Mr. Vidyasagar Dharmapuri (Masala Chat Project)

Description

Vidyasagar Dharmapuri, 77, is a pediatric physician and was the first president of the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago in 1977. His wife, Nagamani, joins for the end of the interview. The interview includes discussion of his journey navigating professional discrimination, but having a successful career due to his philosophy of hard work and integrity. He recounts childhood memories of the turmoil around the partition of India and his family fleeing modern-day Pakistan. He came to the US in 1963 for graduate medical education and regularly drove eighty miles to get Indian food. He vividly recounts what it was like to visit the segregated American south, using a blacks only restroom, and being stopped by a police officer at night. