowing. Parents blind love of their children, wives blind love of their husbands or vice versa is a universal  type of denial.  But I have a gut feeling that this is seen more in certain cultures or societies or sections of societies.  But unless a systematic study is done to proove it, it would not be fair to name the cultures where I believe this denial is more common.                                                                                                                     I have seen mothers who blamed their daughters-in-law for their son’s alcoholism or womanizing though the son was guilty of these behaviours, even before marrying or ever having met his wife! Gender bias against women as a cause of  denial is something I see more in some societies than all over the world in equal measure. 
I have seen teachers who make excuses for their favorite student or give higher marks for their favorite students and lesser marks for the same answer given by their less liked student.

Problem 7: Have you come across cases where a guy believes a girl is in love with him but the girl says no, she's not and yet, he interprets even her no as a yes? Everyone else around are sure the girl's not interested in him. Yet, anything the girl says or does, is interpreted by the guy as,'she loves me'? This is another delusional behaviour or a type of denial that I have come across. People refusing to accept the reality that they are not loved by the person from whom they seek love is something I have come across many times. A parent who refuses to believe that his child does not love him; a lover refusing to accept that her lover is breaking up for good as he no longer loves her, are some examples of denial. One scenario I have come across a few times (in India) is that of a guy who sees a random pretty girl on a bus or at a park or simply walking by. If she smiles at him or he even 'thinks' she smiled at him, he interprets it as the girl being in love with him. No amount of reasoning will shake this belief from this guy's mind! I wonder if this is something which happens only in the east where the mingling of men and women is restricted and these men who are deprived of women's company develop these delusional ideas/denial of reality. This scenario is depicted in many Indian movies too. I wonder if this behavior falls more in the realm of delusions or denial. I am putting it under denial as the person cannot accept the reality of being unloved by someone they love.

How to deal with denial is the next multimillion dollar question!

NUGGE SOPPU IN TORONTO

Today, 2016 February 6th Saturday, for the first time since I came to Canada, I saw Nugge soppu (Moringa tree leaves) for sale the the local Iqbal food store in East York Toronto.

I had eaten this in India and loved it! My family would make only Bas-saaru, a lentil and nugge-soppu rasam which is a Gowda recipe from Tumkur region of Karnataka .

Now I am looking online for more recipes to get a few more dishes out of this rare-in-Canada greens.

2018 December...visited Mexico and discovered that this Nugge Soppu grows in Cancun area in Mexico! 

I  discovered online that the Nugge-soppu tree has gone from India to Mexico (http://impactjournalismday.com/story/indian-trees-improving-life-in-mexico/). 

CRIME FICTION SET IN NAZI GERMANY

I discovered in January 2016 a wonderfully gifted writer, Phillip Kerr. He's the author of the Bernie Gunther crime fiction novels set in Nazi Germany around  the time of the world wars.
Bernie sounds sarcastic when he's merely stating facts; and the sarcastic tone makes the books so readable! I am currently enjoying one of these fast-paced books (If the dead rise not)as the tone of Bernie kept me going. I enjoyed this novel even as I  flinched at the atrocious thinking & behaviour of the Nazis. 

 It would be great if someone who writes exactly like  Kerr were to write about the crime in today's India. especially that perpetrated by the politicians and the government bureaucrats.   The crimes occurring in Indian villages, especially against Dalits by the upper castes  should be written, until the entire world is aware of these atrocious crimes and shames India into changing.

I had made the same comment about Stuart M Kaminsky writing books about Indian crime fiction; In this same vein, I believe that a TV serial such as The wire should be made about Indian crime as the personality & behaviour of the characters, especially the criminals and their women-folk is exactly like that of folks in India.

A few Indian and western authors have written about crime in India; but for me, there is something missing. I think, that Kerr, would hit the nail on the head if he writes about Indian criminals. I believe that his book would be true, yet readable.

