Little Dragon Tales - Who am I?

Hi! My name is Little Dragon. I am a wandering Indian spirit who emerged from the warm breath of my mother, Devi Bharat Ma. Since I am solely a spirit without a body, I lack the so-called “feelings”, nor do I understand what is known as “emotions”. For a spirit to evolve, it must learn to feel before it can understand. But, where can I learn to feel?

So, in my eagerness to learn, I approached my Ma. She guided me to vicariously learn from her children, especially the humans, who are known for being sentimental. Curiously, I asked her about them. She took a deep breath before recounting her experience with them. She said, “

Humans – Pathetic beings, yet act like Gods!

Think they are visionary, yet remain blind!

Try to connect the globe, yet often disconnect from it, though!

Attempt to act brave, yet are greatly cowards!

View themselves as tough, yet are so feeble within!

Stage selves as the all-knowing, yet fail to realize the boundless unknowing!

Although they project themselves as supremely powerful and invincible, yet beneath these layers of false pride lies the true melting soul, which at the eternal pause of their ticking clock reaches back to their mother, me, as the original naked child!”

While I was puzzled how such paradoxical creatures can teach me sentiments, she calmly replied, “Emotions are often best displayed by hypocrites!”

Despite my doubts, I began packing my bag for an emotionally ridiculous adventure. I was ready for the voyage into human minds to uncover vivid experiences. Don’t worry, as you may accompany me on this colorful journey. So, fasten your seatbelts! You are about to enter the world of the Little Dragon through Little Dragon Tales.

History is a series of victories won by the scientific man over the romantic man

Many students perceive history as just a record of dates, personalities, and events. Yet, our past is more than just a chronicle of facts – it is a series of wars fought between scientific and romantic humans trying to influence the world. Though traditionally viewed as black and white, in reality, the true victor has often emerged from shades of grey – a rational person with an ethical heart who blends science with romance!

This essay explores how science dominates the historical rhetoric over romance and why its victory is dangerous if not confined by moral romance. Let’s get started!

Science-Romance Differentiation

The confrontations of scientific and romantic humans can be better understood by knowing their meanings. Science involves rational and critical thinking before performing an action, while romance refers to irrational, cultural, and emotional reasons for doing the same. Generally, a same action has both scientific and romantic backings. For example, greeting others through “Namaskar” is being followed as an Indian tradition. But due to no hand-to-hand contact, it also prevents transmission of diseases as seen in COVID-19!

However, actions and events in history did not have an equal blend of both. In fact, till the time of the scientific renaissance (revolution), romantic thoughts prevailed. While it certainly helped to bring morality into society at first, it soon transformed into a tool of oppression under power-hungry elites who tried to keep society under their control. To win over their irrational manifestative reasoning and bring in universal prosperity, many scientific wars in different forms were fought throughout history in which science ultimately triumphed.

Science Triumphed Over Romance

Throughout our past, victories of science have been distributed among various fields and aspects to comprehensively move towards this scientific world.

There was a time when economic relationships in many places were predominantly based on trust. Eventually, the exploitation of innocent workers by so-called trusted employers started to increase, giving rise to the workers’ movement. This movement was truly a scientific intervention, as it helped in formalizing labour rights by defining working hours, the pay scale, rules, etc. through written contracts, thus giving them a voice in history, which was earlier choked in the name of romantic trust! 

Politics was another major domain of elite rule and the 19^th and early 20^th century USA was a notable example. Until scientific interventions by US President Wilson, and many other scholars, including Weber, politics was corrupt, nepotism prevailed over merits in public service, and exploitation multiplied due to poor checks and balances. Their efforts gave rise to a scientific bureaucracy, restoring rationality in the political structure that mitigated the sufferings of common people.

Society is an arena where frequent scientific revaluation of reasoning for social practices becomes important to prevent injustices. While the varna system in the Vedic period was mobile, the elite intervention over the period made it rigid, attributing the caste to the birth. Not until the original Vedic scriptures were scientifically reinterpreted by social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, etc., did the people understand the truth that the caste is based on their profession and even that profession is based on their choice and not hereditary.

