Healthcare Architects, the Indian Institutes of Technology and Cannabis

Bob Dylan sang about it:

“I would not be so alone
Everybody must get stoned…”

The Beatles sang about it:

“I went upstairs and had a smoke…somebody spoke and I went into a dream…”

Times have changed since then, for me. The IIT’s in the ‘70’s were a hotbed of substance abuse, we were using marijuana, hashish, downers all mixed with Government of Bengal country liquor fondly referred to by us as ‘banglu’, it’s more expensive (and more potent) version being called ’amanush’. Before exams some of us used uppers, but this was not a widespread practice.

I graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 1979, with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture (Hons). I graduated with an overall percentage of 71.2%, lower than I deserved, I thought. This was largely because no matter how good my design sessionals were, I received a standard mark of 67%, a marginal First Division mark. I thought at the time (and still think so) that this was because I was counted in the ranks of the substance abusers mentioned above. We stood shoulder to shoulder at the time, and were proud to. Attribute it to peer pressure. To that I have to say, some peers, some pressure. The very best. My 5th year thesis was a redesign of Hinduja Hospital, the beginning of my blow hot blow cold love affair with healthcare facility design. I got an EX grade for that one, 90%+, the drawings were “in-your-face” good, Excellent really. The only reference book I could find at that time was Neufert’s Architects Data, 20 pages on hospital design. There are architects I have come across in 2005, the wired age, who have attempted to design hospitals on the basis of general knowledge combined with their visit to one during their mamu’s bypass surgery, not exactly what I would call doing it by the book (or “net”). Their efforts may eventually land up on my table, with the first slab already cast, and when the yoghurt has hit the fan. I call these my “jamadar” projects, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, peace. Let us move on to the third topic in the title of this article.

Marijuana was my drug of choice. I loved it with a passion. Robbie Williams describes the experience perfectly in his song “She’s the One”. He goes:

“You’ll be so high you’ll be flyyyyy…inggg…”

The way he stretches out that last word perfectly describes the stretched out, circling trip you go on when you smoke marijuana. There were the marijuana people and there were the hashish people, and while they had some things in common, they were also very different in a lot of ways. The maryjaner’s were the dreamers…

Supertramp gives us:

“Dreamer, nothing but a dreamer…can you put your hands in your head…Oh no!”

I am now working with a support group of fine people, who enable me to put my hands in my head. Times change, we get older and hopefully wiser. I have never worked with a finer group of people in my life. I want at this point to thank them for giving me purpose, showing me the light.

It’s the booze + hashish + downers types who are now management consultants with Deloitte in the US of A, coming home to their scotch and soda’s and the occasional ‘good’ smoke (as contrasted with cigarettes). ‘Good’ smoke? Yes, I would still love to smoke the good smoke. Below is an excerpt from “Schizophrenia: A Very Short Introduction” by Christopher Frith and Eva Johnstone, which explains why I can’t, probably never.

“Cannabis, the active component of marijuana, is one of the … drugs associated with the development of psychosis. But in the case of cannabis the nature of this association has caused some controversy. Acute psychotic reactions to cannabis have long been known to occur. Indeed, the diagnosis of ‘cannabis psychosis’ was widely made at one time. The thinking behind this proposal, at least in some cases, was colored by the idea that a cannabis psychosis might be less serious and the outlook less pessimistic than would be the case with a ‘true’ schizophrenic illness. There is now a good deal of evidence against this optimistic view. The use of cannabis among schizophrenic patients is associated with greater severity of psychotic symptoms and earlier and more frequent relapses.”

A fate worse than death? It is difficult to explain to an abstainer the sheer boredom faced by a reformed drug addict. Alcohol is a poor second cousin to marijuana. Time, no doubt, is a great healer, and after this stretch of time there is a quickening of interest in other fields of endeavor and interest, my increasing focus on the theory behind good healthcare facility planning and the peace I am finding in the evenings when the music washes through my mind, clearing it of all the crap it has accumulated during the day, are manifestations of this healing process.

At the age of 25 I promised my psychiatrist that I would stop using marijuana, but I would try it again on my 60th birthday, it kinda made the promise easier to make knowing it was not forever. At 35 I stopped using nicotine of my own accord. At the age of 45 I promised my psychiatrist I would stop using alcohol period. It was not an easy promise to make. At 55 I will stop using my sister’s excellent variously flavored cheese cakes. (Hah!)

Deep satisfaction can be obtained by overcoming savage adversity. I am sure there will be other ways to this end, but I know not of them.

I now hope to make it to my 60th birthday, for a long time I was not so sure. I’m hereby issuing an open invitation to all my charsi friends to come over, it’ll be a sedate party with all us old dreamers lounging around, but you never know, we may surprise ourselves.

Bring your own chillums and don’t forget the throat lozenges.

Cannabis – A Lost History

IIT Kharagpur | by Karolina Goswami