Rationalism and Life’s Lessons

I felt a tinge of pride on learning that the recently murdered rationalist in Pune, Narendra Badholkar, was a medical man. This 67 year old doctor held a medical degree, and had practiced medicine till 16 years ago before turning a full-time activist of Indian Rationalist movement to fight superstition, black magic and faith healing.

A doctor indeed finds himself so closely nestled between the overlapping spheres of the body, mind, emotions and faith that he comes face to face with irrational practices and social issues almost every day.

Progress in science has been the single strongest factor to dispel in a step-wise manner what we have held as “supernatural”. As a child, I remember hearing stories of how a “possessed” woman could walk in sleep or go through phases of abnormal behaviour. These conditions are probably still treated in villages by witch-doctors through black-magic, animal sacrifices and wearing of stones. As a medical student, I realized that sleep-walking or somnambulism is a common disorder that can be set right by restoring the balance between REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM sleep, while phases of hallucinatory abnormal behaviour was a manifestation of parietal lobe epilepsy that can be very effectively treated by simple anti-epilepsy tablets!

Most illnesses and remedies do follow scientific principles. Anti-malarial therapy for instance, is far more effective in killing the Plasmodium parasite and curing malaria than prayers, surgical removal of a brain tumour in relieving headaches than wearing precious stones, and endoscopic removal of polyps from the colon that cause intestinal bleeding than sacrificial killing of animals!

Life’s lessons sometimes however have the nasty trait of bringing even the most rational people to their knees. Mr Bhargava’s (name changed) was one such happy family of an elderly couple of high financial and political standing, their 4 children all successful businessmen in their 20s to 40s, and their 6 pretty grandchildren. Their lives had been smooth and rich and not required the attention or intervention of gods, god-men, stars and fate.

When the 3rd son Punit, 27 then, developed myeloid leukaemia, (blood cancer) 5 years ago, they rallied together, got him the best treatment possible including a bone-marrow transplantation at a premiere centre in USA, and emerged victorious. Three years later, when he strangely developed anew cancer of the tongue, they were baffled. His tongue had to be removed by a specialist surgeon, leaving him voice-less. Six months ago, when he developed yet another problem – a cancer of the lung this time, the mother started wondering if the family needed to seek answers beyond the boundaries of science.

Although science and medicine has made considerable progress and provided many answers to a multitude of questions, large empty spaces still exist in our understanding of why things sometimes defy expectations and happen the way they do. It is this void that makes us vulnerable to superstition and blind faith, when life begins to beat down on us or our loved ones.

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 1 September, 2013.