SHILLONG: It was another Sunday and for those who spend many hours unwearyingly listening to patients with mental health problems, it’s the only day to debrief and reclaim their own space amidst nature.
That was what Dr Ila Lyngksiar Rynjah did to unwind. She took time off from the daily call of duty and went out with friends little knowing that fate had other things in store for her.
She drowned in a swimming pool at a friend’s resort on Sunday.
Ila was supposed to slowly but surely take upon herself the onus of running SAN-KER, North East India’s first mental health care centre established by her psychiatrist father, Dr Sandi Syiem in the scenic sanatorium at Mawlai Mawroh, Shillong amidst the green pine forests of Meghalaya — the perfect place for mental health patients to reclaim their sanity.
Dr Ila Rynjah had served as Assistant Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai, in the School of Human Ecology. She later completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology in 2016 from the National Institute for Mental Health And Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) Bengaluru and returned to Shillong after having done a stint at Nepal helping in rehabilitation after the devastating earthquake of April 2015.
Dr Sandi Syiem narrated how Ila was born a premature child and had problems with her eyesight but which was successfully treated in Delhi. Ila’s mother Nola Rynjah a senior professor at North Eastern Hill University is in a trance …unable yet to come to terms with the loss. All she could say was that it’s beyond human understanding.
Meanwhile Ila’s friends and colleagues from Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai all rushed to Shillong, all shell-shocked and unable to believe that the vibrant and live-wire of a friend has gone…..just like that. One of them was seen sitting by her death bed weeping tears of sorrow even as he took a look at his phone perhaps to see his friend’s pictures and her messages one last time..
Its ironic that Ila’s profile picture on her Facebook Page is one that looks at the setting sun reflected on a water body. Looks like the 33 year old Ila had a special affinity with water…It was in water that she found her eternal rest…
