“When you don’t stop people from laughing, then why do you stop people when they cry?”
– Dr. Harish Shetty
On the 2nd anniversary of HCI, Umang invited Dr. Harish Shetty for an interactive session and meeting the good doc was quite a revelation. As soon as he began his topic of Self Love, we realised he is a unique doctor, one of his kind. He made us laugh, he used dialogues from movies and he showed us in every possible fun way how to love ourselves. Self-love, the difference between self-love and self-gratification, narcissistic love, the ‘so-called’ love that makes us a sacrificial goat…he covered every topic swiftly and with his characteristic sense of humour.
Indians love the concept of Self-sacrifice, he began. It has been ingrained in us deeply. However, self-love begins by accepting ourselves the way we are, including our physical self. ‘ Tareef karoon kya uski, jisne MUJHE banaya! he exclaimed, reminding us, cajoling us and teaching each one of us to focus on ourselves first and then things would fall in place.
Shame and guilt are the two emotions he wanted us to stay away from – the root cause of most mental illnesses, he explained. He also told us to examine our mental blocks and slowly annihilate them one by one. One of the beautiful examples he gave us was that of the game of ‘Kho-kho’ which was like a metaphor for life.
It was refreshing to hear a mental health professional calling Buddha a scientist rather than a philosopher. I especially smiled when he explained the merits of ‘Doing Nothing’ ( my personal philosophy too!). He urged us to treat Yoga and Vipassana as serious experiments to experience – today’s modern concepts of ‘Mindfulness’ and the like that westerners have coined as new terms.
In the end, all of us wished that he had stayed longer, as he opened our eyes, shook up our beliefs and made us smile at our own follies!
-Mahrukh
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