Hello! We are finally in the month of July! It has been about a month since I have arrived at PHRI and hit the ground running. I am excited to be almost done with my project, and I am happy to start helping Dr. Weaver with her project. I have had a busy two weeks but now we are combining weeks 4 and 5 together so you see what I have been up to!

WEEK 4

On Sunday, June 23^rd, we went to Srirangapatna on the outskirt of Mysore. It was very lovely to see the temples like the Nishamba temple and the main temple of Srirangapatna. We also got to see the darshanam happening in the last main temple because a group of men were there with a mrindangam and nattuvangam chanting Hare Rama Hare Krishna. So it was my first time experiencing that so I was happy to see it. It also was monsooning and raining a lot but it made the temple walls really stand out. I explained to some of the other interns what some of the writing on the walls meant. When we got back, we went to SPR for the first time and had a great dosa experience!

Monday, June 24^th

On Monday June 24^th, we had a site visit to Odanadi Seva Samsthe organization. It was nice because I had already interviewed Stanly sir for his counseling work, but I got to see the organization and the way it worked. I saw the places where women and children worked and it was really nice to be able to go around the campus. At the end we got to see Stanly sir and talk to him about his cause and why he started Odanadi and how it has expanded. It was very enlightening.

Tuesday, June 25^th

Tuesday was a regular working day for me. I had to transcribe two interviews and prepare for other interviews as well. I was working a lot on that all day but did not do much else. After, we went to Onesta pizzeria but the food was terrible. So I am glad we did not spend too much time there because it was really not that great.

Wednesday, June 26^th

On Wednesday I had an IDI with a doctor from JSS. It was one of the better IDIs I have had because I did not have to repeat any questions and he understood what I was asking. Especially for the questions on Kannada language usage for symptom descriptions he had lots of very good words he included. We also got a lot of leads for other people to interview, like this next week we are interviewing a psychology social worker and hopefully (fingers crossed!) an astrologist or religious healer. We really need those perspectives because we have been focusing mostly on professionals.

Thursday, June 27^th

Today was my birthday! I had a great day celebrating with the staff with cake cutting and distributing sweets I felt very loved and supported. It was a busy day also, because I had another IDI back to back. It was with Dr. Bharathi a counselor in Mysore. She is a PhD holder and does counseling for a lot of pregnant women. She had good things to say about postnatal depression my particular area of interest. We ended my birthday with a wholesome dinner from Under the Deck a new American/Italian restaurant in Mysore.

Friday, June 28^th

Today I was very busy with transcription, because I had basically two lengthy interviews back to back. They were very long and they both said lots of Kannada words. So I had been transcribing the English part of it and for the Kannada parts I had Anisa and Naguveni and Rashmi help me with what each phrase meant. It took me almost all day to finish one because there were so many thoughts I had to jot down.

Saturday, June 29^th

I had the half day to transcribe the second interview. Unfortunately, there was a lot of disturbance in this interview because she insisted on having two fans on during it. So she would not let me put the recorders in front of the fan or far enough away from them such that I would not hear any disturbances, so I was very focused on trying to reduce the sound from the other fans by trying to lower them. But she was sweating immensely and therefore needed to have both on, but it came at the expense of my sound. So transcribing this 1 hour long interview took more time than it could have. I had to listen very carefully and rewind multiple times for each phrase. I worked to fix this by trying to download apps that had noise cancelling but it did not help. It just took time and I finally finished. Also, my nose ring got infected while I was here, so a couple staff helped me get it removed and replaced as it was causing me lots of bleeding and headaches. I am feeling much more relieved!

WEEK 5

On Sunday, we attended the wedding reception of Dr. Indira’s daughter Shruthi! It was a beautiful function, and we were very excited to see Dr. Indira and that she thought of us and wanted to invite all of us. We all got to wear our saris, and I was really excited to have the chance to see all of the colors and people. There were a lot of people and it was very, VERY hot.

On Monday, I worked on my transcriptions. I had to finish the Kannada translations for both of them as in the most recent ones. Anisa and Rashmi have been helping me with the Kannada parts. There is a specific question that they have really needed to aid me in as I specifically ask the interview subjects to explain something to me in the language that the patients use. We also used Monday to recruit more participants for the next week. We are shifting away from psychiatrists and psychologists, and more to holy men or religious leaders and healers, and potentially even astrologists.

