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Of healing and mythology
Reviewed by Jayanti Roy
Reason and Medicine: Art and
Science of Healing from Antiquity to Modern Times
by Daya Ram Varma
Three Essays Collective, New Delhi. Pages 354. Rs 500
 In
my limited interaction with physicians of all hues- allopath,
homeopath or ayurvedic practitioners, I have often wondered about the
narrow view they hold of their practice, reducing it only to
prescription of drugs. The holistic view of looking at medicine as a
science and art of healing is sadly lacking in most of them. This book
gives a wide view and encourages the concept of healing instead of
medicine. The author of this book Daya Ram Varma is Professor Emeritus
in Pharmacology and Therapeutics in McGill University, Montreal.
Despite being a busy professional he has been able to write such a
well documented albeit lucid and cogent book on a technical subject is
quite an appreciable fact. The book covers several lacunae in this
kind of literature. We seldom come across books on scientific topics
that can speak to lay persons. Even if there are books, the language
and style are too contrived to be comprehensible with the limited
vocabulary of interested people but no science background. The book
bridges this gap. Its highly professional presentation, richly
garnered notes and references make it an expert’s delight. The book
along with charting out the history of medicine answers several
queries (Why when there is no such thing as Chinese or Indian or
Islamic physics or chemistry, all these societies possess their own
medicine?) , dispels myths (More patients are saved in hospitals by
supportive therapy ie, maintaining respiration and blood pressure than
by spectacular drugs), presents fresh insights (our aboriginal
ancestors thought that disease was caused by evil spirits and the
treatment was to appease them. This approach is a scientific approach
even if its foundations are faulty) and raises thought provoking
questions (Why modern medicine is considered Hippocratic medicine and
not Egyptian or Charaka medicine? Is it because the dominance of the
West propels it to relate better to what is Western than to alien
civilisations like the Egyptian, Indian and Chinese?). The tone of the
book is conversational, as if the author is chatting with the reader
pulling out this fact or that reference to strengthen his arguments.
However, frequent punctuation with references, which though a
necessity, sometimes irritates. The author does not shy away to
irreverently bring up the mistakes of the modern physicians or
scientists or to comment in a humorous way on the hype about evidence
based medicine. There are 17 chapters in all, including chapters on
spiritual medicine, Egyptian, ayurvedic, Chinese, Greek and Islamic
medicine. There are discussions on unusual topics such as juridical
role of doctors, doctors as assassins etc. making each chapter a
special one. And yet the writings are not long winding but crisp and
short. The book is recommended for anyone interested in the theme of
healing and is a must read for all medical and public health students
to widen their horizon about their challenging profession.
A Very Indian Approach to Management Business Sutra
by Devdutt Pattanaik
Aleph Book Company. Pages 437. Rs695
 Indian
mythology is the latest fad. Writers are going back in hordes to the Vedas,
Puranas, Ramayana and Mahabharata re-interpreting
them in the light of feminism, globalisation, climate change,
post-modernism and what not. These ancient texts too are replete with
anecdotes, fables and tales which are subtle and prone to a hundred
interpretations. This book is another in a series of such writings
where management concepts are explained with the help of stories from
Indian mythology. We have seen earlier attempts with Bhagavadgita,
Manusmriti or Arthashastra. Introducing the book, the
author explains how belief is linked to business and how he has been
drawn into the domain of mythology and has discovered that while
modern belief is monolithic, traditional Indian approach allows for
greater diversity, different viewpoints and myriad perspectives. He
then moves on to decode Western, Chinese and Indian beliefs and
explains that while the West focuses on objective approach, China
emphasises on order and India believes in giving space to diversity.
The major body of the
book is divided into five subsections, Kama's Vision Statement,
Dristi, Divya-drishti, Darshan and Yama's balance sheet.
These are further categorised into concepts like decisions, violence,
seduction, churning etc. Each section begins with one Sutra,
followed by a mythological story, a brief explanation and a modern
management case study. There are 145 Sutras in all. After a
while it seems repetitive as the author tries to explain every dilemma
with the help of similar arguments. Also, the text demands a lot of
pre-knowledge of Hindu mythology or in some cases Greek stories.
Sample this: "An entrepreneur may believe he is making his way to
Elysium, when, in fact, he is one of the Olympian gods casting the
rest into monotony of Tartarus." The author has interpreted
Sanskrit terms such as Svaha, Tathastu, Yagna etc in business
context and the need to memorise them breaks the flow. The author has
taken care of all criticism and objections. For example he avers that
the reader will not find any references or evidence or bibliography in
the book because, "…the aim is not to derive knowledge from the
past..." This is all very well until we come across statements
like, 'Animals cannot exchange (though some trading and accounting
behaviours have been seen in a few species of bats)', then the reader
craves for some validation. The last page of the book lists 14 ways of
how to reject this book. (Cocking-a-snook at the critic?). The reasons
are varied and hilarious, however, one reason is not enlisted, that
the book tries too hard to spin the yarn, oops, the Sutras.
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