FEATURE

GOD THAT FAILED

Deccan Herald of Nov. 30th carried this story “Gambhir bats for Tendulkar” “Tendulkar deserves to be left alone”, was another take from the humility personified Anil Kumble, also appearing alongside. This sudden response from the above cricketers was because an Australian, former cricket captain, Ricky Ponting, called it quits from first class cricket. However, a Mumbai based English daily had this head line in the front page “Ponting quits as Sachin twiddles his Thumb.” The decision to quit cricket was purely based on his declining performances and he has just completed his 38. But Sachin who is pushing 40, is still undecided despite being in poor form, for far longer than Ponting, for almost two years.  

“The deathly hush signified Indian’s cricket at the Eden Gardens. The master was out, the test almost lost. It was a situation that fans of Indian cricket have come to accept as something routine. The crowd sat stunned as Sachin Tendulkar flopped and dragged himself away from the crease. His cricket in ruins on a day when he ought to have stood firm. Tendulkar presented a disturbing sight of a beaten warrior” was the take, in The Hindu, on 9th Dec., when the 3rd Test at Kolkatta was almost written-off which was indeed over the next day, in few hours, with England already ahead by 2-1 lead over India.

The next day, it was the turn of Saurav Ganguli, a former Indian Captain to heap another ‘encomium’ on the ‘Master Blaster’. “I would have retired if I were in Sachin’s shoes” Deccan Herald of 10th Dec, carried this title of the interview with the Dada of Eden Gardens. 

‘Misery continues’ was the latest headline on 15th Dec. coming from Nagpur after the legends fall at just 2. The sight of flying bails and the 45% bent middle stump must have been a ghastly sight to Sachin as well as his diehard fans, including Rajiv Shukla. Yes, there is indeed a problem of ‘Herculean’ dimensions for both selectors and the maestro. The indecision is killing both, so also Indian cricket. Before BCCI will be forced to take a stand he has to perforce take the call, especially the affection that country has so generously given him, for all of 23 years, and the love affair turns sour. It will still be a dignified exit. The description in the print media was telling, “The day’s play included now familiar sight of a despondent audience witnessing a Tendulkar failure, his decline so rapid, so defining, everything else paling into insignificance.   

Since quite some time Sachin Tendulkar, the demi god, the most celebrated and coronated Indian cricketer is in the news for all the negative reasons, for far too long. For 20 plus years, he has been ruling the roost on the sports page as an uncrowned king of the Englishman’s game. Indeed he had no equals in the entire common-wealth of nations belonging to the England’s colonial past. Sharpest nail was to come from his senior in Mumbai Cricket, Sunil Gavaskar, who has stated sometime ago that “It is time he calls it quits”. That was the unkindest cut of all.

There have been many past senior players, both Indian and foreign, who echoed similar sentiments about the poor form of the batting legend, that age is catching up. We all recognise that there is no substitute to the growing years. It is an inevitable process and it is indeed tragic that in his desire to be in the limelight for ‘as-long-as-he-can’ he does not seem to recognise his failings. Unfortunately none in his family or his close friends seem to have succeeded in convincing him that he is ‘not on top’ anymore.

Under the headline “Sachin, take no notice of advices”, Ted Corbett, the former England cricketer writes an open letter to Tendulkar. While praising Sachin for his batting prowess, he quietly adds to the ongoing debate “Now is the time to decide just how much longer you can go on. Please don’t just hang around for the sake of another couple of tests or another hundred runs or one more distinction. Only lesser players can go for records for their own sake”. It is a good advice, if Sachin wants to listen. 

After scoring his 100th century against Bangladesh, which came after a long elusive gap, he had combatively declared “I will decide when I need to retire”, responding to his many critics who had said that he should retire in the wake of England and Australia white wash. His argument was ‘when you are at the top, you should keep serving the country instead of retiring”. In this argument there are two aspects, which sound very hollow, his claim of being at ‘the top’ and other that of his insistence of “serving the country”.

