๐๐๐ง ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐๐ฌ๐๐ฌ (๐๐จ๐ญ ๐๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐)
- Madhukar Dama
- Oct 2
- 31 min read
Updated: Oct 3
๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ฎ๐
I began as a veterinarian. I worked with livestock and pets. I saw infections, metabolic problems, cancers, reproductive failures โ but even then, I noticed something: their diseases were fewer than ours. Pets mirrored their owners, livestock mirrored the conditions we forced on them, but compared to humans, they carried less burden.
Later, I became a professor at a wildlife research institute. I studied animals in forests, rivers, and grasslands. There, the truth struck me harder: diseases, in the form we know them, did not exist in nature. Death was everywhere โ a leopardโs hunt, a snakeโs bite, a fall from a tree โ but long, chronic diseases were absent. Infections behaved like predators, striking quickly and then gone. There were no epidemics of diabetes in elephants, no cancers running through herds of deer, no depression among monkeys leaping through the canopy.
Now I work with humans โ in clinical trials, in lifestyle disease management, in healing. And here the picture is opposite. Humans have the longest catalogue of diseases known to any species. We do not just collect them โ we invent new ones. Each decade adds to the list: diabetes, hypertension, autoimmune disorders, cancers, depression, addictions. What was once rare is now epidemic, what was once mild is now severe.
I stand at the junction of these three journeys: veterinary practice, wildlife science, human medicine. And from that vantage point the pattern is too clear to ignore:
The wild is almost free of disease.
Domesticated and pet animals, tied to manโs world, carry some disease.
Man himself is drowning in it.
This essay grows from that realization. Disease, as we know it, is not natureโs gift. It is manโs creation.
---
๐. ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐จ๐๐ฎ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ข๐ฆ ๐๐ก๐๐ญ ๐๐ก๐๐ค๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐
We are taught to believe that diseases are natural. That infections, cancers, diabetes, mental illnesses, allergies, and all the rest are simply part of existence. But what if this belief is false? What if nature itself is not diseased, and that it is only ๐ฆ๐๐ง who manufactures disease โ for himself, for the animals he domesticates, for the pets he cages, for the entire living world he touches?
This essay makes that claim without hesitation: man is the source of all diseases, not nature.
Nature provides mortality โ through predation, through accidents, through the simple end of life. But nature does not provide the chronic, lingering, degenerative, and explosive patterns of disease that fill hospitals, veterinary clinics, and pharmaceutical shelves. These belong to man, and man alone.
We will begin with the wild, where life is harsh but free of disease. Then we will travel step by step into domestication, into pets, and into modern man himself. Finally, we will trace the gradient even within humans โ from tribes to villages to cities โ to see how the burden of disease increases the farther we move from nature.
By the end, the conclusion will be unavoidable: all disease is born of manโs disconnection from nature.
---
๐๐. ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐: ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐๐ฌ๐
Step into a forest at dawn. You will see deer grazing, tigers stalking, birds calling, monkeys leaping. Life is in motion. Death too is present โ the tiger may catch the deer, a branch may fall on a monkey, a young bird may be taken by a snake. But in this cycle of life and death, there is something striking: you do not see the endless catalogue of diseases that plague man and his animals.
You do not see an obese tiger panting under its own weight.
You do not see a diabetic elephant injecting insulin.
You do not see a wild monkey crippled by arthritis in its thirties.
You do not see a wolf suffering from depression and compulsive disorders.
What you see instead is vitality โ animals that are lean, alert, adapted to their environment, each carrying the strength required to survive. Mortality in the wild is sudden, often violent, but it is not prolonged disease.
This is the baseline: life in its natural rhythm, free of the chronic, degenerative, and autoimmune afflictions that define human and domesticated existence.
---
๐๐๐. ๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง, ๐๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ, ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐
Three forces shape mortality in the wild: predation, accidents, and infections. But none of these equal โdiseaseโ in the human sense.
1. Predation is the law of life โ one species feeding on another. A lionโs kill of a zebra is not disease, it is nutrition and balance.
2. Accidents are the natural risks of movement and freedom. A fall, a bite, a broken limb. These are individual misfortunes, not population-wide diseases.
3. Infections in the wild act more like predators than diseases. Pathogens rarely cause long-term chronic states; instead, they strike and pass. The weak die, the strong survive, and balance continues.
This is why infections in the wild cannot be equated to human infections. In the wild, infections are checks and balances. In man, infections are chronic burdens, opportunistic feasts on a weakened immune system.
Why the difference? Because the immunity of wild animals is intact. They live in movement, eat natural diets, experience stress only in acute forms, and are constantly exposed to diverse microbes that train and balance their immune systems. Their infections are clean predators.
Human infections, by contrast, are parasites on a compromised host. They emerge not because nature designed them so, but because man weakened his own defenses by breaking natural laws.
---
๐๐. ๐๐ก๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ค: ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฌ
The first fracture from nature came when man began to domesticate animals. For thousands of years, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, and chickens have been reshaped to serve human needs. But this service came at a cost: the breaking of natural laws that had once kept disease at bay.
๐๐๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ค๐๐ง ๐ข๐ง ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง:
1. Freedom of movement was restricted. Animals once roaming wide landscapes were tied to posts, herded into barns, or fenced into narrow fields.
2. Diets were distorted. Natural grazing and foraging gave way to monoculture feeds, grain concentrates, later even industrial pellets.
3. Crowding was introduced. Chickens packed into coops, pigs into pens, cows into sheds โ densities unknown in the wild.
4. Predatorโprey balance was erased. Natural culling by predators was replaced by manโs artificial protection and selective slaughter.
5. Breeding was manipulated. Selection for milk yield, egg count, muscle mass, or docility replaced natural selection for survival fitness.
6. Seasonal rhythms were abolished. Instead of cycles of feast and scarcity, animals received constant food, lighting, and shelter.
7. Chemicals entered life. Later came pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, and synthetic interventions.
๐๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ง๐๐๐ฌ:
Metabolic diseases: fatty liver, ketosis in cows, laminitis in horses, obesity in pigs.
