“Rainbow over the Hill”

Editorial:

Dr. Nikunj Jani,
Joint Editor

The dark clouds gathering and bringing the much-needed rain is always a good and reassuring feeling. I am sure each of us has had our share of monsoon moments that we still cherish. I, though, still prefer the blue sky with the warm sun any day, but the part of the monsoon which I always look forward to is the sighting of the elusive Rainbow. It is, quite simply, a marvel of nature. Every time I see one, a song keeps playing in my head- “Rainbow over the Hill” written and composed by the iconic British Folk Rock singer, Richard Thompson. It goes like this:

“Rainbow over the hill
Rainbow over the hill
Rain clouds lifting…..
Just when you think they never will

And I’ll be on my way
Up and down in a swamp all day
And just when it broke my will
There’s a rainbow over the hill”

 

Usually, Thompson’s songs are famed for his legendary guitar playing techniques. ‘Rainbow over the Hill’ is a departure from this. The guitar is still there, but it is Thompson’s rich baritone dominating this song that makes us look in the sky for a rainbow which brings energy and hope.

 

In this issue of JISH, we have several such rainbows, bringing in happiness and Ummeed (Hope) in the lives of those who have little hope. These rainbows do not originate from our big cities, which have top class healthcare facilities, but from Rural India. One such is originating from Rural Gujarat, aptly named ‘Ummeed Cerebral Palsy Centre’ in our Sumeru Hospital and Educational complex. Dr Hema Parikh, Dr Mrunalini Dikshit, and Dr Prashant Tamboli bring to us a wonderful paper that demonstrates the role and efficacy of Homoeopathy in management of Cerebral Palsy (CP). The findings of the study will go a long way in helping Homoeopaths all across the globe to usher in joy and Ummeed (Hope) in the lives of children with CP.

 

Another such rainbow has arisen in Rural Karnataka, where Dr Latha Devarajan and Dr Kumar Dhawale share how our Standardized Case Record helps not just in helping the delivery of clinical and research care in children with various learning disabilities but also relief to the family by impacting their quality of life and transforms a strong team of dedicated Homoeopathic Physicians into an organizational set-up.

 

There is another rainbow in Rural Maharashtra at Palghar, where we now see the newer generation of PG students going to the community and bringing about a change in not just the attitude but also in the lives of young college students. Every day in the newspapers, we read about hate crimes rising worldwide; women often bear the brunt of it the most. The #MeToo movement has now become widespread globe, taking over people’s social media, spawning numerous columns and restarting a public conversation about the ongoing sexual abuse of women. Our PG student, Dr Devyani Deshmukh, shares how an educational institute like MLDMHI in collaboration with like-minded institutes, helps young college students (especially males) to be aware of the common issues faced by young women from various walks of life and in persuading them to realize their responsibility towards building & endorsing gender equality. If more Homoeopathic teaching institutes go to the community with such programmes, surely a colourful rainbow of gender equality will arise every day!

 

Some time ago, I chanced upon an English translation of the wonderful autobiography of the Jnanpith award winning Kannada writer, K. Shivaram Karanth. He has achieved in a single lifetime what most can merely aspire to in ten! The variety, vastness, and depth of Karanth’s works make it difficult to identify Karanth with any one field; he has left his mark in fields as varied as literature, culture, science, art, environment, ecology, dance, drama, folklore, and journalism. He was responsible for the rejuvenation of Yakshagana, one of the wonderful performing folk arts of coastal Karnataka.¹ He is also referred by some as the “Rabindranath Tagore of Modern India”. His autobiography is aptly titled “Ten Faces of a Crazy Mind”.

 

The title of the book fascinated me, making me wonder if there was such a personality in Homoeopathy. I found only one who had an experience of excelling in multiple professions before coming into Homoeopathy, one who contributed in all areas of Homoeopathy, one who raised Homoeopathic Repertory from being a mere book of symptom compilation to a system. That person is none other than C.M.F.V. Boenninghausen.

 

Boenninghausen has left behind a huge body of work and a philosophy that is still relevant and applicable in our clinical practice. Concepts like Concordances are revered but the profession is still trying to master them and apply them in practice. In this issue, we have two original papers: one by Dr Navnit Vachhani, Dr Anoop Nigwekar, and Dr Nikunj Jani, highlighting the evolution and utility of the application of Boenninghausen’s Concordance or Remedy Relationships and another original paper by Dr Dhaval Akbari and Dr Anoop Nigwekar, who try to compare and contrast the Concordance chapter of the Therapeutic Pocket Book (German, Hempel, Allen) and BBCR with three polychrest remedies as examples to demonstrate the difference. This paper will allow us decide which repertory has got the best Concordance section and can be used in our practice.

