Guwahati, capital of the Assam state of India, is one of the oldest continously inhabited cities of the world like Damascus and Varanasi. Uzanbazar is the oldest locality of the city of Guwahati. Being urban it is not all concrete, it is ...See moreGuwahati, capital of the Assam state of India, is one of the oldest continously inhabited cities of the world like Damascus and Varanasi. Uzanbazar is the oldest locality of the city of Guwahati. Being urban it is not all concrete, it is green and serene. Therefore attracts large number of urban wildlife. Along with the wildlife, it offers refuge to a many mentally deranged homeless people from all over the country, who come and go without any conflict with the local residents. These are people, who out of extreme deprivation have their higher functions of the brain shut down for adaptation in adverse situation. For them the garbage bin is the main provider of their needs and they live a life like animals. To the conventional psychitrists following the DSM, they are all numbers. But psychiatry has dissensions within their ranks, there are anti-psychiatrists. Dr Ronald David Laing a Scottish psychiatrist,did not go by the conventional or orthodox psychiatry and was one of its sharpest critics. Dr Laing passed away in 1989, but left his quotes which are pertinent even today. It is a contradiction and a paradox that while humanity has created complex systems for its existence and has reached the outer space some humans still live an animals life in urban jungles.
See less