Infectious outbreaks: respiratory epidemics in poultry, swine flu, bovine TB.
Reproductive problems: mastitis, infertility, difficult calving.
Shortened healthspan: animals bred for production but prone to collapse.
Nature did not create these diseases. Man did โ by breaking every law that once kept animals in balance.
---
๐. ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ค: ๐๐๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐จ๐ง๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
If domestication was the first break, pets were the second โ and deeper โ rupture. For livestock at least retained some functional alignment with their nature. A cow still ate grass, a sheep still grazed, a chicken still pecked.
Pets, however, were pulled far beyond their evolutionary design.
๐๐๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ค๐๐ง ๐๐ฏ๐๐ง ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ:
1. Movement reduced to fragments. A dog in a flat walks a few minutes a day instead of roaming miles. Cats sit on sofas instead of hunting.
2. Diets fully artificial. Cans, kibble, processed treats replace raw, diverse, ecologically grounded diets.
3. Social structures erased. A solitary cat without colony, a single dog without pack.
4. Breeding distorted. From bulldogs that cannot breathe, to dachshunds with fragile spines, to Persian cats prone to kidney disease.
5. Medicalization of life. Constant vaccines, deworming, flea treatments, sterilization.
6. Psychological environment alienated. No hunting, no foraging, no natural mating, no territorial exploration.
๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐๐ฌ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ซ๐ ๐:
Autoimmune: thyroiditis, allergies, inflammatory bowel disease.
Metabolic: obesity, diabetes, liver disease.
Hormonal: reproductive cancers, endocrine disorders.
Psychological: anxiety, aggression, compulsive grooming.
Pets thus mirror the disconnection of their owners, but more intensely. They are living proof that the further a being is pulled from nature, the more disease multiplies.
---
๐๐. ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ซ๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ค: ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ ๐๐๐ง ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐๐ง
Finally, we come to man himself โ especially the modern, civilized man who has not only left the wild but built a world almost entirely opposed to it.
๐๐๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ค๐๐ง ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ง:
1. Movement collapsed. Sedentary lifestyles, chairs, cars, screens.
2. Diets corrupted. Processed food, refined sugar, artificial oils, chemical additives.
3. Crowding multiplied. Villages grew to towns, towns to cities, millions in dense living.
4. Breeding altered. Medicine allows survival of the unfit, altering natural selection.
5. Chemical exposure exploded. Plastics, pesticides, pollution, endocrine disruptors.
6. Social structures distorted. Isolation, nuclear families, loneliness.
7. Light cycles broken. Artificial light, shift work, insomnia.
8. Medical overreach. Antibiotics, surgeries, intensive care โ prolonging survival but adding chronic disease load.
๐๐๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฌ:
Metabolic epidemics: obesity, diabetes, hypertension.
Hormonal disorders: thyroid disease, infertility, PCOS.
Autoimmune disorders: lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes.
Psychological disorders: depression, anxiety, schizophrenia.
Infectious paradox: new pandemics from density + weakened immunity.
Cancers rising with age and chemical exposure.
Civilized man has broken every law of the wild, and in doing so, has become not only the most diseased species on Earth, but also the creator of disease in all other species under his care.
---
๐๐๐. ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ข๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ฌ: ๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ
Even among humans themselves, the distance from nature can be measured in disease.
Isolated tribes are lean, agile, and free of chronic disease. Their teeth are straight, their bones strong, their blood pressure low, their bodies resilient. They suffer accidents, occasional infections, but not the burden of diabetes, heart disease, or depression.
Tiny villages show the first cracks โ some processed food, less movement, fewer natural exposures. Hypertension, arthritis, and minor chronic conditions begin to appear.
Modern villages and small towns see more: packaged foods, mechanization, polluted water, chemical exposure. Obesity, diabetes, cancers begin to rise.
Cities are the pinnacle of disease creation: noise, pollution, stress, sedentary life, artificial food, social isolation, chemical overload. Here, all categories of disease converge โ metabolic, autoimmune, hormonal, psychological, infectious, neoplastic.
This gradient proves a simple truth: the farther man moves from the forest, the more diseased he becomes.
---
๐๐๐๐. ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ง: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐
Now let us step back. Across all species touched by man โ livestock, pets, humans themselves โ one law explains everything:
The greater the separation from nature, the greater the burden of disease.
In the wild, animals obey natural laws. Result: vitality, balance, no chronic disease.
In domestication, animals are partly separated. Result: infectious outbreaks, metabolic disorders, reproductive failures.
In pets, separation deepens. Result: autoimmune disease, psychological disturbances, cancers.
In civilized humans, separation is total. Result: the full catalogue of disease.
The pattern is not random. It is not coincidental. It is universal. The cause is singular: manโs disruption of the natural order.
---
๐๐. ๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐๐ง ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐๐ฌ๐ (๐๐จ๐ญ ๐๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐)
At this point, a skeptic may still ask: but donโt microbes cause disease? Donโt viruses and bacteria exist in the wild?
Yes, microbes exist everywhere. But microbes are not โdisease.โ They are part of the web of life โ most neutral, many beneficial, some predatory. In the wild, they play their role as ecological balancers.
It is only when man disturbs balance that microbes become โdisease.โ
When man crowds chickens by the thousands, avian influenza mutates.
When man overuses antibiotics, resistant bacteria emerge.
When man stresses his body with bad food and chronic worry, infections strike opportunistically.
When man extends life artificially, cancers emerge in old age.
When man alters diets and hormones, autoimmunity takes root.
Nature does not create these diseases. Nature creates life and death. Disease is manโs invention, the byproduct of his defiance of natural law.
---
๐. ๐๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐๐ฌ๐
Look across the living world with this lens and the truth becomes clear:
Wild animals live and die, but not by disease.
Domestic animals sicken only because man reshaped them.
Pets suffer because man caged them further.
Man himself is drowning in the very diseases he created.
Therefore, the statement is not exaggeration, not metaphor, not philosophy, but plain fact:
Man is the source of all diseases, not nature.
