Tremors changed this psychotic's mind

Tremors changed this psychotic's mind
MILIND GHATWAI

BHUJ, FEB 13: Last year, a day after Navratri, Devendra Singh woke up at around 1.30 am. Lodged at the mental hospital here after he showed signs of psychotic behaviour, the man took an iron rod and smashed the skulls of three men sharing his cell. Reason? Singh was furious with one inmate who refused to share his food with him. Two of his victims died while the third survived the assault. One year later, the very same Singh, who belongs to Rajasthan, is a different man. The violent psychotic has been replaced by a saviour who helped save six inmates of the mental hospital. Tossing away huge boulders as if they weighed nothing, he helped the officials and stayed put even as another convict fled.

Such was the terror this man spread last year that doctors would admit patients only if they could not be administered drugs at home. Following the brutal assault, Singh was separated from others and was locked up in a small cell. ``He always insisted on eating chapatis. Others would ask for sweets and other delicacies, but he always wanted chapatis. We provided him with whatever he wanted for we were dead scared of offending him,'' says Manjulaben Manji, an ayah at the hospital.

On January 26, when the hospital building collapsed, Singh was the first to emerge from the debris. Two inmates, including the man who had survived his assault, died, but the rest were saved. Singh played a major role in helping them survive. ``Had it not been for him, rescue operations would have become almost impossible,'' says Kalpana Mehta, a staff nurse still awed by Singh's prowess. Before neighbours could reach the site, Singh had rescued half a dozen mentally disabled inmates. He tossed boulders away and pulled out the buried.

``He could have easily run away. He not only stayed back but saved many,'' says watchman Ajitsinh Dhirubhai Jadeja, whose house also collapsed. ``We all ran out, thinking it was a dynamite blast,'' says another employee.

Singh even entered the collapsed building to retrieve grain. ``We frantically called him out when he appeared to throw all caution to winds,'' recall the ayahs. The staff can't explain how his handcuffs disappeared when he started helping others.

Normally, the staff would have run away on seeing Singh free. But the quake seems to have changed him completely. No longer does he insist on chapatis, says Mehta, adding that he even tried a rice dish -- something he would have never touched before. Singh has been referred to Ahmedabad's Mental Hospital. Wondering if he could be pardoned, the staff at the Bhuj hospital recall that Singh was asking for Rs 500, which would help him go back home.