Self-Care Measures for Health-Care Providers During Stressful Times

Jose Parappully, PhD

Health-care providers are vulnerable to high stress during this Covid-19 crisis. They are exposed to enormous pressure as well as danger: anxiety about their own safety in the absence of Personal Protective Equipment, lack of resources to treat patients, discouragement over inability to cope with patient demands, discouragement and grief over inability to save lives, anxiety about the wellbeing of their family members, as well as absence from them and so on.

In this context, it is essential to take care of their own wellbeing. Here are some suggestions.

Talk to Colleagues and Friends

Talking can be a great stress-reliever. Talk to friends about what you are going through. Share with colleagues about the difficulties you are experiencing at work place and check with them how they are doing. While you need relief for yourself, reach out to help them as well by being available to listen to their difficulties. Talk to family members about how they are coping.

When you cannot do the talk in person face-to-face use the social media avenues and apps available. You can also post your experiences online and enter into a written conversation.

Recognize your Limitations

Do not see yourself as superman or superwoman. There are limits to what you can do for your patients. There are many things not within your control. Even with all the expertise you have, and despite your best intentions, you cannot help all or save all. The virus is too powerful

Take a Break

You are more vulnerable to compassion fatigue at this time. Working long hours under stressful conditions can exhaust you physically and emotionally. Anger at your lack of control over situations or availability of needed medicines or equipment is a real possibility which in turn is going to affect both your work and your relationships. You need time and space to cool down.

When working in a team, organize mini-breaks where you can relieve one another from duty for short intervals.

Sleep

Your devotion to duty can make you deprive yourself of sleep, which will add to the stress and exhaustion and the resulting irritability. Make sure your get some sleep, at least. Take short naps. Just remaining in a quiet place with your eyes shut in the midst of busy schedule will help.

Exercise

Do some simple aerobic exercises. Even taking five minutes to stretch yourself can be helpful. If you have time and opportunity, try some yogic asana or qigong movements. Taking a short walk (even for 5 minutes) from time to time and a longer one if you can afford it will refresh and revitalize you.

Pressing, rubbing or tapping acupressure points occasionally is something that you can easily do when you get a few moments to be by yourself away from patient-care.

Breath Mindfully

Do some mindful (slow, focused) breathing when you move from place, for example, from home to office or from office to patient’s room or ward or workspace.

Abdominal, deep breathing is especially helpful, if you can find some leisure to do it.. Take in the breath through your nostrils, hold it for a few seconds and breathe out through your mouth. Make the out-breath much longer than the in-breath. Making a slight swishing sound, rounding your lips to create very small opening through which to exhale makes the exercise even more beneficial. As you do so, imagine you are taking a spoonful of hot soup to your mouth and gently blow on it to cool it, taking are that you do not spill it. That is, be very slow and gentle in your breathing. This will greatly relax you.

Enjoy Touch

At this time of Social Distancing you are deprived of one the most soothing and healing measures available to us: physical touch. However, imagination and fantasy can help. We know that the brain cannot really distinguish between fantasy and reality. Physically holding some one lovingly or imagining doing so creates identical reactions, I am told. So imagine yourself being comforted by the gentle, soothing and reassuring touch of a loved one.

Eat Healthy

It is easy when one is stressed to find relief in caffeine, nicotine or alcohol. However, these will only add to your stress and tension. Try to avoid them as fare as possible. Instead, have healthy food – nuts and fruits during breaks and a wholesome meal when you can afford the time and possibility. Eating with others, if Social Distancing allows it, is helpful. You can sit at a distance and hold conversations while eating, with colleagues at the workplace or family members at home.

Have Fun

Take some time to do the kind of things you enjoy doing. Reading, writing (keeping a journal besides reliving tension can also be a good record of your experiences and emotions during this time), swimming, biking, virtual and physical games you can engage in by yourself or with others can be relaxing and rewarding. :Listen to music. Watch  movie. Watch the trees, the birds or even the cloud formations and fantasize as we used to as children!