Further, Science itself is a field where science must war against romance. There was a time when people believed in geocentric theory which held that celestial bodies, including the sun, revolved around the earth. Any critic on this view was challenged by the Roman Catholic Church as they believed it opposed their long-standing intellectual and theological authority. It was only after the efforts of scholars, including Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler, that the rational heliocentric model, where planets including earth revolve around the sun, was accepted. This became an important chapter of European history for accelerating the scientific revolution by breaking dogmatic authority.

The expectation of the education system to blindly accept adults’ sayings without asking why, was also culturally masked in the name of respect. This led to the domination of the elderly, thus prioritising blind compliance over creativity. Again, scientific humans like Socrates were needed to bring back the scientific temper and courage to challenge the irrationals and negatives.

While all the above cases may make us believe that the scientific world is the most just world, this is only partially true. In fact, history has illustrated that science with no romance is a double-edged sword. It can pierce even the good if wielded by an immoral hand!

Romance as a Guide

The scramble for Africa is a classic example of how science can exploit innocents if driven by corrupt forces. The technological advances fuelled by imperialistic and economic ambitions led the European colonial powers to artificially divide Africa among themselves, paying no regard to the innocent African souls. Effects of such scientific colonial exploitation are still being reflected today, as we can see from Africa’s malnourished children, underdeveloped infrastructures, terrorizing coups, and continued economic and political instabilities. What went missing here was not rational thoughts, but empathetic minds.

The cases that we discussed before, from legalizing labour rights to rationalizing bureaucracy, from reinterpreting religion to questioning authority, all seem to heroize science over romance. On contrary, this African Scramble example seems to warn against science. Finally, all these cases keep the focus on the victory between science and romance. But the meaningfulness of that victory has always been determined on whether the victor was rooted in moral romance or not.

That is, every heroic scientific intervention, from labour rights to questioning authority, was backed not only by rationality, but also rooted in morality and justice, which is nothing but moral romance. Without such moral foundation, mere scientific victory seemed destructive as seen in the case of Africa. So, battles in history were truly won by rational humans, who were grounded in morality. 

And further as we advance in science, such battles will be replicated at a huge magnitude. That too in this AI age, which attempts to replace human thinking with that of machines, rooting science in ethical values is never the more relevant.

So, although history is a triumph of empirical fighters over emotional ones, it also shows how even such scientific warriors can lose in the battle of desire, if not guided by a moral compass. Opposed to solely scientific ones, the future needs virtuous technocratic commandos who can lead their people into a glorious age of responsible prosperity!

This is our turn for bringing scientific renaissance. Give your scientific temper a boost. Share your logical thoughts in the comment section below.

Aren't Movies Our Teacher?

“We become what we behold” – A mesmerizing quote by an English poet William Blake puts in nutshell, the impact of observation on oneself. People are constantly being influenced by what they see and hear, thus, restructuring their thought process every passing moment. In this regard, movies as a part of the larger entertainment industry, including short films, dramas, tv shows, and web series, etc., significantly enrich one through their audio-visual lessons. So, a curious question emerging in my mind is – am I wrong calling them our teachers?

While movies might not seem like teachers in a traditional sense, their imprint on an individual’s personality is undeniable in this globalised-technocratic world order. Starting from mannerisms and behaviour to ambition and ideology, everything a person is and dreams of becoming, is influenced by these broadcasted entertainment contents.

Profound Influence of Cinema

The psychological growth of a child implies the growth of its personality, i.e. the child is adding and altering its characteristic features every moment, thus, shaping the child’s habits, attitude, and ultimately, its understanding of reality.

These characteristic features are essentially learned through observation of its surroundings, of which the broadcasted visual contents are an inevitable part of, in this modern age. When a child watches a movie, it absorbs content, encoding them into its brain. So, in turn, this stimulates an emotional response leading to happiness expressed through laughter, sadness through crying, fear through shivering, and so on. And frequent exposure to the same stimulus from the reel world will reinforce the responses, thus, creating and strengthening the attitude towards similar situations in the real world.

For example, when a child watches a horror movie portraying darkness as a “ghost” terrifying people, it will automatically start fearing darkness in real life situations too. Similarly, what is regarded as funny, what is considered sorrow, what becomes annoying, etc., are all moulded through cinematic experiences to a large extent, preparing one to real-world situations.

Just like the emotional system, these digital-visual contents help build one’s value system. Although one learns basic values from their physical environment by observing their parents, teachers, and peers, these digital visual contents further fortify one’s ethical attitude by bringing in confidence.

