Viruses have probably played a very important role in understanding the process of education in the field of “Entire Basic Science” in this country for me.
If there was a deity which would symbolise the viruses I must be doubly thankful for that particular virus, now that I am alive today and also have the audacity to understand this aspect of our lives, especially in this country.
I intended to mean that due to many obvious reasons, the virus or its allies amongst us humans have not managed to kill me off as of now, and hence this article.
In the previous articles, it was clearly exposed that the scientific process is usually subverted to some other unscientific requirements at various levels of governance in this country, in particular reference to the virus which caused the pandemic. (that’s why the title “viruses expose”)
What interests one in this scenario is the point of education in the field of basic sciences.
The trend of the taste for education in “Entire Science” starts at the top level, probably at the level of the PMO (without the intent of insult to any particular person or his office) and percolates down to the level of “Entire Embryology” in corporate entities like Indira IVF.
People may soon call themselves an “entire country of sitting ducks” as honestly put as possible so as to escape grievous injuries due to ill health (as near and far away from international borders as possible) because the only other alternative consequence seems slow malnutrition induced death due to the patriotic inertia of remaining in the villages.
It must be very evident when we see the education details of those in power both political and crony corporate to find that somehow the system is managing to give us a notion that education doesn’t matter and what matters is “Contacts”.
But learning to trace contacts during a pandemic is worthless if one can’t trace the political and crony capitalist contacts in this country.
One such contact I came across was Nitiz Murdia, the son of Ajay Murdia who is now a member of the national board of Assisted Reproductive Technology regulatory authority and claims himself to be an Embryologist, his father Ajay once discovered a great scientific fact of life that if one manages to publish a study about antibiotics and male infertility in the same volume of a journal as the one which published the success of first IVF cycle, one automatically can claim the discovery of IVF itself and also become the owner of the largest chain of IVF clinics in the country and may be also the largest in the world one fine day.
Even if one Father had the degree of “Entire human pathology” One would be sceptical of his practice of infertility-related services especially when he would compare the existence of two eyes to two testicles in humans so that poor gullible people in Royal families in Rajasthan would flock to him for treatment of childlessness, just like the snake bite victims would go to a Kalbelia tribal because they are snake charmers. But Nitiz Murdia amazingly doesn’t question this anomaly in his father’s history and very obediently goes on to become an embryologist even though his entire basic science education was engineering and not biological.
But still, at this time in history, many survivors of snake bite, rape, road traffic accidents and also the COVID-19 pandemic attributed their life at least rather to the Gods or maybe engineers who released gases, and the least to doctors, but because it’s not our culture to say anything against godmen or our elderly, we shouldn’t question also the credibility of the Ayurvedic drugs for Covid or the brand owner Ajay Murdia of Indira IVF but we must actually be happy that the honourable health minister has selected Nitiz Murdia as member of ART national board(as described by Nitiz Murdia on FB post).
But if one were a graduate in engineering and then as a part of the royal family tradition of Rajasthan continues the family profession of treating infertile patients because One has both eyes and other organs intact, it is no fault in this country, and it would be apt to call yourself a post-graduate in “Entire human embryology” because even the world’s first human embryologist who got Nobel prize for discovering IVF was after all a world war 2 veterans who continued his family profession of fighting, (but that was for science against religion), notwithstanding the fact that he would have been utterly disappointed about the way the science of embryology is used in this country and in particular the field of entire crony corporate embryology of Indira IVF.
As an unscientific nation who get up every morning and watch the most unscientific things on TV every day and face our economic and pandemic problems with amulets, aphorisms and offerings to religious places and other blind beliefs, we the sitting ducks shouldn’t complain when our voiceless embryos, and patients are being handled by the entire team of call centre managers, engineers and other non-medical people.
But one may say this is just an instance of following the footsteps of the three idiots (movie) in which one can do a vacuum delivery in obstructed childbirth by a vacuum cleaner and would be commended by all, but again why not in this great country and for it’s great people, after all, Bollywood is a religion, why on earth shouldn’t the three idiots join again and become a team of an embryologist and a gynaecologist and the third a baba who can make medicines(powders) to be used in Indira IVF profitably? and also pass a law in the parliament preventing the same to be copied so that others don’t patent the brilliant idea?
Well, even before one is surprised about such things is it not fair for a country which was a penal colony for two centuries to take some time after independence to wake up?
But just when all the sitting ducks are ready to offer their heartfelt thanks to the entire team of scientists from the PMO to the health minister to the floor cleanup manager in the Indira IVF clinic, the sitting ducks realise they are easy targets indeed (not only near the borders). (someone whispered in my ears – look in their proud glorious past they were slaves for 200 years and democracy is alien to them!) (Someone else whispered- as alien as the entire stream of science to the chief of a caste or a lower-middle-class family in this country)
They will never realise that the global economy is shrinking, demand for raw materials agricultural products, and other products produced here is reducing all over the world, but the demand for petroleum products and other imported goods is not reducing and the rupee also is becoming depreciating and overall there may be a situation as happening in an island nearby, the island in which the contract for power generation was allegedly forced by the entire political scientist for the benefit of an entire crony capitalist culture (new ADDA- Adanew) of this country.
If not anything the neighbouring country who sold the mobile phones to the sitting ducks, now knows exactly where the duck is sitting and can squeeze the eggs, embryos and children anytime out into the harsh changing global climate upon which the only unsurprising thing the ducks are destined to do as a revolutionary change is switch to a new god and a new colonial master a new enslaved future for a new beginning of the same old cycle.
This is what seems to be the possible conclusion after education in the entire basic science in this country. People in science have a serious option now for leaving the country and settling elsewhere and few like me might be slow because of the patriotic inertia and poverty shared with other fellow villagers.
Dr (Maj) Haricharan Tk is a gynaecologist based in Bangalore. He can be reached at: [email protected]