 Meditate and Pray

Take time to meditate. You may have your own favourite type of meditation. The simplest and easiest form and yet a very effective one, is to simply sit quietly and focus on your breath. You don’t need to do any kind of deep or slow breathing. Simply be aware of your breath and the breath will do what it needs to do. When your mind wanders away from the focus on breath gently return it and keep returning. This will calm you down, relax and refresh you.

If you are theistically inclined, you can turn this simple meditation into a prayer. Instead of focusing on your breath, focus on the Divine (whichever way you understand it) dwelling within you. Simply sit in the loving awareness of that Divine presence within you. When your mind wonders away gently return to the loving awareness and keep doing that over and over again as distractions are inevitable. Using a simple monosyllabic word that has for you some association to the Divine (like the name you give it, or words like love, joy, peace etc.) can help you easily return to the loving awareness of the Divine when you realize your mind has wondered away. This is the essence of what today has come to be known as Centering Prayer. According Thomas Merton, monk and clinical psychologist and one of its promoters, Centering Prayer, besides calming oneself, has also profound therapeutic properties.

Mantram prayers too are very useful. A mantram is a short phrase (seven or less words recommended) that you keep repeating. Examples are (Heal me O Lord; Keep me calm and safe; Heal my patient; May all being be happy, etc.). These mantram prayers too will relax you and reduce your stress levels, besides connecting you with the Divine.

 Get Help

If your stress levels are high or you are experiencing high levels of anxiety and other debilitating emotions, speak to a counselor or therapist. You may also want to take a short leave from work, if things are really becoming difficult for you, even if that is against your commitment and devotion to duty.  It is good to act on the dictum, “Healer, heal yourself.”

ENHANCING PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING DURING SOCIAL ISOLATION RELATED TO CORONA LOCKDOWN

ENHANCING PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING DURING SOCIAL ISOLATION RELATED TO CORONA LOCKDOWN

JOSE PARAPPULLY, PhD

Social isolation resulting from the Corona lockdown in itself may not lead to negative psychological consequences. However, prolonged confinement with a group people in restricted space can strain relationships which in turn can cause negative consequences. It is not social isolation per se, but the feeling of being alone, that is, feeling disconnected or alienated that in a significant way leads to negative consequences such as depression and anxiety.

There is robust evidence that loneliness significantly increases risk of premature mortality. Lack of a feeling of connectedness heightens health risks s much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is twice as harmful to physical and mental health as obesity (Monitor on Psychology, 5, 2017)

Adverse health consequences of loneliness, understood as the subjective sense of a lack of desire connectedness, include besides depression and anxiety, poor sleep quality, accelerated cognitive decline which increases risk of dementia, poor cardiovascular function, higher levels of blood pressure and impaired immunity.

Loneliness heightens levels of stress which we know is at the root of most of major killer diseases. It increases the activity of genes involved in causing inflammation and decreases that of genes involved in antiviral responses, which is especially relevant in this stressful time Covid- 19 and lockdown.

Relationship Strain
Relationship strain is the major contributor to loneliness. We can be lonely even when we are with a group of people, including family members, if our relationships are strained. On the other hand, we do not feel lonely even when alone if we have a subjective sense of connectedness.

Hence the challenge during the lockdown is to stay psychologically connected. It is especially important to take care that relationships do not strain, the possibility for which is quite strong when we stay confined within small spaces with a group of people.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development, also known as the Grant Study, which is perhaps the longest running longitudinal study anywhere and anytime (about 80 years running) has unequivocally shown that the number one contributor to health and happiness is satisfying relationships. Strained relationships, on the other hand, take a toll. For example, a bad marriage is worse than no marriage. “The good life,” Dr. Robert Waldinger, the current director of the Harvard Study declares, “is built on good relationships.”

When people are deprived of social connections with those other than they live with, there is increased potential for relational friction with those they live with. When relationships are close-binding, with little outlets for connectedness with others, conflicts within the relationship become more of a possibility. When this happens, psychological distancing from those one lives with is the result. This is a danger that one has to avoid during the imposed social isolation.

