Week 1528 - Highest 2 Lowest and a Man's Purpose

The Concept Explained

Counting Down to 90 - Week 1579

Why 1579

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

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Seneca said, “There is nothing more despicable than an old man who has no other proof than his age to offer of his having lived long in the world.”

There has to be more to life than the loop of waking, eating, drinking, shitting, pissing, sleeping and waking again.

So, what is an older man’s purpose? 

Our scriptures talk of “vanaprastha”, a time for people to retire into a forest and ponder the mysteries of life and death. Today’s metaphorical forest encompasses religiosity, spiritualism and/or hobbies like singing, traveling the world and/or taking care of your grand-children…sometimes perhaps of all these.

Two days ago, I watched Highest 2 Lowest directed by Spike Lee with Denzel Washington in the lead. The film can be viewed as a simple crime thriller with an ethical dilemma…would you pay 18.5 million dollars as ransom money to free your friend’s son, who was mistaken for your son and kidnapped?

Or it can be viewed as a portrait of an older man, David King, the character played by Denzel Washington, who finally rediscovers his purpose. When young, he is “the guy”, the person with the best “ears” in the music business, who then at some point becomes more a businessman than a music guy, but then at the end finds salvation in reclaiming his true purpose…getting back to what made him “the man” in the first place.

I remember my 30s and 40s and I cannot recognize that person anymore…the one whose practice put up the first 64-slice CT scanner in Asia, always at the cutting edge of what radiology had to offer at a time when every 2-3 years saw major advances in hardware and machines reached obsolescence in 5 years. When we moved from a conventional CT to a spiral CT, it was revolutionary, while now a photon counting scanner is just an incremental advance. 

Then, in my early to mid 40s, we merged with a pathology corporate and created India’s largest radiology chain and then sold ourselves to another corporate with horrible founders. Though the whole exercise was a great learning experience, I realized halfway through that it was a mistake. Ten years ago, I was able to buy back my practice and in the last few years and especially since I’ve hit 60, I’ve realized that in a world that is fast becoming a corporate healthcare hell, the only way to do something worthwhile is to go back to basics…to focus on the best you can for your patients with as accurate an interpretation as possible.

I am not the same person I was when I started…I am not the same person I was last year…we all change…and the advantage of age is the perspective it brings to what is perhaps important and what is not. 

For most of us, money, recognition and fame are the lenses that define worth…ours and of those around us. Money is important and helps us move beyond the need to work for food, clothing and shelter and to attain perhaps a few other luxuries.  But once those are sorted, there is not much left to do with more money, unless you aspire to move into the stratosphere of private aircraft and 1000 cr weddings.  And as King says a couple of times in the film, “All money is not good money”. 

And so while money and fame and recognition are important, in the end, they are just a by-product, not a substitute…for…purpose.

So, what is the purpose of a man (and I use man to denote all genders and sexes, but use man because I am one) who is now in his 60s, if it is no longer about money or fame or recognition. 

David King finds his purpose in the very field that he excelled in and made him a king. I have also rediscovered my purpose in the same branch of medicine that has made me who I am. To wake up in the morning and see how many lives can be made better with the work I do daily and to teach and to write…these are my purpose.

Is that the same for everyone? I wouldn’t know…but I do know that a man bereft of purpose is a man adrift…and no man can afford to keep drifting for the remaining 30 years of his life. Life can’t be just about getting up in the morning and watching movies and shows on OTT and consuming Instagram reels and sending greetings and forwards and arguing endlessly on WhatsApp groups. A man has to find his purpose…which can be anything…from making someone else’s life better to taking care of a sick person to writing the next great novel or to finding oneself…anything…but something.

There has to be more to life. And the only way to find that “more” is to look inwards and ask ourselves that question…what is it that will give us joy and fulfillment. And then strive towards that with whatever energy, vigor and zest we can reach inside ourselves and summon…nothing will be as it was 30 years ago…but it will still be there.

The more I think about the film, the more I realize that we are who we are, based on what we do and how we do what we do. 

It boils down to our raison d’etre. 

Counting Down to 90 - Week 1570 - Raison D’Etre

Whether you are a radiologist or a non-radiology doctor or a non-doctor, ask yourself today. What is my raison d’etre, with the understanding that purpose is not a static concept, but something that evolves and changes along with us.

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

Purpose is perhaps the only thing that matters.