The transformative persona of multitalented personalities over the years

An expert, according to American philosopher, diplomat, and educator Nicholas Murray Butler, is one who knows “more and more about less and less”. And a wise guy extended that definition to mean that the real expert is one who knows “all about nothing”!

These days every discipline, from medicine and engineering through palmistry, astrology and financial management to taxation, has its experts. In the field of medicine, for instance, a physician is different from a surgeon, while neither knows much about what an anesthetist does.

And it is not any different from other disciplines.

Traditional, informal and invaluable sources, for obtaining advice and help about how the requirements of a family, for health and medical care, advice on religious matters, settlement of disputes within, and with other families and financial matters, were more than adequately met by them. They had more experience, knowledge, and wisdom to their credit than formal qualifications and credentials. Their personal, long and intimate knowledge of the needs of the members of the families added that much more value to the quality of their service. They included the general physician, a friend, who was good at palmistry, and knew something about the rudiments of astrology, or another, who was au fait with matters related to taxes and market matters, who also had a grasp over the fundamentals of the common law governing the subject of dispute settlement.

I remember how, in my childhood days, my mother’s maternal uncle, Ch Viswanatham was a rural medical practitioner, who practiced in Santaravuru village of Guntur district. He not only diagnosed the diseases of people who visited him with complaints but was also able to prescribe medication and provide tablets and administer injections, apart from being able to perform minor surgeries with no qualified assistants.

Around the same time, in Chennai’s Mylapore, where our family lived, I remember how one Dr Avadhani a general practitioner, combined in his clinic, the functions of a physician, surgeon, and anaesthetist, and with the help of a compounder who dispensed medicines, even a medical shop. So was the case with my maternal uncle and father-in-law, C P Somayajulu, popularly known as Dr Gandhi. He performed similar functions in Ramachandrapuram town in northern coastal Andhra Pradesh. A frequent visitor to my uncle’s place was one Ramamurthi Sastrulu, who was not only a Veda Pandit, but was also able to read palms, make fairly accurate predictions about the future, fix alliances and determining auspicious muhurthams for religious and social functions.

Likewise, Ganapati Sastry, whom I accepted as my Guru for several decades, was also a very versatile person well versed in Vedic knowledge and gifted with the ability to predict future events with stunning accuracy, while also being ready and able to provide wise counsel to those who came to him with physical and mental issues.

A similar versatile person was Annaji Rao, a clerk under my father, who was practicing law at Chennai.

Such extraordinary individuals, endowed with multiple talents in different fields, often remind me of what are known as all-rounders in cricket. Observing them in action reminds us of Michael D’Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci. And we have multifaceted personalities from the film industry, who could act, direct, compose music and write scripts; all rolled into one.

When I compare those days, and the people of those times, who were able to provide relief of various types to families, obviating the need to take recourse to expensive and difficult to access expert assistance, I am left wondering what purpose modern professional experts are really serving.

It is common knowledge that high end super specialty hospitals unhesitatingly put patients through an array of investigations, often totally uncalled for, recommend and organize surgeries and procedures not entirely required and keep patients in their exorbitantly priced luxury rooms for longer than necessary. And do more of all these, if the patient is wealthy and insured.

Similarly, some of the most sought after lawyers charge their clients, literally for every hour spent either in studying the factual and legal implications of the cases or tendering advice or appearing in courts on their behalf.

And who is not aware of the manner in which people, especially those who are rich and powerful are taken for a ride by self-styled sadhus and gurus, who cast a spell over their clients with some so-called magical powers in astrology, medical care and or psychiatric counselling’

Then there are those who practice accountancy and charge merely to perform the simple function of auditing accounts already prepared by qualified colleagues and certifying them for compliance with statutory requirements. And those of them who deal with matters relating to taxation charge fees of astronomical proportions to help their clients escape the consequences of avoidance, or even evasion, of taxes, either through clever interpretation of the provisions of the statutes.

I recall my experience as a member of the Institutional Ethics Committee of CARE Hospital in Hyderabad. Doctors would appear before the Committee to explain the details of trials being conducted by them with new drugs. The wherewithal for the trials was sponsored by manufacturers of the products. The results were evaluated and presented before the Committee, which then decided whether the procedure that had been followed was technically sound, ethically proper, and whether the promised relief would be forthcoming, from the use of the method or medicine. It was then that I also came to know about the various questionable practices often followed by drug manufacturers, distributors, retailers, medical practitioners, and the specialists and administrators in hospitals.

During the time when the Covid – 19 epidemic was on the rampage in the world, I saw, with pain and anguish, the cruel and unacceptable methods being used by some drug manufacturers, laboratories, hospitals and doctors, to exploit the situation by subjecting their clients to many heinous practices.

And that illustration, in turn, reminds me of yesteryear’ runaway comedy movie, ‘Critic’s Choice’, featuring the legendary Bob Hope, who is a journalist in the plot. Reviewing the film, he ends by saying that the movie was directed by some W, the actors were some X and Y the music scored by another Z and, finally, produced, by ‘mistake!’

(The writer was formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)