Another reason for this potential alienation is that when we live with someone with not much to do and with little interaction with those outside the inner circle, we have ample time to notice negative features in the other we may not have earlier. Along with this, our mind will tend to go back over memory lane and pull up unpleasant situations and incidents involving the other. This can lead to bickering and recrimination that strain the relationship, increasing psychological alienation. 

Prolonged close proximity, even within an intimate relationship, is a psychological health hazard.

Besides, having nothing much to do in the absence of the usual demands that daily life makes on us, without the option of venturing out and engaging in social intercourse, can lead to boredom which in turn can fray nerves and negatively affect the relationships within.

Hence the challengers are: 1. To take special care to avoid fault finding and negativity. 2. To maintain connectedness with those outside. 3. Create pleasant environment. 4 Fight boredom. There are multiple ways to meet these challenges.

Avoid Negativity

Regarding the first: We need to make a special effort to weed out negativity and focus on the positive. Recall together the good times we have had. Leafing through the album of old photographs and commenting on them, narrating the happy times on trips taken together long time ago, as well as interesting personal anecdotes that the others may not know of are very helpful in enhancing relationships. It is important here to remember The Rule of Four. Before we ever mention anything negative about the other, we make sure we have said at least four pleasant or positive things about or to the person! Better still, if anything negative comes up, defer its communication to a later time. Blaming, accusations, fault-finding are especially hazardous during confinement.

Within the confined, and sometimes crammed, space we can become more sensitive to noise, loud conversations and other disruptive sounds. We will be more demanding in regard to use of common space, equipment and devices. There is potential for quarreling and fighting in regard to these.

Sensitivity to others’ need is important. Just as we experience tension and irritation created by the situation, others we live with will also. We need to respond with empathy than annoyance to others’ irritating words and behaviour.

Connect with Friends and Colleagues

In regard to the second: studies have shown that in times of social isolation, more than connection with one’s partner or family members, what helps ward off loneliness is connection with one’s friends and colleagues. Hence keeping in contact with our friends and acquaintances outside our immediate family circle is important. This can be done easily today through the means of communication available to us. An easy topic for conversation with friends and colleagues is discussion on how we are facing this imposed isolation and how we and our work are affected by it.

Even if we are not connecting in person with those outside, virtual connection through social media also helps. Besides, engagement with social media can keep us busy and ward off boredom. However, it is important to keep in mind that too much engagement with social media, especially when it distances us from those we live with is not a good thing. Fake news amply available on social media can cause fear and anxiety.

Create Pleasant Environment

In regard to the third: Creating a pleasant environment in the space we are confined in is especially important. We can do this first of all by avoiding negative and critical conversations. Planning and executing celebratory events brings joy and togetherness.

Busy parents who otherwise have not had enough time to spend with children are given a golden opportunity. Play with them, do fun things with them. Read stories to the very small children.

Cooperative cleaning up the house or giving a new coat of paint to the walls also help create pleasant environment. Even re-arranging the furniture can contribute to creation of a pleasant physical space.

Fight Boredom

In regard to the third: Reduced activity arising from absence from our place and the hassle of travel leaves time on our hands. Not knowing how to utilize it can lead to boredom and irritation.

The activities involved in creating a pleasant environment as described are great ways to beat boredom.

However there is something more important. Even within the closed spaces, we have to create a personal space where we can occasionally isolate ourselves and be able to do things we are interested in without interference from others.

The solitude that such personal spaces provide can also help us to devote time and energy to projects we are interested in. For example, if we are technologically oriented, we can experiment creatively. If we are inclined toward literary pursuits, this is the time to write that article that we have dreamed of, but had not found time for. We can start writing the first pages of that wonderful book have been dreaming of writing. The time at our disposal gives us opportunity also to try out creative cooking and baking.

Settling comfortably with a favourite book can be both exciting and relaxing. When we do that from our balcony or from our garden (f we have one) we are also refreshed by nature. Sitting quietly outdoors, doing nothing important, but simply taking in the nature around us, can be very refreshing and will make the time spent within less boring.