Maybe, because I am Indian, Indian crime is too close to me for comfort ...  even if Kerr himself were to write Indian crime fiction, I may not enjoy.
 Kerr has written about the past in the Bernie Gunther novels... ergo, I can enjoy the novels without feeling 'too' sad, as I know that these atrocities are not happening now and knowing that people's  suffering is in the past and not current. However if novels about  current crimes in India were written, I will NOT have the same reading pleasure; The knowledge that  the crimes are real, the knowledge that the crimes are happening even as I am reading the book and the terrible awareness that people are suffering even as I am reading the book, will kill any book-reading-pleasure I experience!

The article in yesterday's Deccan Herald newspaper which left me sleepless and seething with impotent rage & triggered these thoughts about Kerr writing about Indian crime is http://www.deccanherald.com/content/526312/drunk-youths-kill-minor-gang.html

 If you would like to read Phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels, here is the list.

March Violets  1989
The pale criminal 1990
A German Requiem 1991
(the above three were published in one volume called Berlin Noir)

The one from the other 2006
A quiet flame 2008
If the dead rise not, 2009
Field Gray 2010
Prague Fatale 2011
A man without breath 2013
The lady from Zagreb 2015
The other side of silence 2016
Prussian Blue-2017

I am looking forward to an exciting-next-few-months-of-Bernie-Gunther-books-of-reading, to pass the winter and spring days of 2016.

Phillip Kerr has written other books too including some for children.

Pavel Kohout: A widow killer. (1998).another thriller set in Prague under  Nazi rule.
.........

SAW A FOX IN FRONT OF MY HOME!

Yesterday, Saturday, January 23rd 2016, around 6.30pm, (temperature was minus 5 celcius maybe, and no snow on the ground), for the first time ever I saw a fox near where I live! I spotted this fox in East York, on a busy street, where the houses have  a ravine at the back; behind the homes and the ravine, the slope leads to the busy DVP roads, next is the Don river flowing in the middle of the Don Valley wooded areas. This fox appeared to be grey in colour with a bushy tail and I cant say much else; I saw it for about 10 seconds or less.

I had seen rabbits in my backyard around 2007 spring and then I could see them in subsequent years. I was seeing gopher families in my backyard until my neighbour plugged in all the gopher holes and  put up his deck about four years ago. My neighbour claims to have seen snakes in his and our garden but I have never seen them. I see black squirrels all year round. I think I did see chipmunks in my backyard but I am not sure if I am imagining it or if my memory's pretending it has! (I have definitely seen chipmunks in a cementary of Toronto and in Ottawa museum resturant where they come eat food from the patrons)I see families of raccoons and skunks. I see skunks  very rarely. I don't know if the cats I see roaming in my backyard (and giving fleas to my cat!) are feral or pet, but, every spring, I see about three cats,(not together) roaming around. 
 I saw a huge stag twice in 2015 and I was  thrilled to see such magnificent wildlife so close to my home! I had once seen a group of deer in the valley while walking across the Millwood bridge. I see cardinals every spring; I see woodpeckers in spring and summer. Also swallows, bluejays, blackbirds, once a hawk or eagle, on top of my neighbour's tree. I see yellow finches too, probably because of my neighbour's finch feed in the bird feeder. I see lovely butterflies in summer, sometimes, several at a time. Black Ants & Spiders at home in summer, dozens of snails in the garden in spring and summer, both with and without shells, many insects in the garden whose names I dont know(my photos of them are blurred and so ...). 
Once there were about six baby rats in different parts of my house (mostly basement and ground floor)and I dont know how the hell they got in! There is not a tiny entrance to my home, my windows and doors are always shut, and this is one unsolved puzzle for me. My cat found them (on different days) and to my surprise, it dint 'kill' the rat but would either chase it a bit, hit with it's paw and sit and watch the struggling rat. As I spotted and caught, I put each of one in a paper bag and let it out in the garden; now, I believe my home is rat-free, touch wood!
This is the extent of fauna in my home. I believe in life-and-let-live. I am totally against pesticides, weed killers, etc. But, I do want my home to be rat free and cockroach free. Any other thing is welcome to live in my home(except red ants)

