Hailing from a family of doctors, Roopa Pai says she had always had a deep interest in medicine, but not enough of an interest to study it. The Bengaluru-based author who recently released, Miracles in Medicine,says cutting up cadavers was not her idea of fun, but “I was fascinated with my sister’s medical textbooks and the detailed discussions around the dining table, especially when I was 13 or 14.”
“My sister’s forensic text was an all-time favourite, since I was into crime novels at the time and I got to get a look from the other side,” she says, adding that words such as “exit wound” and “spattering” began to feel more real.
Roopa says she eventually came to realise how doctors were deified by grateful patients. “Seeing how tirelessly my sister worked and still continues to attend to patients at all hours of the day, I am able to understand why.”
“Yet, in the past 20 years, I have also seen how respect for the medical profession has taken a deep dive. Thanks to Google, everyone thinks they are a doctor either seeing tumours when it is just a headache or dismissing as excessive medicine and tests. Even children seem to be echoing their parents’ opinions.”
“People are losing sight of the fact that doctors are actually healers. Auyrveda is great to build immunity but when you need surgery you go to an allopathic doctor who has spent years in training to get there.”
Miracles in Medicine by Roopa Pai | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
For Roopa, Miracles in Medicinewas born out of a need to remind us that doctors are passionate about their calling. “It is a labour of love and when they lose a patient, doctors battle sadness and disappointment even though they know they did all they could. Saving lives is a huge responsibility, a noble thing that the rest of us chose to walk away from.”
Becoming YouTubers, lawyers and entrepreneurs has been the trend for the past 10 years, says the children’s author who regularly interacts with her young readers.
“While these professions are preferred because they bring in lots of money, what would happen to those in need of a doctor? Our lives would be in the hands of people who may not be the best candidates for the job since they paid to get there. They don’t have a heart for the cause,” says Roopa.
She goes on to add how COVID-19 hit after she wrote the book and suddenly the medical profession was in the limelight. “Words such as anti-vaxxers and herbal alternates became commonplace and there was so much fear. And despite recent reports, the vaccine saved so many lives. Everyone realised that when push comes to shove you have to turn to allopathy. The fact that doctors, researchers and scientists across the world collaborated and shared information was why we were able to get a vaccine so quickly.”
Miracles in Medicine which took about a year to write, is in easy-to-read capsules that compare and contrast the evolution of the medical field in the eastern and western worlds. Written in the author’s characteristic humorous style, the book is dotted with simple illustrations by Mihir Joglekar, who Roopa says, “understood the assignment.”
Roopa Pai | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The cover by Pia Alize Hazarika, invites you to spot medical marvels woven into the design, making it a cross between your favourite textbook, a go-to manual and book of puzzles.
Roopa says the major take away from her book that she hopes all readers will get is that no one person or community can claim to have contributed to the progress of medical science.
“What my research showed me is that no one has a monopoly on ideas or anything to do with progress. For 1,000 years when Europe was in the Dark Ages doing nothing of any consequence in economy, art, culture or medicine, the Islamic empire was at the forefront of progressive ideas — a fact that has been entirely lost to us today.”
“Any medical benefit we enjoy today is based on the knowledge gathered and shared by early men of science for over 2,500 years. That is the foundation that we stand on today and it was not gained in isolation.”
Published - June 04, 2024 11:59 am IST