Exercise is a great boredom buster. Moreover, it energizes mind an body, reduces anxiety and increases feelings of wellbeing.  Yoga, qigong, tai-chi, and simple aerobics, besides beating boredom, help stimulate and strengthen the immune system. Acupressure is a very simple routine we can engage in when we sit alone or with others. It is as simple as pressing, rubbing or tapping some specific pressure points in the body. We can easily find these points and methods through a search on Google.

Tending to plants is a great stress reliever. Some of us may have potted plants inside the room. Some of us may be even more fortunate and have a garden to tend. Contact with mother earth and elements of nature through gardening will refresh our bodies and spirit and enliven our relationships, besides helping us fight off boredom.

The lockdown, despite the limitations and inconveniences it imposes upon us, can also turn out to be a great life-enhancer.

MUSINGS ON THE HEART AND CHARACTER

'There are more hearts than the one that shows up in clinical imaging."

"Could heart troubles in later years also refer to a troubled heart? No doubt, somewhere along the way each heart has failed. To medicalize these painful seizures into failures of the bag of blood inside your rib cage constricts the hart's rich implications."

"Character is concerned with the heart failures of love, inner truth, and honor, and with the suppression of beauty. For it is a daily fact that we tend to keep beauty out of our lives lest it strike our hearts and kindle fierce longings we do not know how to appease. An ECG will not reveal anything about these weaknesses, nor can a stress test expose them. Times when courage failed, when we held back our cordiality, lacked pity, or betrayed our heart's calling can preoccupy later years as much as any lab findings. Heart disease and heart unease may be as near each other in fact as in language."

"...character demands attention to core essentials, which require other sorts of discipline than giving up smoking and cutting out butter. Life review in an armchair can be an exhausting exercise of imagining, stretching the heart-core of character at least as far as a brisk walk with the dog."

"Perhaps it is not only the attrition caused by life's stresses that hardens the heart, but failed contrition for our heart's smallness."

"The heart crushed by its own faults is suffering another kind of massive coronary event that brings deep pain"

"As you lie rigid in your bed or stare out over water, the heart reenacts how you betrayed your friend forty years ago, played the evil sister, the negligent daughter, the shirking friend. You see clearly and feel fully the injuries caused to spouses, parents, lovers, partners, dependents strewn in the wake of your self-centered demands and delusional beliefs. Of all these injuries, those done to your own calling through failure to respond with passion to the heart's imagination hurt most. With its relentless attacks, contrition exposes the heart's failure."

"It is not the past that is tempered by contrition, but the gnawing guilt about it....
Contrition lifts from the heart the weight of the dead past, making mercy possible."

from James Hillman, The Force of Character, pp. 119-124 passim)

A REFRESHING WEEKEND PILGRIMAGE ALONG THE MEKONG RIVER

Following the two weeks’ psychospiritual renewal programme (February 6-16, 2017) I was facilitating at Sisters Centre, Sampran, Thailad, I had a weekend free. Through courtesy of the Director of the Centre, Sr. Bangon LCT, I was able to visit the North East of Thailand along with a visiting priest from India, Fr. Mathew Chandrankunnel CMI, currently the director of the Ecumenical Centre at Whitfield, Bangalore.

Our first stop on the 17^th February evening was at Sakon Nakhon, an hour’s flight away from Bangkok, where the Sisters of the Cross of Tharae have their head-quarters. At the airport we met Archbishop Louis of Sakon Nakhon archdiocese who was travelling on the same flight as us. He hosted us a nice dinner at the Airport restaurant.

At the Lovers of the Cross headquarters we were warmly welcomed by the Superior General, Mother Virginia, and the entire community of some forty sisters. We said Mass for the community on 18^th morning and enjoyed a sumptuous breakfast.

We then set out for the Shrine of the Seven Blessed Martyrs of Thailand at SongKhon, on the bank of the river Mekong, running between Thailand and Laos, very close to the site where they were martyred.

