Em and the Big Hoom

-          By Jerry Pinto

 

“ And what does mental health mean in a nation that wants an injection to put it back on its feet next morning?”

A mother who loves you to no end also matter of factly tells you that her mental illness “tap” began to drip the day you were born. Does that hurt!

Bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia. Nervous Disorder. Nerves. Nervous breakdown. Mental disorder. Depression. Sometimes just stark mad. All words from our rational vocabulary that we like to enrich ourselves with.

How is it to live with a person who helplessly goes through this? I know it first hand, having lived in the same house with my aunt for 15 years who, at that point of time as we knew it, used to have nervous breakdowns. The word ‘schizophrenia’ entered my vocabulary at least 10 years later. It used to be very confusing and scary at times, we kids would enter the house on tip toe when we knew she had had one of her ‘attacks’ Yet, it was easy to dissociate. An aunt is not a mother, right? In the book, Em and the Big Hoom, narrates the story like it is the story of a friend living next door. It is not fiction. It could be the story of anyone you and I know..maybe the story of my own cousin. For me, in certain ways it was my childhood relieved.

Narrated as a  story of a Goan Catholic family that has now settled in Mahim, Pinto takes us through the life of a young boy growing up in the 70s Mumbai in a family of four- his depressive mother, his stoic father and an elder sister who is as helpless as he is. How does one accept that a parent is not whole. How does a child end up learning to  parent his own parent early in life? Can the saddest moments of our life bring us joy? Can the deepest secrets of our life be held in the lightest manner? Can that which drowns us to the darkest of despair lift us to the heights of happiness? All that this amazing text does is leave you with questions…and more questions! Answers? They are yours to discover. Or you may ask more questions.

 A profound story which surprisingly made a light read- I finished the 235 page novel in a single day over a Mumbai – Bangalore flight (inclusive of waiting period at the airport). I don’t usually say this of all books I read – but this one is a must read for everyone.