Both the above statements are only self serving and just self glorification. ‘Who ever stated that Tendulkar is at the top when he scored this 100th hundred’? Nobody except himself. After his 99th century Tendulkar struggled more than one year to get to that elusive 100. He could not get this 100th century against England, Australia or any other major cricketing powers, but managed against minnows Bangladesh. So his claim of being at the top is ludicrous. Then comes his barb of serving the country. This claim of Tendulkar serving the country is plain and simple hog wash. 

That he is not on top has proved beyond any shadow of doubt when he got out very cheaply, either vide Leg Before Wicket or bowled, innings after innings. The two Tests in Ahmedabad and Mumbai against England proved it overwhelmingly. He had scored 19,17 and 27 against New Zealand in India and 18, 8 and 8 against England in Ahmadabad and Mumbai. The latest being at Nagpur where he got bowled for only 2.

‘Sachin, despite your known humane qualities, you are like those politicians, who having become an MLA, MLC or MP, never want to give up, term after term. Probably this selfish and self aggrandising streak is an Indian psyche. Unfortunately in spite of being a celebrated sportsman, you proved yourself very unsporting just like these politicians and denying the legitimate claims of youngsters waiting in the queue interminably. Isn’t it sad?’

Of course there are the likes of Rajeev Shukla, a little known cricket administrator, who is also a politician, who would want Sachin Tendulkar to continue, to be given long rope. But then, he too is in the same boat, like Oliver Twist, wanting more and more! Then there are likes of Siddhu, who also insist that he should be allowed to be in the team since VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid and Ganguli are not there with their experience. It is a strange logic, when will our talented youth get their place in the Test team? Suresh Raina, a proved batsman is still languishing in the wings. There are many others like Ajinkya Rahane, who is still the 12th man in the team after proving again and again.

Here the most important question, which nobody raises and therefore does not answer, is ‘Why are the sports there, in the national development agenda? to give the country a big name and fame or for the development of human potential? Development of any country - political, economic and social - should be based on the paradigm of empowerment, of its people, not just getting some brownie points to the country. Hope somebody; somewhere; understand this logic that sports policies like economic development should be empowerment centric.

Or as some speculate in the media, is Tendulkar waiting to complete the 200th test, now that he has completed 192 tests, which is the highest for any cricketer. Again this too, in service of the country?! God save the country from such patriots.

J.Shriy

 Psychiatry-What is it?

Prof. B. M. Hegde,

hegdebm@gmail.com

“No further evidence is needed to show that 'mental illness' is not the name of a biological condition whose nature awaits to be elucidated, but is the name of a concept whose purpose is to obscure the obvious.”

Thomas S. Szasz.

What is the mind, anyway? Psychiatrists are supposed to deal with the mind! Quantum physics now shows that the mind is the body and the body is the mind-all are but simple energy vibrations which appear to be solid! If that were the reality then psychiatrists and physicians become one and the same. The caste system automatically disappears. What does this mean to patients? A lot, indeed! If every physician becomes adept at understanding the human mind without having to scan that through a scope, except the mind scope, like a stethoscope, which every doctor should possess, the myriad physical problems could be solved without much physical intervention. The divine interventionalists, of course, will be the losers. They would fight this concept tooth and nail. The medical establishment has become a commercial venture with the US spending more than 1.72 trillion dollars last year for the so called “health care” which in effect, was nothing but sickness care. The latter, most of the time, are man made- iatrogenic. I call those diseases as doctor-thinks-you-have-a-disease syndrome.

Where  the mind?

Bruce Lipton, a cell biologist professor at Wisconsin School of Medicine and also at St. George’s University School of Medicine is a noted developmental biologist, who discovered that each and every cell in the human body, of which there are between 50-100 trillion in all, has its own brain, which he calls as memBrain with antennae to receive the signals from the universal consciousness.

In short, new biology now thinks that the human mind is in every cell and not just restricted to the brain as was the conventional thinking, originally based on the Canadian surgeon Penfield’s crude experiments on his patients in the operating room. The new concept matches the “times out of mind” view in Indian Ayurveda and also in the Vedic wisdom of two minds-the universal mind and the individual mind.