During the Indo-Chinese war the officially Buddhist Thailand, with a view of achieving unity at the home front,  had expelled Christian missionaries and pressured Christians to apostasy. The persecution was especially strong at SongKhon, about 650 km northeast of Bangkok. Priests were exiled. The mission parish at SongKhon was entrusted to one Philip Siphong, a school teacher and married man with five children. Authorities sought to suppress the parishioners into submission by executing him. He was shot dead on December 16 1940.

On December 26, 1940 the local policeman went to the convent of the Lovers of the Cross at SongKhon, and commanded the sisters and the lay Christians present there (six in all) to renounce their faith. They refused. They were led out to the local cemetery and shot dead. The youngest was only 14 years old.

We visited the Shrine where the remains of the bodies of the Blessed are entombed and the cemetery where they were originally buried.

We had time to wander around the banks of the river Mekong and enjoy a lavish lunch.

In the afternoon we drove along the banks of the Mekong toward Tat Phanom, visited some Buddhist shrines, a school run by the Sisters of the Lovers of the Cross and the Church of St. Anne, both on the banks of the Mekong.

Dinner by the Mekong River concluded our pilgrimage and we returned to Sakhon Nakon for the night.

The next day, Sunday, we joined the community Mass and after breakfast drove to Udhon Thani, to another school run by the Sisters Lovers of the Cross. The sisters hosted us a wonderful Sushi buffet lunch at the Oishi Japanese Restaurant and took us to the airport. I returned to Bangkok and Fr. Mathew proceeded to Chiangmai.

It was a delightful weekend pilgrimage that refreshed body and soul.

ORDEALS OF AN AIR INDIA PASSENGER Atrocious Irresponsibility and Unbelievable Apathy on the Part of AI Management

I had to make a quick visit to Kolkata and had booked flights on AI 401 on March 19^th and AI 701 on 20^th. My experience on both flights left a bitter taste.

Flight AI 401 from Delhi was scheduled to depart 7 AM and boarding was to commence at 6.15 from Gate 34. Around 7 am announcement was made that the flight would take off earliest at 7. 30 am. The reason given “Unavailability of Crew”!! The flight left about 45 minutes late.

Worse was the experience with AI 701.

AI-701 was to leave at 5.30 pm from Kolkata and boarding was to commence at 4.45 from Gate 16 at one end of Terminal. About 5 pm one AI staff came around and said boarding will be from Gate 4 at the other end of the terminal and one floor below.

So everyone trudged along carrying their hand luggage with them to the other end of the terminal and down one floor. However, boarding could not commence as the Gate was already allotted to Indigo and the Indigo staff at the Gate insisted that AI could commence boarding only after Indigo. Some rankling went on for a while between the staff from the two airlines and finally Indigo boarding was moved to Gate 3. AI passengers left through Gate 4 and were bused in to the Dreamliner, which I noticed was parked near the Repair sheds and not on the tarmac.

What followed was atrocious!

When the flight was about to take off the Captain announced that there was some technical snag and we would have to return to the block for engineers to correct the snag. It might take 30 to 45 minutes, he said.

The plane returned to the block and the doors were opened. Some passengers alighted from the plan, which I though was quite strange. (Later I learned from news report it was to let off the Pakistani High Commissioner and some 50 passengers quietly)

Then came the announcement that it might take 15 minutes for the engineers to know how long it would take to correct the snag. After an hour or so Captain announced that the snag may not be corrected soon and that an alternate aircraft would take most of the passengers to Delhi at 10.30 pm. Remaining passengers would be given hotel accommodation (which to my knowledge did not happen).

Dinner was served around 8. Pm.

Around 9 (or was it 10?) pm all were told to deplane and return to the terminal building. No clear information was forthcoming.

At the terminal there was not a single IA official and the passengers were left in the lurch. After an hour or so two AI staff appeared. They could not give any clear information. One of them kept shouting in to his walkie-talkie “Coordination, coordination.”…

No news about the flight that was to leave at 10.30 pm.

After midnight, one passenger (who had been trying to make some sense of the situation from the officials and pacifying the angry and shouting passengers)  tried to bring some order. He asked those who would like to cancel their ticket or fly the next day form one group and those who would like to leave for Delhi that night itself to form another group.

