Age of Specialisation

Today’s world is indeed that much more competitive and specialisation is a must.  The days of “jack of all trades” are bygone.  Thus, to succeed in modern day cut-throat competition, a person has to be a specialist in a particular field.  Be it a scientist, a journalist, doctor, lawyer, or any other profession, specialisation is the in-thing. That reminds me of a joke narrated by a colleague doing rounds in the medicine circles.  A patient having some problem with his left eye, went to an eye-specialist.  The doctor immediately burst out saying – “don’t you know that I am a specialist of the right eye”!!!!

It all began with D.T.C actually.  D.T.C launched University Specials known as U-specials, Ladies’ special.  Then hotels began to increasingly offer “special thalis” and “special” masala dosa.  Barbers too jumped into the fray by offering “special” shaves.  As if in a jiffy, specialisation seemed to have become the buzzword. 

Another instance of the spurt in the specialisation business was the in(famous) “tandoor murder case”.  After all the run-of-the-mill murders that were becoming dull and monotonous, murders were not hogging the headlines that they usually so richly deserve.  Thanks to this “specialised murder”, murders had then become a red hot (tandoori hot that is) news!!!  The media went all berserk over the “hot stuff”.  Well, after all, innovation in any sphere, be it crime does merit attention – and publicity too.

 Come to think of it.  Even politics could not remain untouched by this “wave” of specialisation. It all actually started with “acting” and “working” presidents of all the parties.  This only meant that in the scenario of specialisation, working presidents would no longer need to “act” and “acting” presidents do not need to work.  A nice bit of specialisation that.

Of course, the specialisation fetish extends to the Prime Minister too.   Our leaders and political parties seek the Prime Minister’s resignation at the drop of a hat.  The way PM’s resignation is demanded on “apparently disjointed issues”, be it DESU’s failure in maintaining an adequate supply of electricity, when electricity comes under the jurisdiction of State governments, reminds one of the story of the wolf and the lamb.  The wolf first accuses the lamb of polluting the water that the wolf is drinking.  But when the lamb points out that the water is coming from the wolf’s side, the wolf says that then it must have been the father of the lamb who polluted the water and gobbles the lamb as a punishment.

In the modern-day age of specialisation and that too in a country like India, one Prime Minister is not enough.  Why not have a “specialist resigning” PM?  All that the resigning PM would be supposed to do is to resign on all and sundry issues and that too before the first voice is raised, demanding his resignation.

Or instead, he could just “resign” himself to the situation without actually resigning.  Isn’t that quite a “specialised” thought?