Mumbai/ Pune, Nov. 17 -- When he stepped into his old friend's apartment earlier this year, the stench hit him before the sight did. The floor was strewn with garbage and human waste, insects crawled around freely, and his college mate, once a first-class commerce graduate preparing for a chartered accountancy career, now looked gaunt, disoriented, and lost inside a world of delusion. He spoke fluently about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin visiting him soon but could not explain why his home was collapsing around him. For the friend, who had not seen him in decades, that moment changed everything. "He was speaking as if he was a different person," he recalled. "But there were also times when he remembered our college days clearly. That made it harder because somewhere, the person I knew still existed." What unfolded next was a year-long struggle through police stations, hospitals, relatives, and finally the Bombay high court, a successful fight waged by a man who had no legal right to intervene but could not bear to walk away. The two grew up in Thane and went to college together. Even as the friend became a CA and shifted to Pune, the patient, let's call him X, continued preparing for his CA exams. Around 1999, his behaviour changed: he became withdrawn and slipped into long spells of isolation. "None of us knew why. He just drifted away from everyone," the friend recalled. In late 2023, X started reconnecting sporadically with old acquaintances, who reported disturbing scenes. When the friend visited in January 2024, he found a household in total collapse: X's father had just died, his mother appeared senile and neglected and X had emptied his father's bank account. Neighbours said he screamed, wandered barefoot on the streets and mistreated his mother. "I realised something was very wrong," said the friend. Neighbours introduced the friend to X's extended family members, who recounted their own attempts over the years: hospitalising him, visiting psychiatrists, and trying to stabilise him after he ran away repeatedly. Pune's Nityanand Institute had already diagnosed him with schizophrenia . But after years of struggle, internal disputes and financial strain, the relatives were no longer willing to intervene. "They were exhausted," said the friend. Meanwhile, X's mother also passed away in June 2024, leaving him completely alone. As a non-relative, the friend had no legal authority to make decisions about medical care, finances or living arrangements. He could not access bank details, authorise treatment or take X to a hospital without consent. Attempts to seek help from the police and banks went nowhere; neither could legally intervene unless X posed an imminent threat. The friend visited Navpada police station but officers could only direct him to Thane Mental Hospital. Hospitals, however, cannot retain patients without consent beyond limited periods. He had no way to ensure that X continued with his medication or remained admitted. It was only after extensive reading that the friend discovered the legal pathways: the Mental Healthcare Act 2017, the National Trusts Act and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act. These laws create frameworks for emergency admission, rehabilitation, and guardianship, but require coordinated involvement from police, mental health professionals. In practice, the machinery rarely functions with the required speed. "I want to see an India where this help comes in one day," he said. "Not one year." With no relatives willing to be guardians, the friend began searching for a lawyer. Many were uninterested. Finally, another college friend joined him and after months of effort, they drafted a petition, with the help of Abhishek Mukherjee, a lawyer. In October 2024, the writ was filed in the Bombay high court, highlighting the gaps in guardianship provisions under the 2017 Act, the urgent need for long-term care, and the systemic inability to rescue mentally ill persons living alone. The initial hearings happened quickly, but progress soon slowed. Benches changed repeatedly. The court needed an evaluation from Thane Mental Hospital but the hospital insisted that X appear in person. "He was in no condition to go there. And I couldn't force him," the friend said. It took five months of requests, follow-ups, and court nudges before doctors finally agreed to visit X at home. When the medical team entered the flat, the seriousness was obvious. It recommended immediate admission. Its report moved the high court to act swiftly: the Thane Mental Hospital was directed to admit him, the district legal services authority to coordinate support and the collector's office to clean the house and secure his property. The friend's central anguish remains the fact that a person with severe mental illness had to wait a full year for basic protection. The delays, he believes, stem from a lack of awareness among the police and civic authorities, from hospitals insisting on rigid procedures despite psychosis, the absence of machinery mandated under the Mental Healthcare Act and the lack of monitoring systems for vulnerable, isolated individuals. "I understand this might not be high up in India's priority list," he said. "But no one should have to go through this ordeal." Behind the legal arguments, this is ultimately a story about a bond that endured across decades of silence. "When I saw him living like that, I knew I couldn't turn away," the friend said. In moments of clarity, X still recalls their college years, the laughter, the friends they once were. That sliver of memory, the friend says, was what kept him going. His hope now is that this case makes the authorities become more aware, hospitals more responsive and society more compassionate. "People need to understand the stigma, the suffering of mental health patients," he says. "If one person notices early enough, a life can change." For X, it took a determined friend, a year-long battle and a court order. For countless others, the friend fears, help may not come at all....