Mental Poem by Aparna Chatterjee

Mental illness
Is a disease
That robs a
Person of
Sanity and
Peace.

Even if
He's a
Genius
Who achieves
A lot, yet he lives
A life of unease
And fails to
Find peace.




(I wrote this after reading about the 19th century Cornish architect and entrepreneur Silvanus Trevail. He was also the Mayor of Truro. Besides hotels, hospitals, churches, country mansions, workers' cottages, banks, shops, colleges and libraries, he also designed 50 schools in Cornwall. But despite his enormous success, happiness eluded him. He was prone to depression. He died by suicide in November 1903 at age 51 just 4 days before his 52nd birthday.)