Tuesday, I had one IDI with a psychology social worker. It was not the best interview we have had but also not the worst interview we have had either. I think it was a little hard because the interview subject was somewhat argumentative and it is always up to us to make sure their concerns are heard. He did bring up a good point though at the end that I should be including my name in the consent form, even though no one else had brought that up. When I talked to Dr. Weaver, she was very understanding, and she said that though she is not worried about it being changed, I could. So I consulted with Mrs. Jay and the team, and we all thought to avoid any confusion we would add that I am a research assistant doing this work on behalf of Dr. Weaver. We also got a different suggestion from a different subject to add things for my questionnaires, which we are now doing. It was a good change.

Wednesday, we had two interviews with a psychiatrist and a psychologist. These were the last of the psychologists and psychiatrists that we are doing, we are instead trying to move away from this now and more to other conventional places people might go such as astrologists. The first one with the psychologist was really good, I learned a lot about the stratifications of people that go to medical hospitals, and what people commonly complain with. It was definitely informative because I wanted to understand further issues that intersect economics and mental health, so I was happy to get some good knowledge from someone who has first-hand experience. The second IDI we had was with a psychiatrist from the same medical clinic. It was less fruitful just because the subject seemed potentially less interested in the research. The information was still valuable but just took more probing than usual.

Thursday and Friday, I worked on my transcriptions, and did more work for Dr. Weaver’s project. We also did some recruiting for the astrologists and religious healers we want to interview. We went to my yoga teacher, and we asked him if he knew of anyone practicing different forms of healing. He was very excited to help me as he said he wanted to have the world be more aware of those doing other forms of healing. We went to the Rama Krishna Ashram, and the nearby temples and Ashrams for more people we could interview.

Saturday, we had a presentation from Dr. Vijaya about the overview of cervical cancer, the different types of infections and problems it is caused by and can cause. We also learned about the issues facing women with financial or other problems that make it hard to afford more expensive treatments. Then, Dr. V talked about what PHRI does with VIA and VILI such that treatment can be affordable and can work with multiple populations.

On to Week 6!

Hi!!! We are officially one third of the way through my time here at the institute. I have loved my time here and getting to know the staff better has made me feel so fulfilled. From getting my nose ring infected to my third interview, my staff and coworkers have lifted me up, brought their children to work so I could meet them, and we’ve documented everything with moments and memories in pictures.

This week was eventful, with a trip to the Brindavan gardens, an IDI, transcription and translation, a training session at the University of Mysore, and international yoga day celebrations! I also went shopping for saris with the other interns for the upcoming reception we are attending. It was nice to visit the market and sari shops with Sanjana and Dakshayani. I have had a lovely week and have also gotten closer and closer to staff and my coworkers. I also got to meet some of the children of the staff such as Chandramani’s daughter and Manjula’s daughter, both of whom were so cute! I am excited to share the memories I have made this week.

Sunday, June 16^th

We went to the Venugopala Swamy Temple, and the Brindavan gardens. The temple was beautiful, and simple at the same time. The stone and dark grey marble architecture not only was elegant but what I loved more was that the temple featured various individual gods and goddesses in their own pockets in the temple. Above each altar there was Kannada text specifying the goddess, and I could read some of it. I helped explain some of the context behind Ganapathi and Shiva, and also Vishnu and Parvathi to the other interns when they had asked who some of the goddesses and gods were.

Next, we headed to the Brindavan gardens and spent most of the day or afternoon, rather, there.  The garden is built on levels, so each staircase brought another natural atmosphere. There were lots of fountains and we stayed till the light show in the late evening which was lovely. We got to see the plant exhibits and the tree arches, and the light show was fun because it was to modern songs but the water in the fountains were coordinated with the music. On the way back, we were so tired and so hungry but had a great meal at Frosting and followed it with mango ice cream from Corner House.

Monday, June 17^th

I had my IDI for the week with Stanley sir. Mr. Stanley is the founder of Odanadi, an NGO dedicated to helping women, men, and children who are victims of IPV or sexual violence, by guiding them through education programs and workforce training. Mr. Stanley is the in house counselor who talks to victims and helps them open up about the trauma they have faced throughout their stay at Odanadi. The interview was almost an hour and 15 minutes, and he spoke about various issues that affect people who have been in this situation. It was good to have his perspective because it is unique in comparison to psychologists and psychiatrists I have been speaking to. He was the first NGO leader we got to talk to, and I know how involved he is in both the local and international community, so I was very privileged to be able to speak to him in such length. The reason the interview was long, I think, was because we had to dig a lot to get to the heart of his role in victims’ lives. Often, I have seen that subjects for my interviews have a lot to say about the questions I ask but do not necessarily know how to frame their answers. So, we have to keep asking questions so they have more opportunities to discuss what they see in their profession.

