Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
SUPERSTITIONS
SUPERSTITIONS: _ _ Prologue: I was traveling from Yanbu to Jeddah by plane and it was my first experience with Saudi Airline. Just before takeoff, as plane was standstill, I heard “Allāhu Akbar (الل أكبر)” [god is greatest] thrice and then plane took off. I never heard similar thing in Indian airlines planes praying Hindu Gods. Is Indian Airlines plane less safe than Saudi Airlines plane simply because a prayer is not recited before takeoff? Has superstition become pervasive in contemporary culture? Did you know that insects could be tried for criminal acts in pre-industrial Europe, that the dead could be executed, that statues could be subjected to public humiliation, or that it was widely accepted that corpses could return to life? What made reasonable educated men and women behave in ways that seem utterly nonsensical to us today? Strange histories present a serious account of some of the most […]
THE PAIN
THE PAIN: _ _ Prologue: Pain, as a proper subject of scientific observation and study, has long been neglected by medical science. Perhaps, like death, it reminds us too much of our failures as physicians. Or perhaps, like sex, it was seen as too private or subjective a subject for objective analysis. Whatever the reason, pain was never mentioned as a topic in my medical school, residency, or internship training. Pain is the most common symptom of disease and the request for its relief probably the most common demand placed on the doctor. Pain is too important a topic to continue to be ignored. Pain is clearly a multidimensional experience. It is neurophysiological, biochemical, psychological, ethnocultural, religious, cognitive, affective and environmental. The topic of pain is extremely complex to say the least. Pain is that pervasive, invasive, all-encompassing personal warning that something-is-wrong signal. Pain is associated with a wide range […]
ENTERTAINMENT
ENTERTAINMENT: _ _ Prologue: Most of us have, at some point, become so immersed in a book or game or movie that the activity temporarily assumes a profound significance and the importance of the outside world begins to fade. Although we are likely to enjoy these experiences in the realm of entertainment, we rarely stop and think about what effect they might be having on us. But maybe we should. For all that has been written about individual pop icons, movie stars, sport stars and sitcoms, and the liberating or oppressive power of popular culture, basic questions remain unanswered. What do we know about the overall effect of living in a society in which entertainment is so central? What do we know about how entertainment affects society and the people who participate in it? Why entertainment activities are so important to us, yet frequently dismissed as being unworthy of […]
SEX TRAFFICKING
SEX TRAFFICKING: _ _ Prologue: Anna was a pretty blond, 25 year old Russian woman who had trained to be an exhibition ballroom dancer in her native town. . . She was recruited to be a dancer in Germany by answering an ad in a Russian newspaper. She was transported to Germany through Poland by a bus where she was taken to an apartment, locked in a room and told that she would be working as a prostitute. There was another Russian girl in the apartment who had been horribly beaten for having resisted forced prostitution. Anna was terrified and she initially agreed to work for the German pimps—but after being repeatedly raped by over 20 male “clients” during her first day, she refused to cooperate any further. She was beaten with a metal pipe for resisting. Both of her arms were broken before she was systematically raped by the […]
CAREER GUIDANCE AND CAREER EDUCATION
CAREER GUIDANCE AND CAREER EDUCATION: _ _ Note: Even though the word ‘career’ and the word ‘vocation’ are used interchangeably, the term career guidance & career education is more inclusive than the term vocational guidance & vocational education but these terms are often used interchangeably despite delicate difference between them (vide infra). Vocational education is also known as VET (vocational education and training) or CTE (career and technical education). __ Prologue: The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophies. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water. Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire. Popular misconceptions about the labor market and college, including the widespread beliefs among parents that a three to four-year college degree will guarantee their […]