I am so glad that Toronto has so much space for plants, trees, birds, animals, insects and so on. 
We humans have taken over Earth and left no space for other living things. In countries like India, many species of birds, insects, animals, plants, trees are being wiped out, because people  take over all the space; we change the natural environment with  callousness and ignorance and make them unlivable for other living species. In Bangalore, where I lived the first 30 odd years of my life, we no longer have sparrows, swallows, tailor birds, paradise-fly-catcher, crows, squirrels, house geckos, lizards, snakes, frogs, many species of plants and weeds, butterflies, and so on.  I remember hearing that someone had seen a deer in GKVK campus about 20 years ago and now I am sure there is no deer, thanks to the excess of buildings there. I remember seeing a lovely paradise-flycatcher in the Hebbal campus when I was birdwatching with my husband. Now, hundreds of buildings, thousands of vehicles causing noise & air-pollution, more roads, more people, decrease in trees, plants & water bodies would have killed the birds or driven them to extinction.
I remember seeing a lovely species of water fowl called purple moorhen or purple swamphen in the Puttennhalli lake(between J.P.Nagar and Konanakunte); now this lake either no longer exists or is so polluted and where are the poor moorhens to go when there is no 'livable' waterbody? (I have gone crazy from the next para on! Sorry!)
Thanks to the corrupt, filthy, greedy, callous, politicians of Karnataka who are more than willing to do ANYTHING for money(...they will not hesitate to even will sell their wives, mothers, daughters for money) the natural environment of Karnataka is being destroyed and all living creatures except humans will slowly become extinct. Bangalore, Karnataka, the villages and cities of India will become so full of people, all other species will die out and then the people too will start dying.

BOOKS READ YEARS AGO AND REMEMBERD. BOOKS READ HOURS AGO AND FORGOTTEN

Why is it that I can remember books which I read 30 years ago and I cant remember books I read last week?
 In this article, I am thinking aloud about the possible reasons for my   memory's tricky functioning; the thoughts here are strictly my own and I have not tried to pick stuff from the internet or elsewhere

The books I have read recently and cannot remember much of are the books by Linwood Barclay, Harlen Coben, Christopher Reich, etc. I don't mean any disrespect to these authors. I derived a lot of pleasure and excitement when I read their books.
The authors whose books I read more than 20-30 years ago and can still remember the plots and characters clearly are James Hadley Chase, Enid Blyton, Georgette Heyer, Stuart M Kaminsky, Lawrence Sanders, Charles Dickens, P.G.Wodehouse, Alistair Mclean, etc.
 There are some authors who have written many but I have read only one book of theirs; These books made such an impact on me that I remember their plots and characters to this day. Some of these are Gone with the wind by Mitchell, To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee, Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough, The far pavilions by M.M.Kaye and so on.

I have given below, my take on the reasons for remembering the characters and plots of some books so well:


Limited stimulation in my childhood and youth: I grew up without TV or the internet. I grew up with access to only a handful of magazines, no newspaper(my dad bought Kannada newspaper and I hated reading Kannada!) and a few film songs on radio. I did not feel like listening to the radio's news or weather or the government programs on agriculture! Which explains how limited my access to stimulation was! All I had was the one or two Kannada movies I saw in a month and the few books I read.
The absence of stimulation/distractions from a  wide range of resources such as TV, internet & music is  a powerful factor contributing to the  indelible memories of the books I read during childhood and youth. 