Nature does not give diabetes. Nature does not give depression. Nature does not give autoimmune arthritis. Nature does not give cancer in epidemic form.
Nature gives balance.
๐๐๐ง ๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐๐ฌ๐.
---
๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ฎ๐
When we stand at the edge of a forest and look inward, we see life moving in rhythm with laws older than time. Each creature is lean, alert, and whole. Death visits swiftly โ through predator, accident, or age โ but disease, in the chronic and lingering sense, is almost absent.
When we stand at the edge of a city and look inward, we see a very different picture. Streets filled with pharmacies, homes filled with medicines, hospitals filled with patients, animals in barns and houses equally under treatment. Here, disease is not the exception but the rule.
Between these two worlds โ the forest and the city โ lies the story of manโs hand upon life. Wherever man has entered with his fences, his cages, his processed foods, his chemicals, his machines, and his medicines, disease has followed. Wherever man has not yet reached, life still pulses with balance.
This is not poetry, not speculation, but simple observation repeated across continents and centuries. The hunter-gatherer tribes with no diabetes or hypertension. The village where disease is rare, compared to the metropolis where it is everywhere. The jungle fowl that thrives, compared to the broiler chicken that suffers. The wild wolf that endures, compared to the bulldog that gasps.
The evidence converges: disease is not natureโs gift, it is manโs invention.
To recognize this is not to curse mankind, but to hold up a mirror. For only when we see that we are the source, do we also see that we hold the power to change.
The path back is not to abandon civilization, but to rebuild it in closer alignment with the laws of life. More freedom of movement, truer foods, cleaner air, richer microbial contact, simpler living, deeper connection. Each step back toward nature is a step away from disease.
And so the story ends where it began:
Nature does not give disease.
๐๐๐ง ๐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐๐ฌ๐.
But the hand that created disease can also be the hand that removes it.
---
---
MAN IS THE SOURCE OF ALL DISEASES (NOT NATURE)
-- a dialogue with Madhukar
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐
It is early morning at Madhukarโs off-grid homestead near Yelmadagi. The air is cool, carrying the smell of wet soil and wild flowers. A faint mist still hangs low on the fields. In the distance, the forest edge is alive โ parrots screech, bulbuls sing, and the first sunlight touches the tops of tamarind and neem trees.
The homestead is simple โ mud walls whitewashed by hand, a small verandah, firewood stacked neatly, solar panels catching the dawn. A copper pot of boiled water rests on the hearth. No hum of machines, no city noise โ only wind and birds.
A circle of charpoys (woven cots) and mud stools is arranged under a large banyan tree near the edge of the homestead. This is where the dialogue will unfold.
The experts have arrived reluctantly, some in jeeps, others in hired taxis. Their suits and polished shoes feel out of place in the red soil. They are visibly uncomfortable โ with the silence, with the stillness, with the idea of being dragged away from their institutions to debate a claim they consider dangerous, even offensive.
But there is something magnetic about the place. The forest at their backs, the simplicity of the homestead, the absence of noise โ it begins to quiet even their fury, though they try to resist it.
---
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ
Madhukar
The man who made the claim: โMan is the source of all diseases (not nature).โ
Calm, grounded, unhurried.
Not dressed in authority, but in simplicity โ a cotton kurta, bare feet on the earth.
He does not argue loudly. He listens. He smiles. He lets silence speak before words.
His power comes from lived experience: off-grid life, close to the soil, far from the noise of hospitals and cities.
---
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ / ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ง๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ
1. Dr. Karnik โ The Clinician
A grey-haired physician, respected in his city, stethoscope still in his bag though useless here.
Furiously protective of modern medicine.
Argues that diseases existed long before industry, and that doctors fight disease, not create it.
His fury hides an insecurity: years of treating patients, yet seeing them return, never cured.
---
2. Dr. Menon โ The Epidemiologist
Younger, bespectacled, armed with numbers and graphs.
Believes your claim is dangerous misinformation.
Argues that plagues, cholera, malaria existed long before modern lifestyle.
His data is sharp, but he is uneasy here โ numbers seem thin against the forestโs silence.
---
3. Dr. Patil โ The Veterinary Scientist
Heavyset, rural-born but city-based now, deeply attached to livestock research.
Argues that mastitis, parasites, infections are natural.
Cannot bear the idea that his lifeโs work โ protecting domestic animals โ might itself be proof of manโs interference.
---
4. Dr. Nayak โ The Wildlife Biologist
Rugged, field scientist, khaki clothes, binoculars dangling.
Argues that nature is not idyllic โ parasites, infections, and deaths are everywhere.
Skeptical of your โromantic forest view.โ
Yet the forest behind him quietly contradicts his words.
---
5. Dr. Iqbal โ The Psychiatrist
Elegant, urbane, speaks in clinical language.
Argues that mental illness is not man-made but ancient, seen in myths and history.
His fury conceals sadness: decades of treating depression and schizophrenia with medicines that never truly heal.
---
6. Dr. Sen โ The Philosopher of Science
The most combative. Sharp-tongued, loves debate.
Claims your statement is โideology, not evidence.โ
His arguments cut, but his own students say he rarely leaves his books.
Deep down, fears that philosophy has become disconnected from life itself.
---
7. The Tribal Elder (Basava)
From a nearby forest community.
Dark, lean, white hair tied back, eyes shining with quiet wisdom.
Not angry. Not defensive. Speaks rarely, but each word lands like truth itself.
Represents lived knowledge untouched by theory.
---
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ
The experts sit restlessly on the charpoys. Some sip tea. Some look at their watches. They are irritated, ready for confrontation. Birds sing overhead, oblivious.
Madhukar sits quietly, cross-legged on a stool, smiling faintly, letting the morning settle. He knows fury is only the surface; beneath it, the experts are drawn here by something deeper.
The dialogue is about to begin.
---
๐๐๐ญ ๐ โ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ญ๐ญ๐๐๐ค
Scene:
The group settles under the banyan tree. The sun is only a pale orange on the horizon. Dew still clings to the grass. A kettle of black tea sits on a clay stove. The experts are restless, adjusting their watches, brushing dust from their trousers. Madhukar sits cross-legged, bare feet on the soil, calm.