Those who wanted to leave that night were then told to go the check-in counters on the next floor to get new boarding passes.

But the computers at the check-in counters would not function for some time, adding to the frustration of the passengers. Then the computers worked for some time and a few new boarding passes were given. Then the computers failed to function again…. It took about two hours for all to be checked in.

Further frustration and distress followed after boarding the second aircraft. The flight could not take off because there was no Captain or crew to fly the plane! This resulted in some ugly scenes between the hapless AI staff and some very angry and frustrated passengers.

Finally at 4 am came the first official announcement (after the Dreamliner captain’s at around 8 pm) that the aircraft will leave for Delhi at 6.45 am and that breakfast will be served shortly.”

Until then from sinner served at 8 pm no water or refreshments had been served to the passengers among whom were several babies.

And the passengers waited…. and waited for the promised breakfast and the commencement of the flight….

Finally the flight (on an Airbus 321) took off with a full load, with some new passengers and a VIP politician who was ushered in solemnly with a number of AI officials in toe to the jeers of “Shame! Shame!” from some of the frustrated, weary and angry Dreamliner passengers at 6.45 and breakfast was served at 8 am! 

Flight AI 701 scheduled to leave at 5.30 pm on 20^th March finally landed in Delhi at 8.50 am on 21^st March. During the entire drama senior AI officials were conspicuously absent, enjoying I guess a good night’s sleep in their cozy bedrooms or offices.

Returning to my office on March 22^nd morning (I had missed my train on 20^th night and had to scramble on to long distance bus on 21st night from Delhi) I sent off a “Feedback” to Air India, with the following:

“You are already familiar with events on CCU-DEL flight 701 on 20/3. The way passengers were treated was atrocious and totally irresponsible on the part of the AI management! There was unbelievable apathy toward the distress of passengers, especially of children and mothers.

A few questions for the senior management to answer:

1. Why were no official announcements made for several hours after the Captains announcement that there was a technical snag and that a flight would be leaving at 10. 30 pm and as many passengers as possible would be accommodated on that flight? Passengers were wandering from pillar to post to get some information. The only official communication was made at 4.00 am on 21^st after passengers were left shouting and screaming at the uninformed staff in a second aircraft for several hours?

2. Why were AI officials not present at the airport when passengers were deplaned and returned to the terminal? The two officials who came later on had no clear information for passengers? Then only thing I heard them say was calling “Co-Ordination” on their walkie-talkie and giving no information to the passengers. This means they too were not getting any clear information? Or, did they get information and did not want to communicate the truth to the passengers? (There was a feeling among many passengers that AI knew their plans – that no flight would take off until 21^st morning, and were deliberately keeping the passengers in the dark!)

3. Why was water and refreshments denied to passengers (including babies and mothers) for several hours -  all the time they were left in the airport -- and until 8 am on 21^st after the Airbus A321 flight took off?

4. Why was the flight at 22.30 announced by the Dreamliner captain not take off? And why was no further announcements made about that flight?

5. Why were passengers boarded on to a 2nd flight (boarding time 1.45 am) before captain and crew availability was confirmed and passengers left there until flight departed at 6.45am on 21^st (that is for five hours!!).

6. From news reports I learned that a group of passengers along with the Pakistani High Commissioner was accommodated on a flight on 20^th night itself? If this were true, what was the criteria used to select these passengers? And why was that a secret arrangement with other passengers not informed of the this flight? (Or, was it the 10.30 flight announced by the captain on the Dreamliner?)

There is much more I can say. However, the only thing I can conclude is that AI was totally irresponsible toward the passengers and unbelievably apathetic toward their distress.

I have spent quite a bit of time writing these. I do hope that those responsible will reflect on this and be more responsible and passenger-friendly in the future.

Quite a “Maharaja” treatment – promised us in the Dreamliner, I should say! No wonder the passengers shouted “Shame! Shame” when a politician VIP was escorted to the plane on 21^st morning just before take-off!!