Distractions interfering with deep memory formation:
The infinite stimulations of today, competing with books for my brain-space is definitely a strong reason, for not remembering  much of what I read these days.
Here is an example of distractions I have to avoid, in order to focus on one book, today. I am reading the novel, If the dead rise not; it is interesting and well written. Yet, my hand wanders over to the mobile next to me and I play solitaire, after reading a page; I then flip the remote to see an episode of a Norway serial. I then read a few more pages of "If the dead rise not'. Then I flip through the other novels in the same series, lying on my bedside table. I then go down to snack on some sweets. Back to book again, Then I go to the computer and check emails and Facebook, though there is nothing urgent I am expecting!
 30 years ago, I dint have TV, computer, phone, or this many exciting books lying around and for that matter, I dint have this many sweets in my fridge! In the past, thanks to my low income, I had a Spartan life, and that really helped me to 'focus' and really 'extract enjoyment' from the precious few things I had. I could read an entire novel from start to finish, without getting up at all!  These days, distractions (or my limited attention span)prevent me from being truly immersed in a book. If one is not truly immersed, then one is not really enjoying the book, ergo, the book is not memorable. Even if the book by itself is memorable, but one is not able to focus, to be immersed, then the book is functionally 'not memorable'.
For some reason, I can watch some TV shows, without getting distracted. Even if I can 'pause' the show and attend to my 'distraction', I dont. 

I had mentioned in another article about the pleasure of poverty. I want to state in this context that,  dearth of things works for me! I appreciate and enjoy what I have when I have little. When I have lots, I lose focus and don't have the patience to finish one and only then, move on to the next. These days of prosperity & plenty, I  am like a hyperactive squirrel in a fruit garden...instead of finishing one fruit, I take a nibble here and a nibble there,  tasting many fruit, without finishing even one.



Number of books read: In my childhood and youth, I had very limited access to books. Ergo, I read each book, I was lucky enough to lay my hands on with 'depth' & gratitude.  I was not finicky and accepted all the books I could get. I had access to few books and maybe I read them over and over or recalled and fantasized about them often.

However, when I moved to Canada in my late 30s, there was no dearth of books accessible to me!  I had access to literally lakhs of books and  this changed me :  I became picky and stopped reading a book if it did not hold my attention; I read books fast as I had a lot  more books to finish and return to the library; I started zipping through books; I would read three to four books at a time (one at the dinner table, one on the subway, one at lunch at work; one in bed at night)  I wonder if  all these changes in my reading pattern lead to the books not getting registered in my mind/memory.




Number of times the same book is reread: I tend to reread books I loved and enjoyed. I wonder if this rereading, contributes to the book staying in my memory longer than the ones I don't reread. Even if I dont reread, I may think about the story or fantasize about the characters, thus, making them stronger in my memory. 



My age: I read those 'well-remembered' books when I was younger and maybe a younger brain's memory holds on to things longer than an older brain's memory. But this does not fully explain why I remember the books I have read when I was in my 40s. I discovered Stuart M Kaminsky in my 40s and I remember the books of his I read at least 5-10 years ago. As one ages, one's long term memory remains strong while the short term and immediate memory deteriorates. Is this short term memory deficits of my aging brain a reason for my failure to recall books I read now?





I relate to some characters as some trait of theirs is endearing. This definitely embeds them in my memory for ever. The IQ of Lord Emsworth is so lovable and I can never forget him! I loved the goofiness of Archy Mcnally; I loved all of the traits of the character Sudden in the western series featuring him and so on. 

A character remaining 'honest' in what to me seems like an  impossible situation, gets indeliably etched in my memory.  The Rostnikov series of  Kaminsky, the Arkady Renko series of Martin Cruz Smith are unforgettable for this reason. 
 I think, the corruption of Indian politicians and government employees has had such a major impact on me that I am fascinated by  honesty, even if it's displayed by  fictional characters in corrupt countries. 

The characters: Maybe, there's something 'memorable & unforgettable' about the characters in the books. Who can forget Atticus Finch, the most universally loved characters of all time? Besides Atticus Finch, I have loved and etched in my memory characters such as Archi McNally of Lawrence Sanders books, Rhett Butler of Gone with the wind, Fredrica in the book Fredrica by Georgette Heyer, Elizebeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice, etc.
But this also does not fully explain why I remember some books better than others!  I have really liked and admired the characters in the books I cant remember for long. I really enjoyed reading Deon Meyer's books & liked the characters but the characters are not as deeply etched in my memory as other characters from other books. The same goes for characters and plots of books by authors I have enjoyed immensely such as Christopher Reich, Deon Meyer, Linwood Barclay, etc.

 3 lists of the book-characters i.e. 
1)characters who I liked and  are deeply etched in memory,
2)characters who I liked but  are not deeply etched... but I remember them even after a few years and
3)characters who I liked but have almost forgotten.
Even if I make this list, I doubt, I can figure out what makes some characters unforgettable and some characters not so memorable.
I think it is the overall Gestalt of the characters, the plot, the writing style, the other characters in the book which make the book or the character memorable or not memorable.

Unforgettable characters(a few samples) Atticus Finch, Lisbeth Salander, Sophy (the grand Sophy of Georgette Heyer), Mark Girland of James Hadley Chase, Sir Galahad of the Blandings series by P.G.Wodehouse, Archy McNally created by Lawrence Sanders,Shardlake in the C.J.Sansom series.

Characters I have liked but forgotten(and writing here after searching on in the list of books I have read): Characters in books by Linwood Barclay, Harlen Coben, Alex Dryden,etc.

If one were to compare the personality of the characters of the memorable and not so memorable, there is not much difference between them. There are characters who are unique in both memorable and forgettable lists, there are characters who are strong or funny; tragic or good or suffering or not suffering in both lists. Yet, the characters in some books are etched in memory while others are not.
 Archy McNally is such a goofy character and I  wonder why I  remember him so well! Maybe I find  his goofiness so attractive and likable! Yet, the strong characters in books by Alex Dryden have simply not found space in my memory and I cannot explain why.  

I understand that it's the fantastic writing style of some authors like P.G.Wodehouse and O.Henry which makes the books memorable.

I understand that it's the story and plot of some books which makes them so memorable. Some books with fantastic storyline and plots are  stories from Greek mythology, the Mahabharatha, Tom Rob Smith's trilogy, etc.

It is the pathos and suffering of some books that make them memorable.
Books like Tristan and Isolde, Love story, Sohrab and Rustom are unforgettable.  It is the unrequited love in these which make the books/characters so unforgettable.

Yet, there are some books which have all of this but it simply does not work to etch them in my memory. What is lacking in these books?  Why do I enjoy them during the reading but don't remember after I am done?

The setting:I wonder if the setting of some places sticks to my memory while other settings are forgotten.
I wonder if some contexts are unforgettable while some  are not.
Similarly, I wonder if the ordinariness or uniqueness of some characters and their situations sticks to my memory but the same ordinariness/uniqueness  of other characters  makes them forgettable.

It is such a mystery to me why some books & characters are so memorable while all are not.

This American need to analyze and quantify 'everything', even those which cannot be quantified and measured is not working.
 I have to simply accept that I love some books and remember them; I enjoy some books but forget them.

It's going to take a lot more work and analysis(than I am ready to put in) to understand why some books are memorable while many are not. And even if I figure it out, what then? How is it useful to me? In fact the analysis may reduce my enjoyment of books!

The moon looks beautiful even if I don't know lunar science; the jasmine smells lovely even if I don't know what makes it smell so good; the rose looks beautiful even if I can't understand why it's of such a colour or shape.
A book remains cherished  in my memory, even if I don't understand why.

BOOKS I HAVE READ OVER AND OVER AGAIN...MY 'COMFORT' BOOKS

I don't know what is so enticing about some books that  one reads them again and again...with undiminished joy!
Some books are re-read  by lots of people while some books seem to cast such a spell on only a few.
Needless to say, books which one re-reads are definitely worth buying.

