 "Ramakant Keni is barred from psychic healing")
It is not just his age that makes Ramakant Keni's handwriting shaky. The 94-year-old's prescriptions are seemingly dictated by an external force. Keni, a practitioner of parapsychology or psychic healing, typically holds the client's hands and communicates with the spirit world to make a diagnosis. Names of conditions that he senses will then be uttered or auto-written by him. "It is not a medical procedure but I don't bother about that. I just want to be cured," says a senior citizen, who most recently received "treatment" for glaucoma, hypertension and arthritis. This patient, a clerk, came to Keni after being disenchanted with allopathy, homeopathy and unani and has been a loyal for over ten years now.
Not everyone is a believer, of course. Keni carried out psychic healing at the Bombay Hospital starting in 1975. Last October, articles in local newspapers began questioning how he was allowed to run unapproved procedures in a renowned hospital that was recognised by the Medical Council of India. The council's Maharashtra wing took note of this, suspended his registration and launched legal action. The Bombay High Court has now instructed Keni to stop parapsychology but said he may continue practising allopathy.
A day after Keni resumed practice, people are waiting to see him at clinic no 21 in Bombay Hospital. Paintings of Ganesha and other deities (that Keni is said to have made) hang on the walls. Faint strains of music escape from his seemingly dark room as a patient emerges from inside. He wears his shoes and collects his phone from the assistant's desk, behind which there are some more paintings and a few figurines. Journalists can only get this far. The doctor has been strictly declining requests for interviews, his assistant says apologetically. Keni is upset with recent coverage of his work.
The 94-year-old claims to be a fellow of the International College of Angiology, New York, and of the American Geriatric Society. Sometime in 1971, he was introduced to spiritualism and psychic phenomena by an "elderly guide" who remains unnamed in his book. The book, in which he outlines his experiences, is circulated by a small Dadar-based publisher who sells a copy or two from time to time. It further reveals that although sceptical at first, Keni warmed up to the supernatural practice over time, becoming convinced of his ability to heal after a bunch of flowers he touched outlived another by six days. For this "test", he bought identical bouquets and kept them in two vases filled with water "from the same jug," he writes. One vase was labelled "healed flowers" and was placed on the same table as the other so that climactic conditions would be the same.
Keni was registered with Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) since 1966 before the recent suspension. "After the court decision, he presented himself to the council and gave an undertaking that he will not practice parapsychology. He also asked for leniency considering his age, so the matter has been closed," says MMC president Kishor Taori. Following last year's articles and owing to his health, Keni had not visited the Bombay Hospital clinic for some months.
Faith in supernatural cures is not entirely surprising in a country where mainstream cinema for decades pushed dialogues about seriously-ill patients needing "prayers, not pills". Keni's faithful patient hopes, admittedly for the sake of his own health, that the 94-year-old doctor lives long.
Not everyone is a believer, of course. Keni carried out psychic healing at the Bombay Hospital starting in 1975. Last October, articles in local newspapers began questioning how he was allowed to run unapproved procedures in a renowned hospital that was recognised by the Medical Council of India. The council's Maharashtra wing took note of this, suspended his registration and launched legal action. The Bombay High Court has now instructed Keni to stop parapsychology but said he may continue practising allopathy.
A day after Keni resumed practice, people are waiting to see him at clinic no 21 in Bombay Hospital. Paintings of Ganesha and other deities (that Keni is said to have made) hang on the walls. Faint strains of music escape from his seemingly dark room as a patient emerges from inside. He wears his shoes and collects his phone from the assistant's desk, behind which there are some more paintings and a few figurines. Journalists can only get this far. The doctor has been strictly declining requests for interviews, his assistant says apologetically. Keni is upset with recent coverage of his work.
More From This Section
Years ago, when alternate therapies such as reiki and pranic healing had been in vogue, articles appeared on parapsychology complete with testimonials from Keni's top clients. He is said to count among his patients world names such as Shiv Kumar Sharma, Kishori Amonkar, Pandit Jasraj, and even the late writer Amrita Pritam. According to his book, Psychic Healing whose cover features a sketch of his face with ambiguous waves emanating from it, Marine Lines' Bombay Hospital was not his only outing at a major medical establishment. He supposedly snuck into Jaslok Hospital to treat Lok Nayak Jayprakash Narayan too. In fact, in this book, Keni also mentions having experienced and performed something called "absent" healing - a procedure that can be done from a distance of thousands of kilometres.
The 94-year-old claims to be a fellow of the International College of Angiology, New York, and of the American Geriatric Society. Sometime in 1971, he was introduced to spiritualism and psychic phenomena by an "elderly guide" who remains unnamed in his book. The book, in which he outlines his experiences, is circulated by a small Dadar-based publisher who sells a copy or two from time to time. It further reveals that although sceptical at first, Keni warmed up to the supernatural practice over time, becoming convinced of his ability to heal after a bunch of flowers he touched outlived another by six days. For this "test", he bought identical bouquets and kept them in two vases filled with water "from the same jug," he writes. One vase was labelled "healed flowers" and was placed on the same table as the other so that climactic conditions would be the same.
Keni was registered with Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) since 1966 before the recent suspension. "After the court decision, he presented himself to the council and gave an undertaking that he will not practice parapsychology. He also asked for leniency considering his age, so the matter has been closed," says MMC president Kishor Taori. Following last year's articles and owing to his health, Keni had not visited the Bombay Hospital clinic for some months.
Faith in supernatural cures is not entirely surprising in a country where mainstream cinema for decades pushed dialogues about seriously-ill patients needing "prayers, not pills". Keni's faithful patient hopes, admittedly for the sake of his own health, that the 94-year-old doctor lives long.