Ginu Kamani’s short story “The Cure” is anything but an easy read. It forces the reader to delve into gravely serious topics that are just soul-wrenching to any human with a conscience. In the story, a young girl is afflicted by a rapid growth disorder. Her mother, worrying that she will fail as a parent if her daughter is not married, becomes obsessed with finding some sort of treatment for her. In desperation, she hires a man who claims to be a doctor; a “sexologist.” This man’s treatment is to essentially rape the girl.
This story is infuriating on so many levels because it includes some of the worst aspects of humanity within it: pedophilia, rape, forced marriages, child marriages, health fraud, lack of freedom, ignorance, and a skewed mentality of what it means to be a mother. I doubt a single person can read this story and not feel some sort of rage or disgust towards the antagonists.
As a pre-med student, I aspire to be a doctor one day and help people who need it the most. Just the thought of people abusing the medical profession (which I know does happen) and disgracing the mere word “doctor” enrages me beyond belief. However, an important thing to realize is that frauds like that only exist because people believe in them.
Throughout this poem, Kamani makes it very evident that the main theme is about control and what each person can or can’t control in their lives. We can see this through the uncontrollable growth and general lack of ability to make decisions of the main protagonist. However, we can also read between the lines and see this main theme with the “doctor” itself. That man is only able to exert control over his patients because his patients believe that what he is doing is actually medicine, and his patients believe him probably because of a lack of basic education (or common knowledge for that matter since Ramdass, who is uneducated, knew what was actually happening). In other words, the patients’ ignorance presents itself as a form of lack of control. Being ignorant allowed them to be manipulated and abused, essentially giving over their ability to control what is done to them to “Dr. Doctor.”
The main point that Kamani wanted to drive through with her novel is to never let other people gain complete control over you. If you read between the lines like I did, you will know that a way to do that is to end one’s own ignorance; to find empowerment and more control over life through education.