I have often reread books, such as children's books, as I was of a 'certain' age at the time; I haven't re-read those books after getting older. Enid Blyton's books and some Phantom comics by Lee Falk, TinTin comics fall in this category.

I don't remember rereading Asterix ...they were great comics but for some inexplicable reason, I didn't reread them. 


I have been addicted since childhood, to the Ladybird publications of fairy stories illustrated by Eric Winters and written by Vera Southgate   published as 'well-loved tales' around 1970.

The reason I am stating the names of the illustrator, the author, the publication & year of publication,  is because these fairy stories (by Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, folk tales from Britain and other European countries) have been retold by thousands of authors and illustrated by hundreds of artists. The ladybird publication itself has republished the same stories, but by different illustrator and different writer.  But it is this particular illustrator,  Eric Winters who enticed me to reread these tales again and again! I spent more time gazing at the lovely paintings (water colour?) on every alternate page of the book than actually reading the stories. When I sat gazing at the paintings of the forests, woods, the lovely huts and cottages, I was transported to a different world altogether!

As a teen, I have  loved and reread books set in boarding school by Frank Richards i.e. the hilarious Billy Bunter series. For some reason, the Richard Crompton's William series dint attract me. I also dint get to read more than one or two of them. I know this series is famous but ....

Here is a list of those books,( I read as an adult) which have cast such a spell over me that I read them again and again and go into a sort of trance, when reading them!

I have to admit  that  I read some books 'fully', a second or third time. There are also several books, where I read 'parts' several times and not the entire book. There is something so enjoyable about reading these parts, that I read only those pages, over and over again, experiencing the same joy as I did the first time!

I will add to this list as I recall them.

Many books by Georgette Heyer: a few I can recall now are The grand Sophy,Fredrica, The Corinthian. These are all romances.
Some books of P.G.Wodehouse, including his earlier-not-so-funny books set in boarding schools such as The Gold bat, the white feather, The pothunters  and A prefect's uncle. I loved these not-well-known books which were  based on life in boarding schools and I found them akin to O.Henry's stories.

The Good Earth by Pearl.S.Buck. This book was such an addiction for me at a time! I must have read this entire book at least 5 times; and parts of it countless times!)

The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough
The far pavilions by M.M.Kaye.I have reread the first part of the book i.e. until he leaves the Rajput kingdom as a boy at nighttime
To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee
Gone with the wind by Margret Mitchell. I have read parts of it ...many many times
Pride and Prejudice. I have read the whole book, despite it's size a few times.
In pursuit of love by Nancy Mitford

Mahabharatha by C.R.Rajgopalchari

Ramayana by C.R.Rajagopalchari I read the Mahabharatha more often than Ramayana.

Bhagawan Parashurama both parts (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan publications)
Vikramaditya, (Bharitiya Vidya Bhavan  publications)..I read the stories several times as a teenager...some part of me wanted to believe that those tales were true!)

Norse legends
Greek mythology
King Arthur and the round table

I have read, reread and cried (&cried & cried)reading romantic stories such as Love story by Eric Segal, Salim-Anarkali, Sohrab-Rustom(Sohrab Rustom is not romantic in the usual sense) Tristan and Isolde in my youth.

I have reread The five findouters and the dog series by Enid Blyton and many series by this wonderful writer. May God strike with lightning, those nasty evil critics of her ! I remember rereading the book "The family at the redroofs" many many times! I also enjoyed and reread many of her series set in boarding schools and children's adventures series.

Little women by Lousia Alcott. I must have read this a dozen times at least!

The lost horizon abridged by E.F.Dodd ( I loved this book and I gazed mesmerized  at the woodcut prints for ages!)(Macmillan publications I think)
Kidnapped (abridged one...I don't think I would have read the full version that often)
Robinson Crusoe(abridged)
Treasure Island(abridged)
Some Sherlock Holmes books
The king's sculptor: This book,  probably written by E.F.Dodd,(the one who abridged Classics for children's school texts) was a nondetailed text in middle school for me,  and it's  impossible to find today.
Stories for children by Leo Tolstoy
Short stories by Rabindranath Tagore and O.Henry (especially Cabulliwallah and the gift of the Magi)
Tom Sawyer's adventures
Daddy Long legs
My family and other animals by Gerald Durrell
James Herriot books(but not sure if I really reread them or am I lying now?)