---
Dr. Sen (Philosopher, breaking the silence):
โMadhukar, letโs be direct. This line of yours โ man is the source of all diseases โ is not only provocative, it is false. Diseases existed long before cities, before agriculture. Skeletons from ancient caves show signs of tuberculosis. Mummies show parasitic worms. Youโre ignoring evidence.โ
Madhukar (smiling slightly, patient):
โDr. Sen, I donโt deny those findings. Microbes and parasites existed before us, of course. But letโs separate mortality from disease. Tuberculosis in a skeleton is not the same as the tuberculosis epidemic that killed millions in crowded 19th century cities. A parasite in a mummy is not the same as chronic infestations in todayโs livestock. What I am saying is simple: in the wild, microbes behave like predators. They kill quickly, they cull the weak. But they do not create the endless, chronic, population-wide burden of disease. That burden begins with us.โ
---
Dr. Karnik (Clinician, voice sharp, leaning forward):
โSo malaria is man-made? The plague is man-made? Smallpox is man-made? Are you serious? Do you understand how many people these have killed? These are natural infections, not your so-called โman-made diseases.โโ
Madhukar (unhurried):
โLetโs take them one by one. Malaria โ tell me, where does it spread most?โ
Dr. Karnik (dismissive):
โIn tropical zones, everywhere.โ
Madhukar:
โBut specifically โ in stagnant water, near settlements, near irrigation ditches. Malaria became epidemic only after agriculture created conditions for mosquitoes to breed. Before man settled, mosquito bites were natural predators โ sharp, occasional. But manโs fields, manโs tanks, manโs ditches multiplied mosquitoes. Malaria became manโs disease.โ
---
Madhukar (turning to the group):
โAnd plague? Where did it flourish? In dense, filthy cities with stored grain and rats. Nomadic tribes and isolated villagers were not devastated the same way. And smallpox? It spread only among crowded, settled populations. You need density, contact, and weakened immunity. Who created those? Man did.โ
A pause. The group looks uneasy. The forest sounds grow louder as the sun rises further.
---
Dr. Menon (Epidemiologist, pushing back with data):
โFine, but even hunter-gatherers suffered infections. Some tribes today still get cholera, respiratory infections, skin diseases. Are you saying thatโs also manโs fault?โ
Madhukar:
โI am saying they suffer far less. In isolated tribes, infections come and go like storms. They donโt become lifelong burdens. They donโt explode as pandemics. And they donโt coexist with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, depression โ all the diseases of modern man. Show me a tribal diabetic. Show me a tribal hypertensive. Show me a tribal depressed and suicidal. You will not find them. Disease grows as distance from nature grows.โ
---
Dr. Sen (interrupting, irritated):
โYouโre playing with words โ calling infection a predator when you want to, and calling it man-made when you want to. Isnโt that convenient?โ
Madhukar (calmly, but firm):
โItโs not convenience, Dr. Sen. Itโs observation. In the wild, infections are episodic and self-limiting. In manโs world, they are chronic and epidemic. The difference lies not in the microbe, but in the host and the environment. And both are altered by man.โ
---
The Tribal Elder, Basava (softly, almost to himself):
โIn our forest, people fall sick sometimes, yes. But sickness goes. Or the person dies. We donโt carry long sickness for years. We donโt keep medicines at home. When we visit towns, we see shops only for sickness. We donโt understand how people live like that.โ
The group goes silent. Even Dr. Sen looks down, rubbing his temple.
---
๐๐๐ญ ๐๐ โ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐ฌ
Scene:
The sun has risen a little higher, lighting the fields in golden haze. Cows from a nearby farm wander in the distance, bells clinking softly. The experts shift on their charpoys, sipping the now-cool tea. The fury has mellowed into tight skepticism.
---
Dr. Patil (Veterinary Scientist, leaning forward, voice heavy):
โMadhukar, let me challenge you directly. I have worked with livestock my whole career. Cows suffer mastitis, ketosis, milk fever. Sheep are devastated by parasites. Poultry face respiratory epidemics. You cannot seriously argue that all these are โman-made.โ These are diseases of animals themselves. They would exist even without us.โ
Madhukar (calm, pointing to the cows in the distance):
โDr. Patil, tell me honestly โ have you ever studied wild buffalo in open forest? Do they suffer mastitis epidemics? Do jungle fowl collapse from respiratory outbreaks the way broiler chickens do? Do wild goats die in droves from worms like your penned sheep?โ
Dr. Patil (hesitates):
โIn the wild, itโs harder to measure. Animals die, disappearโฆ but yes, not in the same concentrated way.โ
Madhukar (nodding):
โExactly. In the wild, parasites and microbes are part of balance. They pick off the weak, but they donโt create population-wide chronic disease. Mastitis, for example โ in a wild buffalo mother, itโs rare. But tie a cow, restrict her movement, milk her daily, feed her unnatural diets โ suddenly mastitis becomes epidemic. Thatโs not natureโs disease, Dr. Patil. Thatโs ours.โ
---
Dr. Patil (voice rising):
โBut parasites? Theyโre everywhere. Sheep have worms whether wild or domestic.โ
Madhukar:
โYes, but ask yourself: why do wild sheep not collapse the way farm sheep do? Because they move constantly, grazing different pastures. The parasite load is spread, balanced. Put the same sheep in pens, on the same ground, eating the same fodder, crowd them โ and the parasite burden explodes. Again, not the parasiteโs fault. Manโs conditions create disease.โ
---
Dr. Menon (Epidemiologist, interjecting):
โBut surely some baseline infections are natural. Foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, classical swine fever โ these viruses exist independent of us.โ
Madhukar (turns calmly):
โThey exist, yes. But epidemics require conditions. Who brings thousands of cattle together in a single shed? Who trades pigs across continents? Who ships poultry in trucks by the million? The viruses may exist in nature, but it is man who gives them the breeding ground. Without crowding, without transport, without artificial density, they would be sparks. We turn them into fires.โ
---
Dr. Patil (softening slightly, but still resistant):
โSo are you saying every single livestock disease is because of us?โ
Madhukar (firm but gentle):
โNot every single case, Dr. Patil. But every epidemic pattern, every chronic burden โ yes. Look at ketosis, milk fever, lameness in cows. None of these exist in wild bovids. They appear only when we force unnatural diets, heavy lactation, and restricted movement. Look at poultry โ jungle fowl are lean, strong, balanced. Our broilers are obese, with failing hearts and fragile bones. Is that nature? Or us?โ
---
Dr. Sen (Philosopher, trying to reframe):
โSo your point is: microbes and parasites are natural, but diseases โ epidemics, chronic burdens โ arise when man disturbs balance?โ
Madhukar (smiling):
โExactly. Disease is not a gift of microbes. It is a creation of conditions. And those conditions are created by man.โ
---
The Tribal Elder, Basava (quietly, with a knowing smile):
โIn our forest, goats roam free. They are thin, strong, fast. They eat many leaves. Yes, sometimes one dies with worms. But only one. Not ten, not twenty. When I see goats in villages, tied, fed only grass or husk, then many die. That is not the forestโs doing.โ
The group falls silent again. The experts glance at one another. Patil stares into the distance at the cows, bells clinking, a flicker of doubt crossing his face.