Original papers like these are important to understand the genius of Boenninghausen and the philosophical understanding of the Repertory, being neglected of late, the only emphasis being the number of “Rubrics” and number of Remedies covered. Repertory is far from just a numbers game.

 

We are increasingly witnessing the usage of repertory and that too with emphasis of only one section of the Repertory- (Mind, Generalities, Etc). The late Dr Manu Kothari and Dr Lopa Mehta wrote in one of their articles in their book Homo Anxiens Musings on Medical Philosophy: “Using the repertory is one of the most critical process. Correct selection of rubrics is essential. The repertorization of any case is only as good as the rubrics selected. And the repertorization will be only useful as the Homoeopaths choice of rubrics and his analysis”². In another article in the same book, Dr Lopa Mehta writes “It is a skill to use the repertory of the mind properly. One has to pay attention to how the patients mention their symptoms, do astute observation of their symptoms and then have a clear perception in interpreting those symptoms. The physician then needs to go through cross references and combining rubrics for selecting the right remedy.” ³ In this issue, we have a paper by Dr. Bhavik Parekh, Dr Rashmita Petkar, and Dr Vansh Luniya that makes an attempt to study an emotion – Sadness and its various shades, their representation in in the mind section of the Repertory. This paper tries to expand our horizons regarding the qualitative shades of various mental symptoms available in the repertory.

 

We have case reports by Dr Shama Rao and Dr Anjali Joshi. We also have a wonderful Case Series on the utility of the remedy Carboneum Sulph by Dr Sunita Nikumbh, based on her experiences in treating Acute Alcohol Withdrawal in the Anukampa ward (Psychiatry ward) of the Rural Homoeopathic Hospital, Palghar

 

The care of the learner is of prime importance for any educational institute. Learning bringing about a change within the learner always gladdens the heart! In this issue, we have many such reports by our PG students of the MLDMHI who share how a learning activity makes them look within and brings about a transformation. Dr Shubham Goel reports on how the SCR workshop brought about a change within him and Dr Shraddha Shendre talks about her learning at the World Homoeopathy Day Conference at New Delhi. Our ICR Alumni from Rajkot share their learning from the Seminar on the Role of Homoeopathy in Mental Health and Dr Hitesh Purohit shares the wonderful learning and lessons on inculcating the right values from the talk given by the Hon. Vice Chancellor, Shri Govind Guru University, Godhra, during his visit to our UG College at Sumeru.

 

In this issue we also bring to you the eagerly awaited Part Four of the series on scientific writing by Mrs Belsare, For the fourth part, she is joined by Dr Devangini Broker where the crucial but much neglected facet of data presentation has been handled in a succinct manner. It is gratifying that a number of examples have been from the previous issues of JISH and I am sure that it will persuade our readers to revise these. It certainly will leave us asking for more! The authors have been kind enough to refer to the source where we may satisfy our appetites.

 

They say ‘Time is what we want most, but what we use the worst’. Dr Anoop Nigwekar shares in his paper his experiences and insights of conducting Time management sessions for our PG students at MLDMHI, Palghar and how one can maximise their usage of Time.

 

The beauty of nature is that seasons generally come on time and change on time. Just like the seasons, we, Homoeopathic Physicians, carry on with our lives. We go about doing our work to the best of our abilities. But at times, there is a need to take a pause from our routines, look around, and look within to ask ourselves: Have we delivered the best of application of Homoeopathy? Have we achieved the goals and objectives with which we started our professional careers? We may not get all the answers, but we may come across a path that will help us realize our objectives because it is said “Inside each of us there is a rainbow waiting to shine” and all we need to do is look around to find a Rainbow over the Hill.

References:

 

1. Karanth: Myriad-minded “Monarch of the Seashore”. http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19971210/34450343.html (accessed 9 July 2019).

2. Kothari Manu, Mehta Lopa. Repertory: A handmaid for the Homeopath. Homo Anxiens Musings on Medical Philosophy. Mumbai: Bhalani Publishing House; 2019. pp. 317.
3. Mehta Lopa, Kothari Manu. Repertory- Mind: Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. Homo Anxiens Musings on Medical Philosophy. Mumbai: Bhalani Publishing House; 2019. pp. 401.