Afterwards, I focused on starting the transcription for both this interview and finishing the one from last week.

Tuesday, June 18^th

Both Tuesday and Wednesday there was a training session at the Vijnana Bhavan auditorium in the University of Mysore. The training was centered on accelerating the challenges and addressing how universal health coverage would look in the context of India. Though it was important, it was focused on Indian history and Indian healthcare history, most of which us interns did not know. I was interested in Dr. Smitha’s presentation on Universal Health Coverage as a concept, but the rest of the presentations were less interesting and the presenters themselves did not discuss topics in a way that would be applicable to everyone. For example, the presentation after Dr. Smitha’s was on Road Safety however the presenter started with clapping and it took away from the information being talked about later on in the presentation. We stayed for a few more presentations and ate lunch, and then went back to PHRII. We then worked on other projects. I worked on transcription with Ambika and Anisa.

Wednesday June 19^th

I did not do too much on Wednesday. Technically, there was another training session on this day, but we did not attend as the first session was not helpful. The other Indian intern, Rishika, attended but she also said it was not that helpful. So, I think it was a good decision because personally I have a lot of transcribing and translating to do for the two IDI’s that happened. I worked on that for most of the day. I had about 3 hours work of interviews to transcribe, so I was working through that and catching every word. It was very tedious, but it is always fun to relisten to the interview because you forget how much the interviews cover, and what other extra questions needed to be asked in the moment to get the answers needed for the interview. It was always nice to go over in case there was something particularly interesting I needed to highlight or bold. I could not finish all of the transcriptions on the day of.

Thursday June 20^th

I did more transcribing on Thursday as well. I finished the rest of the transcription today and discussed some options for the next interviews with Ambika. I also shadowed Ambika as she did some data analysis and saw how Dr. Neha processes her data from the questionnaires. In addition, I saw how Rashmi does her data analysis for the HLHM project as well. After work, around 4 we went sari shopping for Dr. Indira’s daughter’s wedding on Sunday June 30^th! Dr. Indira is on PHRI’s board of trustees and we met her on Saturday, she was very kind! But I was really excited to go to Anand Bazaar with Dakshayani and Sanjana and Murli driving us interns. I was having a lot of fun selecting ones to try on, and we went to two stores and settled on saris from the second store. Afterwards, we went to Devaraja market and got bangles! And Bindis! I was happy to get a red sari and also get a matching set of red bangles and bindis we could all match our dresses to.

Friday June 21^th

Friday was the 21^st which was International Yoga Day! Ever since the second week of us being here at the institute we have taken yoga lessons from Swami Ji! I have loved having him teach us because he teaches very well and pushes me to do better. I have already noticed in the improvement of my stretching since being under his tutelage. I have appreciated having him as a teacher. I mostly shadowed on this day and worked on data analysis for Dr. Weaver from the last summer. I have counted words from the previous IDIs and counted and tallied how much words appear and what they mean and how many times they appear. I was mostly busy with that in this day.

Saturday June 22^nd

On this half day, mostly everyone was gone for FGDs for a different project. I was mostly working on this report and my blog post. I worked till around 1:30 and then took a nap till 5 because I did not get much sleep the night before. There was a large lari with a loud horn that woke me up very early on and it was hard to go back to bed afterwards. Afterwards I hung out with family friends that live past Panchavati circle till around 9 pm and then met up with my fellow interns to get ice cream at Corner House.

That’s a wrap of my whole week!

We made it! It’s been two weeks since I have arrived in Mysore, and so far I have hit the ground running! In the past two weeks I have interviewed two subjects for my study, had discussions with more subjects in a primary health center (the lowest level of healthcare in India), and most importantly got to experience the best meal ever made by my fellow staff members!

Quickly, before I start on the day by day breakdown of what I have learned and lived while here in Mysore, I figured it was time to explain what exactly I am doing here. I am conducting my honor’s thesis research here in Mysore on populations involved in mental health, whether that’s community health stakeholders or people with mental health needs. It’s been a very fruitful research endeavor! And, the wonderful staff here at the institute along with my guides Mrs. Jay, Dr. Weaver, Dr. Flueckiger, Dr. Madhivanan, and others have taught me so much about research, ethics, mental health, and how to do it all with kindness.