---
๐๐๐ญ ๐๐๐ โ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ & ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ
Scene:
The sun is higher now, burning away the mist. The forest edge is alive with bird calls โ barbets, bulbuls, parrots. A langur barks from a distant tamarind tree. The group sits in shade, but the air is warming. Thereโs a tension in the circle: two rounds of challenges have been deflected. Now Dr. Nayak, the wildlife biologist, leans forward. He smells of the field โ mud on his boots, binoculars at his neck, sun-darkened skin.
---
Dr. Nayak (with irritation, voice steady but firm):
โMadhukar, I canโt sit quietly anymore. Youโre painting the wild as some kind of disease-free paradise. Thatโs not true. Iโve seen lions with canine distemper. Iโve seen wild dogs crippled by mange. Iโve seen elephants coughing blood with tuberculosis. Nature is not pure. Disease is everywhere, even without manโs interference.โ
Madhukar (nodding, patient):
โDr. Nayak, no one denies lions fall sick, wild dogs suffer, elephants sometimes waste away. But letโs ask carefully: where did those diseases come from? And why do they spread as epidemics now, more than before?โ
---
Dr. Nayak (leaning in, defensive):
โCanine distemper in lions โ that was not man. Itโs a virus found in wild carnivores.โ
Madhukar (quietly, but firm):
โTrue, the virus exists in wild carnivores. But the Serengeti epidemic you speak of? It came from domestic dogs living on the parkโs edge. The virus spilled from manโs animals into wild lions. Without that contact, without villages pressing against the forest, would the lions have died in hundreds? No.โ
---
Dr. Nayak (hesitating, then trying again):
โAnd mange in wild dogs? Thatโs natural.โ
Madhukar:
โNot in epidemic form. Wild dogs suffer outbreaks now because of contact with livestock and village dogs carrying the mites. In free-ranging packs, mange is rare and self-limiting. It becomes devastating when manโs settlements push his animals into contact with wild packs.โ
---
Dr. Nayak (voice low, reluctant):
โAnd elephants with TB?โ
Madhukar (without hesitation):
โEvery case traced back to humans โ mahouts, zookeepers, logging camps. Wild elephants in deep forest do not show TB epidemics. They get it when kept in chains, in camps, in zoos โ through us.โ
---
The group shifts. Even Dr. Sen, the philosopher, looks thoughtful. The rustle of banyan leaves fills the pause.
---
Dr. Menon (epidemiologist, cautiously):
โSo youโre saying wildlife disease outbreaks are not proof against your argumentโฆ they are proof of it?โ
Madhukar (nodding):
โYes. Nature has microbes, yes. But epidemics in wildlife today are spillovers โ from man, his domestic animals, his settlements. Even the Nipah virus outbreaks โ fruit bats carried it harmlessly for centuries. It became deadly only when bats lost habitat to fruit orchards and pigs. Who created that bridge? Not nature. Man.โ
---
Dr. Nayak (sitting back, arms folded, but quieter now):
โI cannot deny what youโre saying. Many outbreaks I studied had human fingerprints. But isnโt it too much to say all disease comes from man? What about parasites naturally weakening old animals? Isnโt that still disease?โ
Madhukar (gently, with a faint smile):
โOld age, accidents, predation, parasites โ yes, they take life. But they are not chronic epidemics. They are part of balance. Nature gives mortality. Man gives disease.โ
---
Basava, the Tribal Elder (softly, almost like a reminder):
โIn our forest, we see leopards with scars, old deer limping, a sick monkey sometimes. But we never see whole groups wasting away. We never see what you people call โepidemics.โ That begins when the village comes closer.โ
Silence settles again. The experts glance at Basava, then at Madhukar, then at the forest itself โ as if testing what theyโve just heard against the living world before them.
---
๐๐๐ญ ๐๐ โ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐๐ง ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ข๐๐ง๐ญ
Scene:
The sun is climbing. The mist is gone, and the land is warming. A koel calls repeatedly from a mango tree. The group has grown quieter โ less furious, more thoughtful, though still restless. The tea is finished; Basava chews betel leaves quietly.
