Sunday, April 11, 2010

Job's comforters

We were told about a miracle doctor whose USP apparently was that he ate part of the medicines that he prepared for his patients to see what it does inside the body. (I am not making this up.) Jaya is usually not interested in meeting such guys but sometimes social pressures are such that she has to meet some of them. From the accounts that I heard, the trip was a complete waste of time.

As is usually the case, the clinic was located a safe distance away from civilization. The medicine-man told Jaya and company about his splendid cures which included treating a badly deformed guy who is now fit for undertaking long treks. He said that he had been a 'bad' man who had turned over a new leaf after reading some scriptures. He gave a candle and asked her to 'pray from the bottom of the heart'. He told her to keep my medical reports for prayer in a particular room in the clinic from where she was not supposed to remove them.

After some meditation he said that I had had the stroke because I had hurt God. He said that he could see a cross in his imagination which meant that I had hurt the gods very badly. Jaya happened to mention that I was fed through a tube in my stomach which probably gave him an idea and he claimed that he could see a lotus stem floating in my stomach that...(Jaya forgets what exactly he said. And yes, lest you have any doubts, this was an adult speaking.)

I thought he told something about a previous life but Jaya doesn't recall it now so it must have been someone else. That person said that I had killed a couple of people in a previous life which had peeved a few gods who decided to give me a brain stem stroke in this life. All you folks who had interacted with me in various places, did you ever suspect that you were fraternizing with a cold blooded killer?

If I tell you that these were only two of the whacky ideas that we got, you can guess how much imagination many people have. And if these guys are thriving, you know what a receptive audience they have. P.T.Barnum made an underestimate when he said that there is a sucker born every minute. You can say that this was my stroke of insight during the past decade.

2 comments:

  1. Kesu, I have no problem with your exposing all the charlatans and fakes you came across, but I think you run the risk of clubbing all "alternative" cures into one unacceptable group. Remember, an "alternative" cure is considered an alternative only because English medicine is considered acceptable than other approaches. Alternative need not mean fake.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Suresh,
    have seen my mom going through all such nonsensical treatment and never questioned the advice of the so-called 'grown-ups' of the family at that time....But i have seen my mom venting out her anger at such treatment..
    I wish medicine became more holistic so that one can be assured of tested and accepted treatment(reference to bklash's comment)But medicine is becoming more of a business with all the cut-throatism of the corporate world.So as long as this situation continues,we will have such quacks and fakes doing the rounds!!!

    ReplyDelete