When Sweta’s condition turned from bad to worse, Ravi decided to follow his friend’s advice. He decided to take Sweta to a renowned psychiatrist in Varanasi, India. This was the last resort to get his wife’s life back to normal. For the last one year, Ravi had taken his wife to several hospitals and consulted different doctors but her condition haden’t improved. In fact, Sweta’s health had started deteriorating rapidly in recent days. This had taken a severe toll on her and her family.

It was not that easy to get Dr. Subodh Narayan Jha’s appointment. Dr Jha had returned to India after years of psychiatric practice in Europe. During his practice, he had cured many chronic cases, which were left uncured by other doctors. He was considered a leading authority in psychiatry in the world. He had it all going for him, but all of a sudden Dr Jha decided to return to India, where he started running his own clinic at his ancestral property in Adampur, Varanasi.

After months of emails and telephone communications, Ravi managed to get an appointment with Dr Jha. One-day Ravi, his wife Sweta and their daughter Roshna boarded an aeroplane to Varanasi.

They landed at Lal Bahadur Shastry International Airport, Varanasi and took a tempo to Adampur village. The natural surroundings of Adampur village was beautiful. The clinic was spread across five acres of land.

There was a garden, a pond and different types of trees. The entire area was rich in natural beauty where deer, birds and rabbits frequently visited.

Walking through a beautiful garden, Ravi and his family reached the reception of the clinic. Ravi showed the receptionist the printout of the appointment letter. The receptionist checked on her computer and asked Ravi to follow some official formalities. In less than half an hour, a small apartment was allotted to them. The apartment was well furnished with all the modern amenities.

Sweta’s cheerful face was an indication that she liked the place very much. Her illness had left her physically weak and depressed. It had sucked all the joy out of her life. Now her face had grown stern and carried no emotions. A sense of fear, anxiety and uncertainty could always be seen on her face.

In the meantime, a nurse entered the room and said that the doctor would see Sweta the following morning at 7 am.

Ravi woke up by the rooster’s raucous alarm tune. At 7 am when Ravi and Sweta reached the clinic, Dr Jha was already in his cabin.

They greeted the doctor, and he reciprocated in a friendly manner. The doctor looked very gentle and spoke in an amicable manner. After some casual talk, the doctor asked Ravi to show Sweta’s medical history. The doctor went through all the reports for about 10 minutes, and then he put the file on his table.

“Having gone through these reports, I have understood a few things. But before I reach any conclusion, I want you to tell me everything about the case. Especially from when the real problem began,” asked the doctor.

“Our marriage was a love marriage. Sweta had come to Kathmandu to study in a college where I was also a student. We were classmates, and we did not know when our friendship blossomed into love. Though our parents were not in favour of our marriage, they later agreed to our marriage, which was solemnised in a grand manner,” said Ravi.

“After completing my master’s degree in physics, I became a lecturer, and my wife started working as a lecturer at an all-girls college. But she resigned from teaching when she was 5 months pregnant. Finally, that big moment also came in our life when we were blessed with a princess. Both of us had asked God to bless us with a daughter, but our parents weren’t particularly elated because they wanted a son.”

Ravi went on. “Life was full of joy, and everything was going very well. When our daughter turned three and a half years old, we admitted our daughter at a kindergarten near our house. Sweta and I went to a shop and purchased clothes for our daughter. Sweta’s face radiated with happiness. On the first day of our daughter’s school, Sweta woke up early. It was Sunday, and by 8 am, she had gotten our daughter ready for her school. Our daughter was excited as she clinched a big bar of chocolate between her tiny fingers. In her new dress, our daughter looked like a little angel. Sweta took a few photos of our daughter. Just after she had done that, something strange happened to Sweta. She kept staring at our daughter. I thought she was trying to be funny. In the meantime, the school van arrived, and the driver blew the horn. I carried my daughter and started walking towards the van, and I asked my wife to follow us. But, to my surprise, she just stood and kept staring at the school van. When my daughter had left for school, I asked Sweta what had happened. She did not speak, and instead, started crying. I was stunned by her unexpected behaviour. She turned violent and asked me to go to school and bring our daughter back home. When all my best efforts to calm her failed, I went to the school and brought our daughter home. Sweta began treating our daughter as if she had just been rescued from kidnappers. From that day onwards, she didn’t allow our daughter to go to school. If she does not see our daughter in front of her eyes, even for a single minute, she would get worried and start behaving wildly. She would keep asking me to protect our daughter.”

Ravi also told Dr Jha that he took Sweta to many doctors, and all of them diagnosed her with depression. “When there was no improvement in her health, I turned to ayurvedic medicines. Even that didn’t work. I even took her to shamans. Nobody could cure her. I am so worried,” said Ravi.

Dr Jha listened to everything very intently and said,

“Well, I think I have understood the problem”.

He asked Ravi and Sweta to follow him to a room. The room was very dimly lit.

“Mr Ravi, I have to hypnotise your wife. I think something very terrible has happened to her in the past, and I think something has triggered that memory. I think it’s traumatising her. We will try to unearth what is it by hypnotising her,” said the doctor.

The doctor asked Sweta to lie on the bed, but she flatly refused. When Ravi told her that she should do what the doctor says for the sake of their daughter, Sweta complied. Dr Jha began hypnotising her, and within a few minutes, Sweta was in a state of hypnosis. Dr Jha started asking her questions about life and the answers left Ravi dumbstruck.

Sweta named a schoolteacher who she said used to molest her. She went on to say that one day the teacher raped her and dumped her in a canal in a semi-conscious state.

Villagers from a nearby village found her lying in the canal and took her to a hospital, and she survived. The teacher was never punished for his crime.

“Mr Ravi, we now know the root cause of your wife’s problem. There is only one treatment that can make your wife normal again. For this, you have to do as I say. You should prepare your daughter for school in front of your wife. Your wife will try to stop you. Let your wife cry and be aggressive. You should force her to come with you to the school. You should hire a few actors to play the role of police officers and a teacher. When you two reach the school, the actors should enact a scene of the teacher getting arrested on charges of rape. Make sure Sweta sees the teacher handcuffed and escorted by police officers. You must also make sure that the teacher apologises to Sweta for his mistake and promises to her that he will never commit such a crime again. After this, I am very sure your wife will recover.”

Ravi’s family returned to Nepal and did exactly the same thing Dr Jha had suggested. The incident convinced Sweta that the culprit was arrested.

To Ravi’s surprise, within three months of the incident, Sweta was back to who she used to be before the terrible day. She started working as a lecturer, and their daughter also started attending school.