The man who did two things well

Recognising that skills burn out like candles nowadays, the International Labour Organisation has been proclaiming the merits of lifelong learning, regular upskilling and reskilling for years. Illustration by C Y Gopinath using AI

About 22 days before Mumbai burst into the flames of the 1992-93 Hindu-Muslim riots, the city's high court summarily dismissed a writ petition filed by a respected surgeon, Dr Haniraj Chulani.

About a month earlier, the doctor had challenged a decision by the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa that he could not legally practice law if he was already practising medicine. The Indian Medical Council had no objection, but the Bar Council cited the Advocates Law of 1961, whose Section 35 implies that a lawyer could not possibly deliver speedy, efficient justice if they were bound by the requirements of a second profession.

One of the presiding judges at the high court asked Dr Chulani what he would do if a medical emergency arrived while he was in the middle of a court case.

"It's very simple, your honour," the doctor replied. "I would give my client a new date and promise to get back to him. This is what all advocates in India do already - they give dates. The judges didn't like that. Nobody likes frankness."

Continuing to be frank, we all know that India's legal system is legendary for its speed and efficiency, possibly unmatched worldwide. Cases are guaranteed to be resolved within mere decades or sometimes generations. With luck, the accused can totter out of prison in time to see his grandchildren before he croaks. When hearings are postponed indefinitely, never doubt that it is to evaluate the matter in depth, as indefinitely as possible.

Dr Chulani took the petition to the Supreme Court, but alas, they saw it no differently. In 1996, they told a doctor who had spent three years studying law, passing all 18 exams at the first attempt, to choose between law and medicine.

As always, such answers raise more questions. Can the law stop a person from being multi-faceted? How many skills is a human being allowed to have? Can an engineer double as a chartered accountant? Can a nuclear physicist be a tailor by night and give cooking classes on weekends?

I was born in an age whose wisdom was that a person should choose and master a single profession that would serve them their entire life. My father trained to be an electrical engineer and did nothing else till he retired. We didn't expect teachers to open grocery stores or cooks to become physicists.

But we're now in a world where new technology can make jobs obsolete virtually overnight. What is an airline pilot to do when his job is taken over by an AI-driven computer? What is an editor to do when an app called Grammarly does his job faster and with more immediacy?

It's a good moment to remember that our education system, with its inbuilt pressure to choose a single discipline, is colonial debris. The East India Company needed specific skilled professionals to run its colony, and so built a system that would churn out accountants, engineers, doctors and clerks on demand. Someone with two unrelated skills would have been a great nuisance.

Recognising that skills now burn out like candles, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has been proclaiming the merits of lifelong learning, regular upskilling and reskilling for years. Those who don't stay ahead of the curve, they warn, will die on the curve.

I'm reminded of an inspiring quote by science fiction maestro Robert Heinlein: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly."

How many of those can you do? Will the thing you learnt in college be all that you know to do when you die?

Dr Chulani entered my life in the way that angels do: by providence and with a light touch. As a follower of this column, he had sent a reader's comment after I wrote about my experience with COVID-19 in 2021. Since then, we have been intermittent correspondents. He has always had a clear, individualistic viewpoint.

Last week, stabbed by a piercing pain in my lower abdomen that I immediately assumed was life-threatening, I messaged him on a whim. I met him for the first time a little later that morning: a wizened, gnome-like man with a quick step and kind eyes. Still a healer at 83, he steered me through my crisis, requiring not one more test than was strictly needed, projecting care, caution and competence throughout.

Unlike today's corporate doctors with sales targets, he is from an older school, free to let his practice be dictated by principles and values. After I was somewhat better, he invited me for a conversation and lunch at the Otter's Club, where I wondered how he felt after the Supreme Court's blocking decision.

"Oh, but I didn't get blocked," he said. Barred from practising two professions, Dr Chulani simply combined them into one. "Today, I run the Medico-Legal Department of Lilavati Hospital."

You can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopi@gmail.com

Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper