So goes the legend from the Indian sub-continent...
There was a massive war between kings. King Ram was embroiled in a battle, he must be a just king because he is Ram. His brother was morbidly injured. His army captured the enemy’s doctor and forced him to treat their wounded leader.
The good doctor asked his captors.
“How do you know that I would treat him to the best of my ability?”, he said. “For all you know I could not give him the best that is available.”
Ram, the righteous one, could do no wrong. Despite all the violence and destruction that were going on around him, like all the senseless killing and the uprooting of a whole mountain by the first superhero known to man, Hanuman, to retrieve a particular herbal remedy, Sanjeevani, he is still the good one.
In an authoritative voice, he verbalised, “It is your Dharma that you should be a healer. No matter who is injured, your job is to heal, irrespective of their political allegiance or social strata. I believe that you being a practitioner of the divine art of healing, would stay faithful to your calling and treat straight from the heart”.
That was then, aeons ago when the world was straight when a spade was a spade and white was white without shades of grey. Fast forward to the Kaliyuga era. Honest living with conducts holding dear to the call of the profession is now but only a script for display or a screenplay for the next blockbuster. In reality, the great healer has to guard his own rice bowl. Charity begins at home, he says. In the same breath, he laments, “self above service”. He recalls the time when the men in blue booked him for speeding even though he was risking his own life to attend to a grieving mother.
How about the hefty fine that he had to pay for the inefficiencies of his accountants? And the time, he was penalised for the incompetence of his subordinates. Even though they sing praises of teamwork, when trouble brews, they wash their hands, plead innocence and say, “ but you are the doctor! You should know.”
When you spend all your lifetime, caring and treating the sick, without heeding your own health, they say you are dedicated. But when you fall ill, they say you are stupid for not knowing to take a break for yourself.
They say you are the epitome of trust, but then, they also say that you are not trustworthy to keep private information and have to pay the government for you to retain patient information.
They say everybody needs a break from work to recharge and recuperate. But when doctors demand better living conditions, they say you are not dedicated. You give the profession a bad name. They would start their stories of “back in the day.....”
They squeeze money from you, but when you initiate your sob story of how difficult it is to make ends meet, they say you are money minded. They would quote the Hippocratic Oath.
And you are just a technician in the cogwheel of mankind who only has to do his job, that is all. The noble profession and care for humanity are merely catchphrases to lure the general public into another scheme of a business venture. Just do your work just like every job is extraordinary. Every one of us plays a role, directly or indirectly in the development of society. You are no different than the person beside you. If you slack on yours, we will use the long arm of the legal system and the media to shame to smack some sense to right the wrong and always make you on your toes!
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