Faith Healing

Shekhawat (r) takes the Club into confidence

Shekhawat is in a major fix. Should he go for the skin grafting on his chest (ref post of August 29), as recommended by doctors at the naval hospital in Colaba? Or should he repose his trust on a faith healer he visited yesterday (see post) and abandon the idea of any surgery?
Today, he took the Club into confidence after the exercises and explained his dilemma. It seemed he already trusts the faith healer implicitly and claimed the pus formation in the infected region of his chest has ceased completely after that one visit.
“All he does is to press your nerves and you get cured automatically,” he elaborated. “He charges only Rs 250 per visit. I am planning to call the naval hospital and cook up some story of a close relative having died in my village so that the operation on the 17th is cancelled.”
The alarming part is that the healer has instructed Shekhawat to discontinue all medication he is taking at present and place absolute faith on him. This includes the medicines he has been taking for diabetes, BP, blood thinning, breathlessness, multi-vitamins, etc.
Siba Prasad Maitra instantly advised Shekhawat not to do anything so foolish because he would be putting his life at risk.

For the three ladies present today, a three-and-half laugh was devised!

“What I understand is that you are being taken in by what is termed under magical remedies by law,” he explained. “There is no scientific basis for such cure.”
Dilip Babani, Bhaswati Bose, Arun Patil and others also tried to persuade Shekhawat not to get conned by magical cures of naadi doctors – more so, when it costs him nothing to get proper treatment at the naval hospital. As an ex-serviceman, he is entitled to free medicare lifelong.
But Shekhawat refuses to be convinced. He believes that the faith healer in Thane can work out a miracle for him as in the case of certain friends and relatives he had cited. He is prepared to make repeat visits all the way to Thane, rather than be admitted to the naval hospital in Colaba.
Ultimately, a middle path was found: Let Shekhawat continue to make his daily trips to Thane, but he must not disrupt his regular medication under any circumstance. After a week or 10 days, let him get himself medically examined at Colaba or any private facility. Based on the doctors’ advice then, he may take a call on whether to go under the knife on September 17. He has about two weeks still to go.

Bihari Milwani:
There is one more remedy. Shekhawat should do exercise No 11 of tai-chi i.e. beating the chest more vigorously and for a longer time. His chest will become stronger and there will be no need for the intervention of a healer.