Not long ago, a visionary – books claim him to be one - envisaged a Hospital for PATIENTS who have physical disabilities pertaining to walking. He devised something called as CRUTCHES with a very well-defined purpose. A PATIENT shall use CRUTCHES only as long as he/she, WITH THE HELP OF PROPER AND RIGOROUS EXERCISES, becomes able to walk on his/her own. The Hospital did wonders for a lot of PATIENTS and seemed to work fine when it began its operations.
Later on, the Hospital recruited DOCTORS who were not exactly altruists. For their personal gains - let us say, filling their ever-growing pockets - they tried to become heroes in the minds of PATIENTS! How ? By letting them have improved and even more capable CRUTCHES, so that they stayed in the Hospital for a longer period and believed that it was their home, thus forgetting and undermining the basic purpose of the CRUTCHES and the hospital in general.
The following things happened -
1. The DOCTORS succeeded to an extent in making many not so sensible PATIENTS (the LAYMEN PATIENTS) believe that THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO and therefore MUST have CRUTCHES forever;
2. The DOCTORS succeeded to an extent in making the LAYMEN PATIENTS believe that -
a. They were inherently less capable than those in the outside world (lets call an outsider an ABEL).
b. Getting CRUTCHES is their RIGHTEOUS WAY to attain the same platform as the outside world.
3. The LAYMEN PATIENTS, falling prey to one of the most fundamental human tendencies, became less and less willing to DO THE NEEDFUL EXERCISES to get well soon and depended more on the CRUTCHES.
4. An ABEL who ran the race of life alongside a MAJORITY of other ABEL's and a MINORITY of ALL PATIENTS (SENSIBLE as well as LAYMEN), felt the sting of the hardships of running the race more intensely ON SEEING THE CRUTCHES of the PATIENTS.
a. Some SENSIBLE ABELs (VERY FEW) understood that the real culprits were the WICKED DOCTORS who created such a situation in the first place;
b. The other LAYMEN ABELs (RELATIVELY A LARGER COMMUNITY) cursed the person on the CRUTCHES who beat him in the race on grounds of using "undue advantage".
This led LAYMEN ABELs to develop a general feeling of HATRED and DISRESPECT for ALL PATIENTS in general (including the SENSIBLE PATIENTS); Clashes ensued which in turn led the LAYMEN PATIENTS to believe that the ABEL's in general are unjust and WHATEVER THEY ASK FOR (including the SENSIBLE ABEL's) is UNFAIR.
5. The DOCTORS exploited this growing feeling of hatred to endear the PATIENTS all the more to the CRUTCHES, telling them that they DESERVE the provision of CRUTCHES and that they should ask for them as their BIRTH-RIGHT.
Well, the cure seems NOWHERE in the minds of many DOCTORS at present... Coz they are concerned more about - rather ONLY about - their pockets growing forever in size.... Not all DOCTORS are wicked. But the better ones almost always are subdued by the 'System' of Administration in the Hospital. Some try to protest and eventually, face suspension from the Hospital.
The Hospital needs to recruit new DOCTORS - GOOD DOCTORS.
-- Deepak Gupta.
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ReplyDeleteIs 'doctors' used as a metaphor for 'politicians' and 'crutches' as a metaphor for reservations and other appeasement policies followed by the politicians for securing their votebanks ?
ReplyDeleteYes Saurabh you are right.
ReplyDeleteWell written Deepak. You have a clear understanding of the problem. Now let us think of the solution.
The solution is to make both doctor and patients to realize what is wrong and what is right to them.
Though it is very difficult (...impossible) for a person to work hard for something which he/she can easily get.
At the same time other people should make it clear they are not allowing others to misuse their rights.