---
Dr. Menon (Epidemiologist, adjusting his glasses, careful tone):
โMadhukar, I accept your points about animals and spillovers. But within humans themselves, diseases are natural. Even tribes fall sick. There are infections, fevers, deaths. You canโt say tribes are free of disease.โ
Madhukar (nodding):
โThey are not free of mortality, Dr. Menon. They die from snakebites, infections, accidents. But look carefully at what they do not have. No diabetes. No hypertension. No obesity. No chronic depression. No autoimmune diseases. These are absent among isolated tribes.โ
---
Dr. Karnik (Clinician, leaning forward again, skeptical):
โThatโs anecdotal. Whereโs the evidence? We have records of mummies with arthritis, skeletons with dental cavities, even signs of atherosclerosis in ancient remains. Disease is not new.โ
Madhukar (calmly, turning to him):
โYes, single cases exist. But not epidemics. Compare numbers: In cities today, half the adults have hypertension. One in three has diabetes or pre-diabetes. Every second person above fifty lives with some chronic disease. Do you see that in hunter-gatherer tribes? Do you see them lining up for daily pills? No. One mummy with arthritis is not the same as a city of millions on painkillers.โ
---
Dr. Sen (Philosopher, frowning):
โStill, isnโt it possible that these diseases were always there, only less recorded?โ
Madhukar (patiently, pointing to Basava):
โThen listen to the people who still live without our records. Basava-anna, tell them โ do your people suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease?โ
Basava (simply, shrugging):
โWe donโt even know these names. Some die young, some old. But nobody eats medicine every day. We never saw anyone injecting insulin. We never saw children with asthma. These are things we hear only when we go to town.โ
---
Dr. Iqbal (Psychiatrist, quietly but still defensive):
โBut what about mental illness? Depression, anxiety, schizophrenia โ surely these are ancient, not modern.โ
Madhukar (turning to him, steady voice):
โTell me, Dr. Iqbal โ have you seen suicides in tribes? Have you seen epidemics of depression in hunter-gatherers? Mental distress exists, yes โ grief, loss, fear. But the epidemics of chronic anxiety, loneliness, addiction, suicide? These rise with modern living, not in forests.โ
Dr. Iqbal (after a pause, sighing):
โIn truthโฆ most of my patients come from towns and cities, rarely from remote villages. And when I visited tribal communities as a student, I didnโt see the same constant depression. It wasโฆ different.โ
---
Dr. Menon (trying to rescue the argument with data):
โBut urbanization improves life expectancy! Cities reduce infant mortality, increase survival. If disease increases, it is because more people live longer to show it.โ
Madhukar:
โLife expectancy is not the same as health. In cities, people live longer โ but diseased. Ten years, twenty years on pills. Survival is extended, but vitality is lost. In tribes, a man may die younger, but he lives free till the end. Which is health, Dr. Menon? Survival with disease, or life without it?โ
The question hangs in the air. The birds fill the silence.
---
Dr. Patil (the vet, speaking softly now):
โYouโre saying the pattern is universal โ from goats to people. The farther from nature, the more disease.โ
Madhukar (firm, but without raising his voice):
โYes. Look around:
Tribes โ least disease.
Small villages โ more.
Large villages โ still more.
Towns and cities โ epidemics of every kind.
It is not random. It is law. The gradient is clear. Distance from nature is distance into disease.โ
---
Basava (nodding, almost to himself):
โWe laugh when city doctors tell us everyone must take medicine daily. In the forest, nobody lives like that. Only townspeople live half their life in sickness. For us, sickness is short. Death is quick. Life is free.โ
The experts look at him. His voice carries no theory, no data, only lived truth โ and it is harder to refute than any chart.
---
๐๐๐ญ ๐ โ ๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ญ๐ก & ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐จ๐ง๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
Scene:
The sun is brighter now. The shade of the banyan feels comforting. A koel still calls from the mango tree. The group has stopped fidgeting. Their anger is less, but Dr. Iqbal still leans forward, his brow furrowed. Psychiatry is his ground, and he is not ready to give it up.
---
Dr. Iqbal (measured, but tense):
โMadhukar, I hear you about tribes and physical diseases. But mental illness โ that cannot be explained away by your โdisconnection from nature.โ Depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder โ they are not new. Ancient texts describe them. Myths across cultures mention madness. Mental disease is part of the human condition, not just modern life.โ
Madhukar (calm, voice even):
โI do not deny human suffering has always existed, Dr. Iqbal. People grieved, raged, feared. Some minds broke under loss or trauma. But the epidemics we see today โ the waves of depression, anxiety, suicide, addiction โ these are not ancient. They belong to our modern way of life.โ
---
Dr. Iqbal (pressing):
โAre you suggesting that schizophrenia โ one of the most studied, genetically-linked illnesses โ is also man-made? Thatโs irresponsible.โ
Madhukar (without haste):
โI am suggesting that even genetic vulnerability expresses itself only under certain environments. Think: do we see schizophrenia uniformly across all societies? Or does it rise sharply in urban, industrialized, disconnected populations? Even in India, tribal groups show almost none of it, while cities show many cases. Why? Because environment shapes expression. The soil of disconnection allows seeds of vulnerability to sprout.โ
Dr. Iqbal (silent for a moment, then quietly):
โThere is researchโฆ higher schizophrenia rates in migrants, in urban settings. But many in my field argue stress of migration triggers it. Not nature.โ
Madhukar (nodding):
โAnd what is migration, Dr. Iqbal, if not forced separation from familiar soil, familiar bonds, familiar rhythms? You call it stress. I call it disconnection. The word is different, but the meaning is the same.โ
---
Dr. Sen (the philosopher, interjecting):
โBut grief, rage, sorrow โ these are natural to man. Are you calling them diseases too?โ
Madhukar (shaking his head):
โNo. Grief is not disease. Fear is not disease. They are sharp, natural responses โ like fever in infection. They rise and fall. But when grief becomes endless depression, when fear becomes chronic anxiety, when minds break in despair โ that is disconnection. Nature does not create chronic despair. It creates acute responses. Man, with his isolation, his artificial living, his loneliness in cities, stretches them into disease.โ
---
Dr. Iqbal (challenging again):
โYet suicide is not new. Ancient texts mention it.โ
Madhukar (gently, leaning forward now):
โYes, a few suicides exist in history. But today, suicide is an epidemic. In villages where community still exists, suicide is rare. In tribes, almost absent. In cities, it is common. Why this difference? Because suicide thrives where bonds break, where people live cut off from family, land, and meaning. Nature does not give epidemic suicide. Manโs world does.โ
---
Basava, the Tribal Elder (quiet, almost reflective):
โIn our forest, we lose people to tiger, to snake, to accident. But never to their own hand. We sit together, eat together, share stories. Sadness comes, but it goes. Alone, people may break. But we are never alone.โ
The silence after his words is deep. Even the koel stops for a moment.
---
Dr. Iqbal (softly, almost to himself):
โIn my clinic, most patients speak of loneliness, of stress, of feeling meaningless. Medicines only mute it. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps the disease is not in the brain alone, but in the life they live.โ
---
๐๐๐ญ ๐๐ โ ๐๐๐ญ๐ฌ & ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐จ๐ง๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
Scene:
The morning has fully arrived. The sun is warm, the mist gone. The group is more relaxed now, though still wrestling with the implications. A stray village dog trots lazily across the field, sniffing and wagging its tail. The experts notice it โ the timing feels uncanny.
---
Dr. Patil (Veterinarian, shaking his head, half-smiling):
โMadhukar, I can see your point about livestock. But pets? Surely dogs and cats are healthier now than ever before โ vaccinated, dewormed, taken care of. They live longer. Isnโt that proof that man improves their lives, not worsens them?โ
Madhukar (smiling, watching the stray dog in the field):
โThey live longer, yes. But ask yourself: are they healthier? Look at urban pets. How many are obese? How many suffer arthritis, skin allergies, thyroid problems, diabetes, cancers? You treat them, donโt you?โ
Dr. Patil (hesitates, reluctantly):
โโฆfar too many. In fact, obesity in dogs is one of the biggest problems we see.โ
---
Dr. Menon (curious now, less combative):
โBut obesity in pets โ isnโt that just overfeeding by careless owners? That doesnโt prove your grand claim.โ
Madhukar:
โOverfeeding, processed kibble, lack of movement โ exactly. They no longer roam miles in packs, hunt, or forage. Their diet is artificial, their movement restricted, their social structures broken. The result? The same diseases as their owners: diabetes, heart disease, thyroid disorders, even psychological problems like anxiety and compulsive behaviors.โ
---
Dr. Iqbal (the psychiatrist, raising an eyebrow):
โPsychological problems in pets? Now you exaggerate.โ
Madhukar (turning to him):
โAsk any urban vet. Dogs with separation anxiety. Cats over-grooming until bald patches form. Parrots plucking their own feathers. Pets mirror their ownersโ disconnection. They are closer to us than livestock, but farther from their own nature than any species alive.โ
Dr. Patil (nodding slowly, voice subdued):
โI have treated cats with obsessive licking. Dogs chewing their own tails bloody. I always thought of it as stress, but I never connected it this wayโฆ closer to us, farther from themselves.โ
---
Dr. Sen (philosopher, almost reluctantly):
โSo your ladder is: wild animals, mostly free. Domesticated animals, diseased by manโs needs. Pets, even worse, diseased by manโs affections. And finally man himself, drowning in his own creation?โ
Madhukar (simply, nodding):
โYes. Pets are the mirror we cannot deny. They show us plainly that disease is not natureโs gift, but the price of disconnection. They are diseased not because microbes chose them, but because we shaped them in our image.โ
---
Basava, the Tribal Elder (softly, watching the stray dog wander off):
โIn our hamlet, dogs run free. They eat scraps, hunt rats, guard at night. They are thin, fast, happy. No medicines, no doctors. When they grow old, they die. In town, I see dogs fat, wheezing, scratching all day. That is not the dogโs doing. It is the manโs doing.โ
The experts fall quiet again. They cannot laugh at Basava โ his words are too plain, too real.
---
Note:
With pets, the argument turns undeniable. Livestock could still be explained away as โproduction stress.โ But pets, cared for with affection, yet diseased as much as their owners, prove the law: the further from nature, the deeper the disease.
The experts are no longer furious. They are unsettled, reflective, even weary. They sip water quietly, eyes turning toward Madhukar, waiting for the final stage: man himself.
---
๐๐๐ญ ๐๐๐๐ โ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐ฐ & ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง
Scene:
The sun is now high, casting mottled shadows through the banyan leaves. The experts sit more easily, the edge of confrontation gone. A village boy passes with a bundle of firewood on his head. The sound of cowbells drifts faintly.
---
Dr. Sen (philosopher, after a long pause):
โMadhukar, what youโre saying is radical. But I must admitโฆ the pattern is hard to deny. The more distance from nature, the more disease. That is the law youโre pointing to.โ
Madhukar (quietly):
โYes. It is not my invention. It is what life shows us everywhere, if we only look.โ
---
Dr. Menon (epidemiologist, slowly, as though thinking aloud):
โIn isolated tribes, we see balance โ infections, yes, but not epidemics of chronic disease. In villages, we see a rise. In towns, more. In cities, the explosion. The gradient is real. I have the data, but I never framed it like this.โ
---
Dr. Patil (veterinarian, sighing deeply):
โAnd in animals, the same law holds. Wild buffalo are healthy. Domestic cattle sicken. Pets mirror us. I always blamed the microbes, the genes, but I see now โ it is our pens, our feeds, our cages. We create the disease.โ
---
Dr. Iqbal (psychiatrist, softly, almost with regret):
โAnd in the mind too. Tribes grieve but heal. Cities multiply depression, loneliness, suicide. Perhaps the greatest epidemic of all is not viral or bacterial, but emptiness.โ
---
Dr. Karnik (clinician, after a long silence, speaking slowly):
โI have spent my life fighting disease. But you are right, Madhukar. We manage it, we stretch it, but we never remove it. Because the source remains. Medicine treats, but man creates. This is a hard truth.โ
---
Madhukar (looking at each of them, voice steady):
โThen you see it. Nature does not give disease. Nature gives life, and it gives death. But it does not give the chronic burden of sickness. That burden is born only where man breaks natural law. Disease is not natureโs gift. It is manโs creation.โ
---
Basava, the Tribal Elder (with quiet finality):
โWe did not need to come here to know this. We see it every day. But sometimes people need to argue before they see what is in front of their eyes.โ
---
The group falls silent. No one looks angry now. Some look thoughtful, some weary, some humbled. The banyan leaves sway in the breeze. The forest hums steadily behind them, as if untouched by the whole debate.
The sun is directly overhead. The morning argument has burned itself out, leaving clarity in its place.
---
Closing Note:
Thus the dialogue ends not with defeat, but with realization. The furious experts, each defending their discipline, discover that all their knowledge points to the same truth:
Man is the source of all diseases, not nature.
---
๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ฎ๐ โ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ข๐ง๐
Scene:
The discussion has ended. The sun is high, the forest alive with cicadas. The experts rise slowly, dusting their trousers, stretching their legs. Their jeeps wait at the edge of the field. Before they leave, each speaks โ not to argue now, but to reflect.
---
Dr. Sen (Philosopher, thoughtful, almost humbled):
โI came here certain you were wrong, Madhukar. But now I see philosophy must return to observation, not just books. The law is simple: separation from nature breeds disease. Perhaps the deepest error of philosophy has been to treat man as separate from nature itself.โ
---
Dr. Menon (Epidemiologist, nodding slowly):
โMy charts and numbers always showed the rise of disease with urbanization. But I never saw the cause so clearly. It is not microbes alone. It is the conditions we create. I must reframe my work โ epidemics are human-made environments, not natural inevitabilities.โ
---
Dr. Patil (Veterinarian, voice heavy with realization):
โFor years I blamed parasites, microbes, bad luck. Today I see โ it is the pens, the feeds, the restrictions we force. If livestock are diseased, it is because of us. I will never look at a coughing cow or a lame hen the same way again.โ
---
Dr. Nayak (Wildlife Biologist, arms folded, but quieter now):
โI fought you hardest, Madhukar. I thought you romanticized the wild. But I cannot deny โ most wildlife outbreaks today trace back to man, his dogs, his farms, his villages. The wild is not diseased. It is disturbed. I leave here uneasy, but clearer.โ
---
Dr. Iqbal (Psychiatrist, with quiet sadness):
โMy patients carry loneliness, disconnection, emptiness. I called it brain chemistry. Perhaps it is disconnection from life itself. Medicines help little, because the cause is deeper. I must think differently now. Maybe healing lies in reconnection, not only in pills.โ
---
Dr. Karnik (Clinician, voice subdued, almost weary):
โI built my life treating disease. Yet I see that medicine does not end it. We stretch survival, but disease grows. Your words sting, Madhukar, but they are true. We are not fighting nature. We are fighting ourselves.โ
---
Basava, the Tribal Elder (smiling faintly, adjusting his stick):
โYou all spoke many words. But in the forest, the truth is simple. Live with the land, sickness is small. Live away from it, sickness grows. We knew this, but you needed a long morning to remember.โ
---
Madhukar (standing, joining his palms, voice calm):
โEach of you returns to your world with new eyes. If you see disease again, remember: do not blame nature. Look at what we broke. The cure will never be in fighting microbes alone, but in returning to balance.โ
---
The experts walk slowly toward their jeeps, silent, each lost in thought. The homestead remains behind โ quiet, grounded, surrounded by forest. The banyan leaves rustle as if closing the chapter.
The dialogue is done. The truth is clear.
Man is the source of all diseases โ not nature.
---
---
๐๐๐ง ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐๐๐ฌ๐
you look at a forest
and nothingโs dying of cancer.
a deer goes down because a tiger was hungry,
not because it forgot how to use insulin.
no wolf ever booked an appointment.
no parrot ever lined up for chemotherapy.
the wild runs on tooth and claw,
fast and final.
no long hospital corridors,
no life stretched out on tubes.
but then we showed up.
we wanted milk on demand,
meat every night,
a dog that wouldnโt bite,
a cat that wouldnโt leave.
so we built cages
and called it civilization.
and the diseases came
like unwanted tenants
who never left.
cows with tits so swollen they rot.
chickens packed so tight they canโt breathe.
pigs standing in their own shit,
bred fat and stupid for our forks.
we called it farming.
nature calls it a mistake.
and then the pets โ
our little trophies of loneliness.
we locked wolves into apartments,
turned them into โgood boysโ
who piss on command.
we bred cats with flat faces,
so they could barely breathe,
but god, arenโt they cute.
and they got fat.
they got sad.
they got all the same crap we do โ
diabetes, thyroid, anxiety,
scratching themselves bald in a two-bedroom flat.
our reflection on four legs.
look around the city.
half the people are walking pharmacies.
blood pressure pills, sugar pills, sleeping pills.
they get up, swallow, sit, eat, scroll, swallow again.
medicine is the new religion.
every street has its temple โ
a clinic, a pharmacy,
some white coat telling you how to last a little longer.
donโt confuse that with living.
itโs not living.
itโs stretching the rope a few more inches.
itโs calling survival an achievement.
tribal people donโt have this crap.
they donโt have arthritis wards,
psychiatric units,
or lifelong prescriptions.
they die quicker, sure.
snakebite, a fall, a predator.
but not twenty years of slow drowning in pills.
they donโt spend half their lives waiting for blood tests.
they donโt even have a word for โcholesterol.โ
disease isnโt nature.
disease is man.
we sat in chairs until our spines bent.
we filled our lungs with air we couldnโt pronounce.
we ate food that wasnโt food.
we stared into screens instead of fire.
we broke every law the body was written on,
and now we call it destiny.
bullshit.
you want destiny?
go watch a buffalo graze.
go watch a dog run until its tongue hangs out.
destiny is balance.
disease is us.
we blame bacteria.
we blame genes.
we blame fate.
but itโs the same story every time:
we build the cage,
then cry when the animal inside
suffocates.
and the animal is us.
thereโs no poetry in this,
no silver lining.
man is the disease.
not the victim.
not the hero.
the disease.
and maybe โ
if weโre lucky,
if we sober up โ
we can be the cure too.
but donโt bet too much on it.
history says weโd rather
swallow another pill
and call it progress.
---
---