India has been a great place to work, I love going back to my roots and exploring a stigmatized topic such as this has made me very appreciative of people doing work in this field such as those at the institute. So a big thank you to everyone that has helped me so far, I love you!

Alright, here is my week, day by day.

Monday, June 10th

• On Monday, I went to the community with staffers for Dr. Neha’s project. I was excited to see the questionnaires and interacting with people who are willing to speak on the issues they are facing. It was sort of…interesting. Because of a few miscommunications with our partner organization in this cohort study, the community members did not show. To further the matter, a famous poet had passed away on Monday as well so Karnataka state government declared it a state holiday. So that means even more people were gone. BUT it was not a failed trip, because on the way back home we went to a primary health center. PHC’s are the first level of healthcare and the pictures I have attached only show how crowded these facilities can be. I got lucky, because the one doctor who sees all of these patients really believed in my project (or wanted to help a foreigner) and brought in all of his postnatal care patients and pregnant women and let me have a conversation with them. I was really thankful to be able to ask them about their experience, and I was moved by their answers.

Tuesday, June 11th

• Tuesday was one of the slower days. After the community day proved personally successful, we had a debriefing to go over what I had found from the previous interview with my first subject. I liked being able to sit in on the staff meeting, also, because I got to learn about all of the other projects. Sometimes staff would go in and out of Kannada and English but I got the gist of everything.

Wednesday, June 12th

• Today was community meal day!!! The staff banned together to make vegetable biryani, chicken biryani, raita (yogurt sauce) and kheer (a sweet made from milk and butter). Biryani is an amazing rice dish made with specific spices and vegetables, and usually meat, but also veggies as the one I had! \

Thursday, June 13th

• I had my second interview with a counselor in the community. We had a few mishaps with the interview because it is almost like every place we went was undergoing construction. Luckily with community cooperation we were able to conduct a solid interview and kept the subject (and the interviewers) comfortable.

Friday, June 13th

• Oooh, Friday the 13th!! It was actually the best day! I went to the camp for the community that did not happen on Monday. It was great to see how it all works, and to sit through vital taking and counseling, the two distinct parts of any cohort study camp. What a lovely day to talk to people about their experiences. And, on the way back we stopped at an Anganwadi school, a place where school children from 3-6 can get fed and even pregnant women from the district can be fed such that there is a reduction of malnutrition, anemia, and promotion of normal healthy growth habits. On the way back, we stopped for fruits on the street! With salt and pepper! That was really unexpectedly good!

Saturday, June 15th

• Maddie and I went to the community again on a different project. We worked with a transgender community and helped them practice meditation! This community is heavily ostracized, and meditation is meant to help with the lasting mental health and anxiety issues they might face due to this discrimination. They also had the cutest puppy!!!

Bye for now!!!!-Ru

Namaste from Mysore! This was my first week here at PHRI, and I am nothing but exhilarated to be working and living here for the next couple months. Joining me in this adventure are my trusty lads Kim, Maddie, and Krupa from the University of Hawaii and University of Berkeley, CA respectively. I have met some incredible women here and I feel very privileged to be working alongside them and most importantly, learning from them.

Some fun recaps of the week:

• The interns (KKRM) went to Mysore Palace and learned a little bit about colonialism in Southern India. I noticed the lovely art engrained on the walls and ceilings of palace, and found that the art had a mix of ancient Indian roots and newer British influences.

• We also visited Saint Philomena’s Church. It was beautifully constructed. I was definitely surprised to see such strong European Roman Catholic architecture right in the center of a very Hindu-centric city.

• We also experienced our first Mysorian rain, at least that we were awake for. It rains a couple nights a week, but this was a first for us. Not only did the light drizzle turn into a full on monsoon, but the

• On Friday, I had my first interview for my research project this summer. I was really excited and nervous to meet our first subject, but throughout the interview I was accompanied by Ambika and Anisa my translator and notetaker. I am very thankful that they were there, because I felt much more comfortable. Yes anthro research! Yes public health! Yes women’s empowerment research! I love that the work I am doing encompasses all of these fields, it is the perfect thing for me to study and dedicate my summer here to.

That’s my first week in a nutshell. Stay tuned for the next update! Look forward to updates about the community grassroots project I will be shadowing on, the next two interviews with subjects, and a brief about my thesis research!

-Ru

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton