Mail from SP Sir

[Guest guest]

The following mail is forwarded from SP Sir's mail:

Dear all,

Yesterday evening Madhu and Nitika, my Indian friends at Berkeley,

drove me

to Art Reingold's Oakland home, about 5 miles from my studio. Art

Reingold

is my academic adviser and has special interest in infectious

diseases -

particularly TB and HIV. Oakland, a large city, has terrible crime

record;

local people warn that going to Oakland downtown in night is courting

a sure

disaster. Though this city boasts of an international airport and

beautiful

buildings, it has to play a little brother to its mightier and merrier

sibling- San Francisco.

Art's house, a large bungalow, is on the down slope of a hilly

terrain. He

greeted us as soon as went in, and took us straight into his kitchen.

Plenty

of papads, painstakingly piled up on several china plates attracted

my

attention. " I cooked Indian dishes this evening, " Art smilingly

looked into

my eyes and as if to ease me let a secret out, " everything being

served on

the dining table today is vegetarian. " My eyes caught dozens of Indian

recipe books stacked in his kitchen shelf. In fact, he seemed to have

a rich

collection of recipe books- the Mexican, Brazilian, African and Thai

books

were blending well with thick Indian rasoi books. " And what this

book, "

'Cooking for dummies', doing here? " a guest tried to pull his leg.

Art was

non- plussed: " Well, that is for my wife, " he jokingly responded.

There was a grain of truth in what he said. Kitchen to his wife, a

physician- researcher, was a self-forbidden territory. She even

doesn't know

how to make sandwiches! She was conspicuously absent all through the

party,

because she had more important fishes to fry: a research grant

deadline

occupied her weekend evening. Art's three grown up children,

including two

daughters, did not try to help their hapless father either. Cooking

apart,

Art had to set the dining table, and serve the dishes. He insisted

that he

would serve every guest ( there were close to 25), and after the

dinner, was

quick enough to pick up the paper plates and put them into the kitchen

trash!

And what was the menu? Pure desi! Rice, daal, aloo subji, tomato

subji,

papad and raita. It was indeed very touching to me that a veteran

teacher

took so much pain to put new comers to the school at ease, welcomed

them and

ensured that he was aware of the cultural sensitivity of new comers.

He

exudes fatherly warmth and tenderness, and his years of working in

developing world have enriched his personality- shaping him into a

mature,

compassionate statesman. Pride or arrogance, traits of Indian

professors,

was missing; what was oozing was humility and compassion. Madhu told

me that

Art does this every year, and refuses to take anybody's help for

arranging

the party. It was nice that Nitika had bought gulab jamuns and ras

goollas

for the party; otherwise he could as well have sweated making some

sweet

dishes!

A diversity of culture awaited me as we stepped into Art's home. How

many

countries were represented? Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Hungary,

Brazil,

Thailand, Korea, America and India. Male researchers from African

countries

presented an arresting picture; they have large eyes, gleaning teeth,

and

shaved heads! This was Fogarty AIDS International Training Group,

sponsored

by Art. Some of the researchers were in Berkeley for years- pursuing

their

Ph D. and weaving a dream. Some of them did not know how to speak

English,

for French or Spanish was their first language. And yet, they

overcame the

language barrier, crossed the national boundaries, and hesitatingly

came to

Berkeley seeking knowledge and wisdom. And they worked day and night

to

translate their dream into reality. The group, very responsive and

cordial,

has its own vocabulary, " I am collecting data; I am thick into case-

control

right now; I have to turn in (submit) my papers soon; my seminar is

due next

Monday; yesterday I stayed up whole night to study... "

The party began at 6:30 PM and ended an hour and half later. The

guests,

overwhelmed by Art's generosity, thanked him and slipped into their

cars.

Art had more important unfinished chores to do before his wife would

come

home: cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes.

Carry home lessons for an Indian professor.

SP

SP Kalantri, MD

MPH Scholar

University of California, Berkeley

Division of Epidemiology

140 Warren Hall

Berkeley CA 94720, USA

Tel: (home)

Fax:

E-mail: kalantri@...

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