Ayurveda also explains how the mind can be made to evolve through several stages to the ultimate level of equanimity (stithaprajna), in the bargain going through several stages viz: manas, budhi, chitta, purusha and Ishwara. A good psychiatrist would be able guide a misguided mind to attain that equanimity as per the Indian scriptures.

The seed for this line of thinking in the west recently was sown by Candace Pert, a young post doc at the NIH with the “great” Sol Snyder, who, for the first time, found out opiate receptors outwith the brain in every cell. She deserved the Nobel but her boss wanted his name to be the first on the paper! She fought that idea with all her might and, in the bargain, lost both her job and the Nobel. Snyder managed to get the Laskar award, the steeping stone to the Nobel but, Candace managed to send her laboratory logs to the Swedish Academy to prove to them that the work for which Snyder got the Laskar was her own. Snyder did not get his Nobel! Her book Molecules of Emotion, a classic, was an encouragement to Bruce Lipton. His book Biology of Belief is another all time classic.

Consciousness:

Professor JC Bose was the man credited to have initiated scientific studies of consciousness and had shown the presence of consciousness even in inert metals and, of course, in plants. The conventional “scientific” world mostly ignored his findings in the beginning up until Cambridge University picked him up for his, at that time, outstanding research. He quickly became a Fellow of the Royal Society, at one time thought to be better than the Nobel what with all the latter’s lobbying.  Nobel committee refused to award the prize to him despite being repeatedly nominated! Animals do have consciousness even according Indian scriptures. Human consciousness is supposed to be the one evolved to the highest level. A simple example will be your dog in the house. When you go home the dog feels a lot better but will be sad when you leave. It has the consciousness that you will be out for some time. But if you told the dog that you are going for a lecture at the psychiatrists’ meet, it makes no sense to the dog. Man has the most evolved consciousness according to Indian wisdom. The graphic descriptions in the Sankya School of philosophy are peerless.

Western psychiatric management:

From the time of locking up severe psychotics for decades at the Karolinska institutet in Sweden to the present day chemical antipsychotics nothing much has changed for those hapless patients. Freudian psychoanalysis, based largely on the Oedipus complex with a strong sexual bias, has not been of much benefit as per some of the independent audits. Anti-psychotics, starting with the first chlorpromazine to the latest SSRIs have had their own inherent adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The latter are the leading cause of iatrogenic deaths in the world. We need to rethink in this area for the good of our patients who can not be partners in their treatment unlike in other areas of medicine. Paternalism alone works in psychiatry where the moral responsibility of the treating doctor becomes paramount. 

An epoch making study by a leading American geneticist, Douglas C Wallace, (Genetic 2008; 179: 727) did show that ALL reductionist chemical drugs have the power to destroy human cells but eastern herbal drugs are accepted by the body as food and do not damage the system. One other reason is that all reductionist chemicals are dextrorotatory but body molecules are laevorotatory-a square plug in a round hole! For all these reasons and more we need to urgently look for holistic pharmacotherapy using herbal drugs, properly scientifically authenticated. The burden is on India psychiatrists to give the world the leadership.

Psychotherapy:

I am a strong proponent of psychotherapy as the be all and end all of psychiatric management and NOT drugs. I am aware that the conventional psychiatrists will laugh at me. Be that as it may, the advantages of psychotherapy far outweigh the drug therapy. Again, it boils down to the man/woman doing that job, a thankless job at that. It is not economically viable either in the present corporate philosophy which has percolated into the medical world. The powers that be also are disinclined since drug lobby runs the medical world today. People on the top of the Forbes list are in charge of these formulations in the West although Forbes himself did say that “life is not to get rich but to enrich the world”!

Conclusion:

You could laugh at me, hate me, or weep with me for these unconventional ideas, but do not ignore what I have said above. Go home and think about it. If you ignore me you will doing a great disservice to the hapless mentally challenged people of this world who require our compassion and empathy just like an innocent child needing that from a doting mother.

 “If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia.” 

Margaret Atwood, 

Canadian writer.

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