Joseph Varughese's memoir is a poignant and moving read. His unusual upbringing, his calling to medicine, his faith and his courage in dealing with the illness that took his life are remarkable and instructive. I wish I had known him in life. -ABRAHAM VERGHESE, author of Cutting for Stone and My Own Country AS A CHILD IN RURAL KERALA, SOUTH INDIA Joseph Varughese slept on a dirt floor.He had no running water till he was 13 or television till 26. In this autobiography he traces his journey from a youngster in a lonely village to a respected physician in a glittering Western metropolis. He tells how he went from learning to write in grains of rice to mastering a rigorous medical curriculum in a near-foreign language. In the greatest twist, he changed from a doctor striding confidently down the hospital corridors to a patient covering his face as others wheeled him on a gurney. From watching leeches suck blood from his mother's veins as a child, he gazed mesmerized as stem cells were infused into him five decades later.From the most primitive form of treatment, he became the recipient of the greatest gifts of modern medicine. And after years of treating very sick people, he entered the patient's world himself and saw its full dimensions. This book embodies not just Joseph Varughese's intelligence and perceptiveness, but his feelings. The author catches the reader up in his emotions - his fear of the dark as a child, his agonies under chemotherapy, his love for his family, the resilient spirit with which he overcomes his disease twice. This is the universal story of an immigrant who came to the United States, the land of hope and opportunity, and fulfilled his dreams. It is a tale of heartbreak and triumph, of determination to beat back adversity and embrace life. Above all, it is a powerful lesson in overcoming life's challenges and reaching the pinnacle.
About the Author: Joseph Varughese had flip after flip in his remarkable life. He grew up in a tiny village in Kerala, South India with no electricity. With his parents far away in Oman, he lived with his overbearing grandmother and aunt, and felt deprived of love. His aunt filled his mind with wild, ghostly tales that made him tremble in the dark. But he was gifted and alert. "Everything looked magical to me at that age," he says, and he watched rapt as a local healer relieved his mother's heart disease with "sweat therapy" and as the pharmacists miraculously pulled down just the right medicine from the myriad on their shelves. He writes lyrically of days spent swimming in the river and playing with improvised toys, as well as escaping an angry elephant and surviving a train wreck that killed almost everyone else in his rail car. He excelled in medical school and hoped to become a surgeon, until a wrist fracture limited his hand movement and turned his path to internal medicine. Soon he emigrated, first to England, then to a small town in frigid Western Canada, and finally to the palm-lined streets of Los Angeles. He established a practice, thrived, and raised a family. When diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the height of his career, Joseph leaned on his profound faith in God, and he learned that the greatest asset one can have in such an extremity is the loving care of family and friends. His wife, son, and daughter were always there for him, around the clock, and he describes their devoted attention to him. A bone marrow transplant is a harrowing experience, and he went through two. His fortitude in dealing with the grueling treatments is heart-rending and inspirational. Joseph was devastated when he was forced to stop practicing medicine due to his weakened immune system. He found comfort in writing down his innermost feelings and memories. This cathartic exercise developed into his memoir, which he soon realized might resonate with people enduring various challenges in their lives. He reached his goal of finishing this task before his 60th birthday. At his birthday celebration, he delivered a speech thanking family and friends who had stood by him through good times and bad. The following week, a bout of flu turned into pneumonia and he died six weeks later. Despite his extreme trials, Joseph's faith remained unshaken, and he left a legacy of courage and fortitude to all those he touched. His family has fulfilled his wish of publishing his life-story.