The man who did two things well

About 22 days before Mumbai burst into the flames of the 199293 HinduMuslim riots the cityrsquos high court summarily dismissed a writ petition filed by a respected surgeon Dr Haniraj ChulaniAbout a month earlier the doctor had challenged a decision by the Bar Council of Maharashtra amp 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 professionOne 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 caseldquoItrsquos very simple your honourrdquo the doctor replied ldquoI would give my client a new date and promise to get back to him This is what all advocates in India do alreadymdashthey give dates The judges didnrsquot like that Nobody likes franknessrdquoContinuing to be frank we all know that Indiarsquos 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 possibleDr 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 medicineAs always such answers raise more questions Can the law stop a person from being multifaceted 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 weekendsI 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 didnrsquot expect teachers to open grocery stores or cooks to become physicistsBut wersquore 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 AIdriven computer What is an editor to do when an app called Grammarly does his job faster and with more immediacyItrsquos 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 nuisanceRecognising 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 donrsquot stay ahead of the curve they warn will die on the curveIrsquom reminded of an inspiring quote by science fiction maestro Robert Heinlein ldquoA 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 gallantlyrdquoHow many of those can you do Will the thing you learnt in college be all that you know to do when you dieDr 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 readerrsquos comment after I wrote about my experience with COVID19 in 2021 Since then we have been intermittent correspondents He has always had a clear individualistic viewpointLast week stabbed by a piercing pain in my lower abdomen that I immediately assumed was lifethreatening I messaged him on a whim I met him for the first time a little later that morning a wizened gnomelike 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 throughoutUnlike todayrsquos 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 Otterrsquos Club where I wondered how he felt after the Supreme Courtrsquos blocking decisionldquoOh but I didnrsquot get blockedrdquo he said Barred from practising two professions Dr Chulani simply combined them into one ldquoToday I run the MedicoLegal Department of Lilavati HospitalrdquoYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper