Of Legacies and a Beheading

Ever had that feeling that you’ve waited years for something to happen and then, it happens all at once? And it is bigger and wilder than anything you imagined?

Well, that’s exactly what transpired in the first two weeks of October 2025 when the various facets of my life converged to create memories that will last a lifetime.

Let’s start with the night of 3 October. I was at a cocktail reception for the participants of the Asian Literary Festival in Brussels. While sharing edited versions of our history, I told fellow writers about the day trip I took that morning.

“Where?” A long-time resident of the city frowned and cocked her head to one side.

“Geel.” 

The unspoken question in her eyes was the following: Why on earth would you go there? I’d seen this look before, in the eyes of the lady who helped me buy the ticket to Geel at Brussels’ Grand Central Station. Only, the ticketing officer had added, “Are you okay? You look stressed.”

“I’m always stressed,” I said, partly for something to say.

“Stress is bad.”

Ouch!

Nonetheless, ‘stress’ was the perfect segue to answering yet another question posed by my fellow writer at the festival: “Why did you go to Geel?” Meaning, why did I avoid tourist attractions like trips to Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent? The answer lies in a book I wrote early in my career as a writer – a biography of Dato’ Seri Dr. M. Mahadevan, or as I know him, Uncle Tuan.

Side note: Since the publication of that biography, many have asked how I succeeded in working with so cantankerous a man. True. Where other interviewees told their stories in chronological order and in one language, Uncle Tuan mixed timelines, characters, places and, in some cases, languages / scripts. The trick was to listen so completely, without distraction of any sort, and the stories which emerged were easy to write. One such story was that of St. Dymphna of Geel.

Legend has it that Dymphna was the beautiful and devoted daughter of an Irish chieftain, Damon. Both father and daughter were grief stricken when Dymphna’s mother passed away. Looking for a new wife, Damon realised that no one would be as good as his daughter. Alas, no such woman existed save for Dymphna. Horrified by her father’s proposal of marriage, Dymphna fled to Continental Europe with the help of her confessor Gerebran. Damon pursued them and demanded Dymphna surrender to him. She refused and said that she would rather die than commit incest. In a fit of anger, Damon beheaded both Gerebran and Dymphna. Following this violent act, he experienced an immediate recovery and sought redemption. The spot where Dymphna and Gerebran were killed became a shrine and according to Google/AI, ‘St. Dymphna's legacy is the development of a unique, compassionate, and community-based approach to mental healthcare … which continues today.’

Uncle Tuan did tell me that this community-based approach to mental healthcare was what underscored his work. Meaning, all who know Uncle Tuan will know of ‘Uncle’ who became his butler-cum-valet-cum-secretary. Also, with the creation of his stud farm (Madhuban) in Perak, Uncle Tuan combined both his loves – psychiatry and horse-riding – thereby providing refuge and compassion for those troubled souls who live in and around the area. Having met some of these people in Uncle Tuan’s life, I could see that the common thread among them all was what he’d instilled in them – a knowledge that they mattered.

When this opportunity to visit Belgium came along, I couldn’t think of a better adventure than to make this ‘pilgrimage’ to Geel. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t enter the church since it was closed for the winter because what I came to see was on the outside – the bas-relief depicting the beheading of Dymphna. Wouldn’t it have been more apt if Damon was holding the chopped-off head of Dymphna? Just saying…

Another side note: When I was a child, I liked it when Uncle Tuan came to Alor Setar because that often meant a visit to the Royal Kedah Club for the races. When gambling was forbidden, the race track was converted to the golf course. The significance of this Royal Kedah Club will become apparent soon. Bear with me, please.

Back to my story. For the last ten years or so, the memory of what had happened to my grandparents’ house in Sungai Petani had been weighing on my mind. Initially a wooden hut which Grandpa acquired sometime in mid-20th century, it grew and grew after the War. By the time Grandpa died in 1972, the house had become like a one-stop medical centre with recovery rooms, a surgical unit, X-ray machine, pathology lab, ophthalmology kit and even dental tools. Grandpa wanted to create a space for patients to heal from all manner of ailments. For all the years my grandmother was a widow, however, the doors to Gandpa’s clinic and dispensary were shut. The only time the house came alive was when my cousins made their annual visit from India for one month. My grandmother certainly lived a good life, but the Sungai Petani house gradually crumbled around her. In Alor Setar, I'd seen way too many houses sold to developers because the children no longer cared to come to Alor Setar. Those houses were 'chopped up' into several businesses or razed to the ground to create yet another mini market; most heartbreaking of all was the one that became a carpark. I told my mother that I feared that, one day, I’d be another old woman rattling around in our crumbling house. I shared my plans for the future of our house and she both approved of them and gave me her blessing.

