Bhaskar English | Rohini Nilekani launches the first Mental Health Festival; talks about body intelligence

This is what Rohini Nilekani, the country’s most philanthropic woman, says, who has turned mental health into a celebration. In 2024, she launched the country’s first mental health festival, ‘Manotsav’. Rohini is the wife of Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and chairman of the tech company Infosys Technologies Limited.

On World Mental Health Day, read edited excerpts of her special conversation with Bhaskar…

• After Covid, I felt that mental health is a subject that needs immediate attention. In other sectors, we first understand the sector by giving small grants, but here I took a direct big step. Together with NIMHANS and NCBS, we provided a grant of 100 crores for 5 years. A part of this is ‘Manotsav’, which is an effort to bridge the gap between science and society.
• Manotsav is the country’s first mental health festival. For many people, it is important to celebrate ‘wellbeing’, which is why we made it a festival. In 2023, together with NCBS and NIMHANS, I provided a grant of 100 crore rupees for mental health for 5 years.
• When starting the Manotsav Festival, our objective was to simplify the dialogue related to mental health through stories and art. Anyone can be a part of Manotsav. This year, the festival will be held in Bengaluru on November 8-9.

Even while in the mother’s womb, start teaching the child from the age of 8 months. This builds a vocabulary. When children have words, they can express their emotions better. Listening to stories, conversing, and giving real-world time is important. Spend time with children in the real world so they can understand themselves better. I have also felt this.

It is society’s job to give children an offline, real-world experience. Our society is five thousand years old and has had its own ways of dealing with stress. The tradition of storytelling, arts like Kathak, Yoga, episodes from Mahabharata and Ramayana these are all great tools we have to deal with stress.

I read two books at once

I read a lot. One fiction and one non-fiction book at the same time. Fiction takes me into the world of imagination, non-fiction increases knowledge. I like being among trees and going for walks. All these reduce blood pressure. The most important thing is to make friends. Harvard’s research also says that true friendship strengthens mental health in the long run.

The need to understand ‘Body Intelligence’

We talk about many types of intelligence…emotional, social, artificial. But ‘Body Intelligence’ is often overlooked.

Body intelligence means understanding the language of your body. That is, being able to listen when the body wants to say something through fatigue, pain, hunger, discomfort or peace. This is the understanding that tells us when we need rest, when the mind is happy with pretense, and when the body is truly tired.

Many times we think with our minds that we are fine, but the body is saying something else. This disconnect pushes us towards stress, anxiety or illness.

This article was published on Bhaskar English