(Please note that this is the continuation of the previous blog)
Immediately, D’Souza had requested for a meeting with the senior committee members of the orphanage and other psychologists to help them realize the seriousness of this case. However, it was at 4 PM that D’Souza heard a knock on his door. On giving permission to enter, a confident looking lady in her early 30’s entered and took her seat. She was lean and looked much older than her actual age. Her face was wrinkled way too early, but as she approached closer he knew that it was probably since she was obese earlier, because the wrinkles were actually loosened up skin. However, he offered her some sweets, with which initially she seemed to be pleased. But, suddenly she looked a little disturbed, did not maintain any eye contact, played with her hair behind the ears, kept swallowing for no reason looking everywhere except him, finally looked like she had to gather up all her courage and said that she would prefer talking to him a little later and left hurriedly before he could say anything further. All he did was smile with satisfaction as if he just achieved something.
Minutes later, he was relieved on knowing that the meeting he longed for from some time now has been finally confirmed at 6 PM the same day. D’Souza was ready for this big day and knew that convincing people this time would take too much of his effort. As he entered the board room, he saw around 20-25 people seated, all dressed formally and with an eagerness to listen to him. He glanced through the crowd and the next moment knew all who mattered were right there. He directly walked towards the stage, stood behind the podium, arranged all his papers, switched on the projector so that he could begin the presentation. One of the committee members mockingly questioned, “When would you come over that silly girl D’Souza? We know all about her through your previous meetings do you have anything new to offer??”. D’Souza smiled with a radiance of confidence in his face and replied- “It’s the same girl, so the facts ought to be same, but this time there are new findings and I request all of you to listen with an open mind.” His first slide showed four main names that of Krithika, Christy, Cathy and Kali and he read their personality traits, regular behavior and age. Even though the crowd seemed disinterested he continued that Krithika believed she was born 17 years ago and had to be responsible for herself and her younger cousin since her mother who was the only breadwinner of the family too had passed away. Hence, she seemed always to be protective and caring of others. Christy claimed that she was 12 and often blamed her temper and misbehavior on how neglected she was as a kid. She claims that no one in the world is real good. It was followed by Cathy, 9 who said that she missed her mother who died in an accident and so always remained sober. Kali, 4 was too young to tell anything about her family yet. Then, he moved towards the center of the stage, taking care that all get to see the next slide which was important. Meanwhile, a lady questioned as to “Where are we heading to D’Souza?” He clicked for the next slide and said “Here”. There were whispers all around, astonishment in everyone’s eyes looking at a picture of a 34 year old lady. Before anyone could question the relevance he said, this photo is of the girl I was talking about all these while. Silence is what prevailed for some time later. No one seemed to follow any of it until one of the committee member said with complete confusion- “That’s Kamini”. D’Souza smiled and said “Exactly”. This was something he tried to prove all these while. He continued his presenting until he saw signs of acceptance in everyone’s face.He stressed on the fact that this 32 year old lady was Kamini who believed that she was Krithika and also thought she was only 17. Moreover, the three others were only her imaginary friends who never existed. They were all her alter egos. The fact was Kamini was suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (known as DID syndrome). Over the years, she had forgotten her own identity. He then presented a video which was taken just some time back. It showed Kamini, entering his office since he had told her to meet him at 4.00 PM. The video displayed how her personality changed from a confident girl (Kamini) to shy and introvert girl (Christy). Everyone in the crowd seemed astonished at what they just saw. D’Souza continued saying that he had asked her to meet him since he wanted to capture the different personality in the video so that all could see what this lady is going through. For the records, he cleared that he was a little worried initially about his plan but that plate of sweets did all the magic necessary. This baffled the crowd even more. He told that Cathy was an ego that was created when Kamini had lost both her mother and grandmother. Moreover, due to stress and unable to handle the tension for some time she suffered from eating disorder which in turn made her very obese. Today, Kamini remained very quiet when her alter ego Cathy emerges and is so lean because Cathy believes that she is very obese contradicting to the fact that Kamini is absolutely anemic and thin. This alter ego often appears when Kamini decides to eat. It was when he offered a plate of sweets that Cathy appeared and unsure as always she chose to run away from the situation. To prove himself correct he passed on the painting by Cathy which she thought was her. The painting showed a thin girl standing before a mirror, but the image on the mirror was fat and huge. Exactly the way Cathy perceived herself.