In January this year, after Mummy’s death, I contacted Dato’ Dr. Andrew Mohanraj (Andrew), President of the Malaysian Mental Health Association with an idea: Why not use our house to set up the Kedah Chapter of the Malaysian Mental Health Association? Why this particular man, and why this particular association? Well, I’ve waxed lyrical about Andrew’s work and will direct you to read an earlier published interview with him. Besides, Uncle Tuan regards him as his protégé and that’s as good enough a reason as any, no? This was also my chance to make my support for the cause of mental health in Malaysia something more than mere lip service.

With that first email to Andrew, the wheels were set in motion. In the coming months, bit by bit, person by person, group by group, people started to show their interest in, commitment towards and support for MMHA (Kedah). I was touched by how enthusiastic so many of them were (still are) and how willing they were to give of themselves, their resources and time. By mid-August, a team was in place and a launch was scheduled to coincide with the celebrations for World Mental Health Day (10 October).

Remember how I said everything became bigger and wilder than I imagined? Well, when Andrew came to meet the team in person, he brought along news that HRH Che Puan Muda Zaheeda Mohamad Ariff, the Raja Puan Muda of Kedah, had consented to being appointed the Royal Patron of MMHA and would grace the event we had yet to properly plan. I didn’t have fingernails left to bite from the sheer excitement, nervousness and stress such news created. Honestly! What manner of magic was this, I thought. Still, from that moment, all plans for this launch went into high gear.

The Royal Kedah Club was chosen as the venue for the event where three things were to happen – HRH’s appointment as the Royal Patron of MMHA, the launch of MMHA (Kedah), and the launch of Andrew’s book, ‘A Journey through Mental Health and Society’ (‘our launch’). The irony of it all, I tell you…

Looking back, the most amusing part of this planning process was the flurry of messages sent to the group which woke me up one very early, dreary morning in Brussels. The distress wasn’t about travel arrangements, food restrictions, non-compliance with rules or breach of protocol. It was about what to wear. Oh my! How they discussed the sports jackets, lounge suits, ties, a bow-tie, songkok, and there was even the odd mention of James Bond. As you may have guessed, all this was among the boys. The girls? Not a word! We did what comes naturally – in a state of sheer panic the day before the event, we went shopping.

And so it was that on 13 October, our launch went off without a hitch. Throughout, I prayed that I wouldn’t burst into tears for uppermost in my mind was my hope that Mummy would be proud of what was taking place.

Yet another side note: 13 October 2025 was also the first anniversary of the launch of my collection of short stories Tapestry of the Mind and Other Stories (Penguin Random House SEA, June 2024). All the stories have a mental health slant to them and each one is prefaced by a quote from Andrew’s monthly columns in The Star. I was asked, during one of the panels at the Asian Literary Festival, which story was my favourite. Without doubt, it would be Say Hello to Yama about the goings-on in the village of Kampung Sungai Tua before, during and in the aftermath of a landslide. Seemed apt considering the theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day is ‘Access to Services – Mental Health in Catastrophe and Emergencies’.

In his speech during the launch, Andrew mentioned that my contribution of our house to be used as MMHA (Kedah) will become a worthy legacy, thereby implying that this is a starting point. I would prefer to think of it more as that of continuing / extending the legacy of two people who came before me whose work / martyrdom ended up creating spaces where afflicted souls could seek refuge without the stain of stigma. Or, as I said to my mother when we discussed this matter, "Let our house live once again."

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• Asian Literary Festival in Brussels: https://brussels.theasianliteraryfestival.com • In The Shade of A Mango Tree - Interview with Dato’ Dr. Andrew Mohanraj : 15 January 2019): https://howtotellagreatstory.com/the-written-word/blow-your-own-trumpet/in-the-shade-of-a-mango-tree-interview-with-dato-dr-andrew-mohanraj-15-january-2019

• Evolution of the Malaysian Mental Health Association : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw0WJAwmPMI

• Launch Malaysian Mental Health Association (Kedah) and ‘A Journey through Mental Health and Society’ : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1FRyg3vmhw

• Tapestry of the Mind and Other Stories by Aneeta Sundararaj (Penguin Random House SEA, June 2024): https://www.penguin.sg/book/tapestry-of-the-mind-and-other-stories/

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Aneeta Sundararaj is an award-winning short story writer. To know more about her work, visit http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com and http://aneetasundararaj.com