Sudden western series by Fredrick H Christian and Oliver Strange-I have reread all 15 books in this series more than once!

Modesty Blaise novels by Peter O Donnell I adore these books and have reread them

James Hadley Chase...many novels were reread by me, some I would read once a year at least!

 

Kaminsky's Rostnikov series
Kaminsky's Lieberman's series
Donald Lam series by A.A.Fair

I also try to reread many books by many authors but I give up and don't reread the book completely. I start rereading books of Perry Mason series but give up, as I get distracted.

There are many crime fiction books I enjoyed when I read the first time but cannot read them the second time. Books in this category are books by Michael Connelly, Linwood Barclay, Robin Cook, Harlan Coben, etc.

 I recently reread the book, 8th Commandant by Lawrence Sanders and thoroughly enjoyed  it!

I love rereading lawyers' jokes, Jewish jokes, Schoolboy howlers, many comics such as The Lockhorns, Andy Capp, Beau Peep, The wizard of Id, Calvin & Hobbes, etc.

The ONLY NON-FICTION book I  have read several times is :Reader's digest, "How to live with life?" I loved every single essay in that wonderful book!

Why did I reread some books? Is it because, I didn't have any other book to read? This is possible to some extent; I did not have access to many books in my childhood as I could not afford to buy all I wanted and the libraries of Bangalore (70s and 80s)were not well-stocked or  were inaccessible to me . Did I reread  to avoid what I disliked...such as studying for an exam or avoid boring and tedious chores? Did I reread because I wanted to live in the fantasy-world of the book? Do I reread books as I have a memory like a sieve and forget a book completely and can read with full enjoyment a second or third time!?! I do have a terrible memory and often forget who the villian is and need to reread a book to the very end to know the ending! 
I think I reread books for many reasons.

• Enjoyment. Sense of well-being. Happiness.
• Vicarious thrills.
• Laughs.
• Escape into an ideal or a nicer, more exciting world. 
• Yielding to temptation and choosing to read something enjoyable than doing something hard, boring, tedious. Wanting to escape the current reality of life.

Making this list I discovered that I seem to enjoy books which are happy, have  idealistic characters, and books which are 'feel good'. I admire and respect many other novels and authors but cant reread them as they are too depressing. Books in this category are books by C.J.Samson, Martin Cruz Smith, Tom Rob Smith, etc.( I did reread Martin Cruz Smith books)

There are of course many books which are very good but I read them only once and didn't reread. These are books which are depressing, violent, disturbing, heart-breaking and I simply don't have the emotional strength to go through the trauma of the characters again! These books are like the TV show The wire. I bought the DVDs of the whole series as I heard it was very good (nearly $300+ ! I am not rich!) but after I saw it once, I simply cant bring myself to see the show again. I found it too traumatizing. It's the best show I have ever seen  but it's  not  a 'feel good"type of a show. Train to Pakistan by Kushwant Singh is a book in this kind of heart breaking category.

I have to add here that I have one weird fault! When people recommend a book to me and sort of emphasize how good that book is, my mind seems to go in the opposite direction! I may agree to read to be polite, but for some reason that, I can't understand, I may not read the book !

Why the $*#* am I so oppositional?  The more strongly they recommend, the less likely I am to read!
Why is my brain so damn resistant to other people's ideas?
I am yet to figure out this aspect of me.

The two movies I saw twice or thrice and loved them the second time too were:  the black and white Telugu movie Marocharitra and the silent movie Pushpaka Vimana! I am sure I don't have the patience to see these movies today as I have changed so much. But at one point in time, I was spellbound by these two movies!