Generalists vs Specialists

 I am hearing that lot of folks back home without any medical background are doing self medication and prescribing medications of Covid to the gullible ones. That's not only unprofessional, outright dangerous. In other professions a person's dilly dallying in an area which is not his or her forte and subsequent screw up may cost some one money, job or reputation. But messing up with healtcare without a proper degree can cost lives.

Peculiarity of Covid is its unpredictability. It's new, it's novel and it's fatal, and too critical to be left in hands of amateurs. Please let the professional medical degree holders handle it. Life of a person at stake here. Remember, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, and knowledge sourced from Google can more dangerous. Self medication by an unskilled medical person is still most dangerous, because lives are at stake. A  Medical degree like any other professional qualification is earned and cannot be substituted with shallow knowledge.

Legendary writer Khushwant Singh wrote a self caricature book filled with self deprecated humor and sarcasm - "WE INDIANS". In that book he has devoted an entire chapter to our inherent SUBZANTAWALLAH (Mr. Know All) tendency. On TV, actor Nasiruddin Shah talks of cricket. Suhel Seth and writer Shobha Dey talk about our Annual Budget. Not sure why these ladies and gentlemen venture beyond their realms of expertise ! They can at least decline the offer to come on those panels to relate to the fields where they aren't the connoisseurs.

We are still letting History graduates run Reserve Bank of India, especially when we are no more a basket case of poverty of 1970s era with a Hindu rate of growth, rather a burgeoning, emerging market of $3 trillion GDP and $600 billion Forex reserve. For such an economy, the RBI which is the equivalent of the Federal Reserves of the United States should be governed by an economic pro, not by a history graduate whose only qualification is clearing Civil Services in the 1970s.

Once a gentleman argued with me on this - why can't a history graduate with couple of weeks of training in economics can't manage RBI ? I said, why not ? I can take a 2 week of crash course in Sanskrit and become the Chancellor of Sanskrit University.

Next what ? A Sanskrit scholar from Benarus Hindu University will head ISRO, Indian Spaces Research Organization ? Don't get surprised if that happens one day. As long this trend continues the brain drain of talented ones to the lure of neon lights will be unabated, because a tendency to reward mediocrity over meritocracy. In the age of social media every one is a  SUBZANTAWALLAH. Khushwant Singh who wrote his book in 1970s was way ahead of his time when the Whatsapp University was strictly fantasy.