of medicine men

sadhuji

When one falls sick, one takes medicines. If the disease is not a very serious one, he prescribes for himself standard medicines that are readily available in the market and advertised regularly in all the media – example indigestion, headache etcetera. If the disease is more difficult to diagnose, he visits his doctor who looks him over, suggests as few clinical tests and jots down his findings and remedies on a piece of paper called the prescription – the writing is something only the expert shopkeepers can decipher. The best part is – he will charge astronomical fees. On this, I am reminded of a joke – a car got stranded on the highway. The driver, not conversant with automobile mechanisms, hitchhiked to the nearest locality and returned with a mechanic. The mechanic conducted his investigations and suddenly kicked the car. It started. Then he pocketed his fees of a hundred rupees. The owner was aghast. ‘This is daylight robbery - one hundred rupees for only a kick? The mechanic smiled. ‘Sir,’ he said, ‘you need to know where to kick. My fees are for my expert knowledge!’

Yes, the medical profession is all about acquiring and retaining knowledge. He who practices medicine has to be abreast with the latest in the market, he must at all times, have latest updated knowledge. Like the computer professionals – with obsolescence ruling the day, unless you are equipped with the latest developments, you can never expect to leave your mark on the patients.

In the olden days there used to be the medicine men, they exist even today in the jungles of Africa. They dispense indigenous medicines prepared in their own laboratories by using local herbs and other exotic ingredients that could include anything from snake skins to tadpole nails. These medicine men never trusted anyone hence, the formula of the wonder medicines remained secrets. They are similar to be our very own Ayurveda doctors – they identified leaves of certain plants, extracts of flowers, roots and barks of trees that have medicinal values. These knowledge were passed on from generation to generation and continue to be their prized possessions even today.

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mooning over a moon journey

PeakXV

Fascinating people those medicine men and I've seen those Himalayan Shaman in action too - don't even think of staying sick because they'll scare the life right back into you!

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We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

jivan

Good one both of u

Nick-H

I love the car story . I should be very surprised if it hasn't actually happened --- many times!

One particular piece of expert knowledge from my proffesion: the computer user rings up and describes symptoms indicating a stuck key on the keyboard. I got lazy about walking over there: "pick up you keboard, lift it one inch above the desk and drop it....". Amazing how often people wouldn't do it, and I had to walk over there anyway. Amazing how much I used to get payed for knowing things like that

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team