 In a drama, when the actions of the protagonist are glorified, those actions will be perceived as an ethical standard for the viewers. That is, if a righteous person is celebrated in a film, then consequently, people will strive to replicate such honesty in their personal life too.

Further, the impact of these entertainment contents is reflected in one’s community interactions, societal understanding, and national obligations. Many regional TV serials can make a person from a nuclear family understand the different relationship-dynamics of a joint family, or vice versa. Similarly, a movie like Sam Bahadur (2023) could evoke nationalism in audiences, reminding them of service obligations toward their nation.

From all the above, we may easily be convinced to conclude the motion picture as a righteous virtual teacher. But this can become a disastrous conclusion if the reality is not well-examined!

Cinema – a Risky Role Model

Though cinematic contents help to develop one’s emotional system, often, they tend to redefine basic emotional responses, confining them to a regressive stimulus. Take happiness for instance. Many movies have reshaped the definition of happiness by attaching it to money. While money is one of the means to attain a happy life, the cinema made it an end in itself, thus, glorifying even unethical means to attain it. So-deemed hit movies like Pushpa 2 (2024) reinforce this derogatory message of getting rich through any means to be happy, in a cinematic way.

In addition, these entertainment media further reinforce existing social evils instead of restructuring them. The huge box office response to the film like Animal (2023), reiterates how much the “toxic male heroism” is still valued in this modern India. A student bringing a gun to his school, masking sexual harassment as love, and un-questionable wrecking of law and order (no police in the film!) – if all these are referred to as “heroism,” then what kind of impact will it leave on our future generation is a question to ponder upon.

Another biggest issue is the way they make it sell! To elaborate, in the name of making the viewing experience pleasant, generally, these films or web series tend to add spice to their salad, called masala in films. These masalas historically revolved mainly around objectifying women, derogatory comments on disabled, and social shaming of transgenders. Besides dissolving the growing generations’ childness by pre-matured exposure to such degraded contents, it further desensitizes them, endangering tolerance in this diverse country.

Need of a Responsible Mentor

While the government regulates such virtual role models through legislation, censor board, etc., extensive control becomes a breach of the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression. But self-regulation and peoples’ influence would not be deemed so. In fact, the best reform is self-reform!

To begin with, the entertainment industry must take responsibility for making progressive content. While realistic portrayal is appreciated, it must not cross moral limits. Although cinema may mirror society, it also strongly influences it back. Hence, contents must be made keeping in mind the progressive values of the Indian culture and its heritage.

This cannot be possible if the peoples’ response is not garnered towards progressive film-making. In reality, cinematic industry which once made dramas to bring social revolution in our country reduced to mere “Masala Industry,” not because of the dearth of social issues to talk about, but due to peoples’ apathy towards such progressive contents. People must support movies and series that push forward-looking ideas, de-popularize toxic messages, condemn inappropriate portrayal, and must end piracy as profits are necessary for the sustenance of such progressive contents.

Since the entertainment industry holds a profound task of mentoring the younger generations in this “world in our palm” era, it must hold utmost integrity in its noble profession. While entertainment involves a mix of comedy, romance, action, horror, etc. they must not come at the cost of sensitivity, dignity, and humaneness. Although the role of movies as our teacher is undeniable, the extent to which it will be progressively inspiring will be determined by our response. Thus, the task of transforming this risky role model into a responsible teacher rests in our hands!

Let us begin our actions from here. Do you agree with my views? Do comment below and keep your freedom of expression alive!

Are Our Doctors Losing Their Soul?

On August 22^nd of this year, in the Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh, a moral failure in the medical profession was witnessed when a man came to the Collector’s office carrying his dead newborn in a bag, alleging that a private hospital had been raising the fee and delaying the delivery. While that private hospital was immediately sealed for inspection, this disturbing instance of moral failure raises an important question – are doctors in India losing their soul?

Eroding Medical Ethics

The INDIAN MEDICAL COUNCIL (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, state that “The prime object of the medical profession is to render service to humanity; reward or financial gain is a subordinate consideration. Who- so-ever chooses his profession, assumes the obligation to conduct himself in accordance with its ideals.” While the medical ethics code clearly puts financial gain subordinate to service to humanity, unfortunately, many doctors see it the other way around. But this problem of the reversal of value priorities, keeping financial gain at the forefront, cannot be solved unless this issue is understood across different levels – from medical education to actual practice.