Dr. Jose Parappully

Pathos and History: Walking Across the Bridge On the River Kwai

My visit to the Kanchanburi province and town in Thailand, some 120 km west of Bangkok, this past weekend (5-6 March), was memorable. Among other things most touching was a visit to the Bridge on the River Kwai, made famous by the award winning movie of the same name starring Alec Guinness, and walking through the Death Railway.

I was facilitating a two-week long Workshop at the Redemptorist Spirituality Centre at Minburi, located on the campus of the Ruamrudeee International School. The weekends being free I and the participants had the opportunity for some sightseeing.

While the participants went to Ratchaburi for a River Cruise (an experience I had earlier), I chose to visit Kanchanaburi as a friend had volunteered to make all the arrangements and accompany me as well.

Amphawa Floating Market

Our first stop en route was the famous Floating Market at Amphawa. Although I had visited a number of Floating Markets on my previous visits to Thailand, this most famous one I had missed, and I was very happy that the opportunity came my way. Unfortunately we were rather early, as the markets on the water open only by 10 am and all the excitement is toward evening.

We proceeded to Kanchanaburi after a nice breakfast at the Market and having made some useful purchases.

War Memorial Cemetery

At Kanchanburi we first stopped at the War Memorial Cemetery, celebrating the life and death of thousands of allied soldiers of the commonwealth countries who gave their lives to stop the onward march of the Japanese through Asia during the 2^nd World War. The Cemetery was very similar to the one at Kohima (North East India) that I had visited a few years ago. 

At the entrance to the Cemetery there is a special memorial plaque for the Indian soldiers who died but whose bodies could not be retrieved.

Death Railway

Across the road from the Cemetery is the Death Railway Museum.

The Death Railway (The Burma-Thailand Railway) has a horrendous story to tell.

The Japanese in pursuit of their aggressive plans to conquer Asia wanted a quick land route to Burma and India through Thailand. They pressed into service around 60 thousand prisoners of war from the Commonwealth Countries and over two hundred thousand peasants as labourers to work day and night, cutting through dense jungle and rock to build a railroad connecting Thailand and Burma.

“Their experiences covered the range of human ordeal and endurance, from illness and starvation to slave labour. Up to 90,000 Asian labourers and approximately 12,000 Allied Prisoners of War who worked on the railway died. They died from disease, starvation or brutality…” (from the Commemorative Plaque).

Bridge Over the River Kwai

“The Bridge Over the River Kwai” starring Alec Guinness celebrates one incident during the construction of the infamous railroad.

The original bridge, made of wood and bamboos, has been replaced by a solid iron Bridge and trains are still operating over it. It was a moving experience to walk on the Bridge.

Somehow as I approached the Bridge I felt a sad tranquility coming over me – a certain sense of pathos at a deep unconscious level, feeling the pain and suffering perpetrated by a brutal war machine.

Hellfire Pass

Further up into the hills I was able to walk through the actual railroad, although much of the rail has disappeared, and a gravel path has been prepared over where the rail stood. Occasionally one comes across bits of the rail and the ruined sleepers and some the implements and objects used by the workers on the railroad.

The most infamous section on the railroad is known as “Hellfire Pass” where the rocks had to be cut through 12 to 15 meters using hand-held drills and hammers. At some point the Japanese brought forward the completion date and introduced “Speedo” – round the clock work, fire brands supplying light at night. Hellfire Pass was a fitting name for the hellish ordeal of the famished and tired workers and the fire brands lighting up the night.

One of the commemorative slabs at Hellfire Pass has these deeply touching words which reflect also a deeply held personal conviction of mine – that ultimately it is our loving relationships that really matter:

“It [time spent helping the sick during the construction of the railway] gave me a great understanding of men. And a great appreciation of the ordinary things of life…. And the value of human relations. You know, when it comes to the end, the only thing that really matters are the people whom you love and who love you.” Dr. Kevin Fagan who served in 1943 as a doctor on the Burma-Thailand Railway, as a prisoner of war of the Japanese.