Bizarre thoughts
If remarks by its medical education minister are anything to go by, medical education is in trouble in Karnataka. The minister, S.A. Ramdas, speaking at the launch of a literacy campaign, said in all seriousness that nuclear families lead to “affairs”, which in turn cause more cases of HIV and AIDS; and exhorted men to be like Ram and women like Sita.
Such high standards might be unattainable for mere mortals. Besides, this is Kalyug, as we all know, and the joint family appears to be history, and doesn’t look like coming back anytime soon.
Mr Ramdas has the difficult task of orienting himself and his ministry to this evil 21st century, so unapologetically different from... 500 BC? He also needs to factor in a few changes that have occurred in the interim. Among them is the growth of a field called science, and its offspring — technology. These wrought great changes in the world, including in Bengaluru, which has many people working in something called “software”. Mr Ramdas would do well to acquaint himself with these developments.
If it’s too hard for him to suddenly advance his thinking by 2,500 years, he can try some easy first steps. If he gets as far as the 17th-century Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason, he’ll have done well. He might then grasp that reason doesn’t mean every line of reasoning is as good as another. If Mr Ramdas says two plus two equals nine, it still won’t become so, despite the red light atop his car.
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