Education is the first place where ethics can be imbibed into the hearts of future doctors. But unfortunately, now-a-days, education is also where the ethical failure begins. Many private medical colleges demand high capitation fees (illegal donations) for admission. This financial entry barrier creates in students a sense of “I must earn it back” kind of mindset, thus imbibing financial obligations instead of service values.

In the medical education, although the National Medical Commission (NMC) has included ethics modules in the syllabus, the dearth of ethical role models has become a major reason for the poor internalization of these ethics in students. Unfortunately, these role models, mostly the senior faculty, consistently reinforce in students a “sense of entitlement,” i.e. a prevalent mindset among some students who believe they deserve special privilege simply because they are in medical profession, rather than earning them through competence, discipline, and ethical practice. Sense of entitlement makes them view the medical field as a prestigious, high-paid job rather than as a genuine opportunity to serve patients. This also makes them focus on their personal welfare, as opposed to patients’ needs, hampering empathy.

Another, less emphasised issue with medical education is desensitisation. While desensitisation is helpful in the professional handling of surgical procedures, it often fails in the context of a doctor-patient relationship. One example of this is the cadaver lab (a cadaver is a dead human body). While the cadaver is a great educational tool for learning human anatomy and surgical procedures, there is often less discussion about the cadaver as once a “living person.” Consequently, students may start to look at the patient as a mere “subject” rather than a “wholesome person,” and thus, become desensitised to their pain and agony.

To increase sensitisation along with hands-on experience, the NMC has mandated the Family Adoption Program (FAP) for MBBS students. MBBS students are mandated to adopt families, typically from rural or underserved slum areas, to conduct regular visits and understand the health challenges of the underprivileged. While this program is aimed at fostering student-patient connections, it often suffers from implementation challenges due to students’ lack of interest, language barriers, logistical issues, and staff shortages.

These shortcomings of medical education often produce doctors who prescribe mechanically rather than engaging empathetically with patients. The consequences of such value erosion become manifold when the profit motive of corporates is added, leading to “Corporatization of the medical profession.” Many corporate hospitals make doctors chase unethical revenue-per-patient targets, increasing the work pressure and mental stress, thus furthering their compassion fatigue toward patients.

Another important issue is the loss of autonomy of doctors in corporate hospitals to independently decide on medications. Every decision they make is influenced by the management’s guidelines, tie-ups with pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies. This puts a serious dent in doctors’ consciences if these tie-ups and partnerships are solely profit-driven and disregard quality and fairness in healthcare.

As these structural problems are becoming more concerning, proper reforms at each level become necessary.

Internalise Medical Ethics

Firstly, besides digitising the payment records and independent external audits, there must be a dedicated educational tribunal to address education-related grievances, including capitation fee issues.

Secondly, through awareness programs, medical colleges must de-heroize unethical role models who idolize entitlement behaviour. Thirdly, while the NMC has introduced a “cadaveric oath” reminding students of the altruism behind body donations, a voluntary “body donation pledge” for educational/medical purposes can further empathize students. Fourth, with respect to effective implementation of FAP, students must undergo sensitivity training before such village visits. Robust supervision of student-patient interactions by faculty, coupled with proper feedback, can bring back the seriousness of FAP among students. And language barriers can be resolved with AI voice translators. Further, logistical and faculty issues must be resolved with proper pre-planning.

Fifth, Independent ethics committees to act as doctors’ grievance units must be set up within hospitals. Sixth, doctors should prescribe medicines with their generic names and leave the selection of brands to the patients’ convenience. For its effectiveness, proper maintenance of drug-quality standards across brands is crucial. Finally, there should be patients’ feedback on treatment, their expectations, and suggestions. While positive responses might improve the morale of doctors, negative responses can increase the scope for improvements.

The ethical meltdown of doctors is a major obstacle for India in becoming the health capital of the world. India must act now, as further delay might lead to the vanishing of the remaining humanness of doctors in this fast-growing corporate world!

The views are personal and never intended to hurt anyone's feelings. Just a constructive criticism from a victim point of view. Kindly contribute by letting me and the world know your views. Do comment below!