Page 25 - Delaware Medical Journal - November 2017
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BOOK REVIEW
While Baba accepted the racism he encountered, this prejudice becomes a recurrent negative theme at different stages of the author’s life.
Although his parents were not well off, Anand describes his childhood as happy with clear expectations. For example, bragging was considered unacceptable which foreshadows
the humility the author displays
to this day. The family’s peaceful existence was marred by his father’s alcoholism leading, at times, to periods of separation. During a period of reconciliation in Tanganyika, young Anand got his first taste of clinical medicine. He did well in school but fell short of getting a full scholarship. He decides to chase his dream of studying medicine in India.
In some respects the writer was neither
as an Asian and in India he was initially treated as a British citizen. When Kenya achieved independence, things got decidedly worse for the Indians living there. Ultimately, he felt more comfortable in the land of his ancestors as evidenced by this passage:
“Five years in India had deepened my love for the country and its people. I had accepted and felt at home. There was no
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
color bar to worry about. No one knew that I was born abroad, although astute Indians could tell from accents, clothes, or shoes that we lived abroad. I did not want to leave India.”
However, at the urging of relatives he decides to pursue his post-graduate medical training in America and the next part of the book chronicles that epoch of his life. He once again encounters bias in his professional life as a foreign medical graduate, as well as overt bigotry from neighbors and casual acquaintances in his personal life. When he eventually joins
a private practice in infectious diseases
he feels that he is treated like an equal in the U.S.
Throughout this book, the storyteller is patently honest about his failures as a son (hitting his father), husband (a spat with his wife that led to a brief period of separation), father (projecting his own desires onto his son) and physician (the rare instances when he did not display compassion). Simultaneously, he is resolutely humble about his successes as a medical educator (numerous teaching
awards), writer (wrote reviews for JAMA) and what he has achieved in his career (ascending to the position of Vice President for Medical Affairs).
One observation is that throughout the book the author often refers to others on the basis of their ethnicity or religion
— the Sikh anesthesiologist, the Jewish hematologist, the Hindu infectious diseases specialist. This is not surprising considering the author spent so much of
Why do people write memoirs? I am certain that there are a multitude of reasons and I can only speculate as to this author’s motivation. As a lifelong educator, I suspect he is trying to teach us to be more cognizant of how we treat one another and that with love and determination one can triumph over the adversity of prejudice. It is worth mentioning that the proceeds from the book will be donated to charity. I read this book while I was travelling through Africa myself which made it even more meaningful. Finally, I also learned that Anand means “joy” and I can honestly say that The Place of Cold Water was a true “joy” to read.
■ STEPHEN A. PEARLMAN MD, MS is the Quality and Safety Officer for Women and Children’s Services and an Attending Neonatologist at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del., and a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Sidney Kimmel College of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
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