Karma Hotel: Poetic Stops In My Universe

Karma Hotel is in one reality, the Mood Disorders Unit (MDU) of the infamous Institute of Mental Health (IMH) formerly known as Woodbridge Hospital in Singapore. What goes on behind the locked doors of the hospital, especially inside the patients’ minds is a mystery to even the best psychiatrists and psychologists. In Yohanna Abdullah’s creative mind, MDU is a NASA space station on Mars. This is a peek into the mental universe of one writer diagnosed with bipolar disorder (Type 1) in 1998.

Karma Hotel is Yohanna’s cryptic code name for the basement ward where up to 40 patients are treated for various mood disorders. While admitted there for three manic episodes within a year in 2022 and 2023, she wrote about 60 poems. The book also features some of her raw illustrations of the space and people at the karmic staycation. Enjoy the poetic stops in Karma Hotel which takes you to the author’s universe, from Mars to Uranus, to Earth and even to the Andromeda Galaxy.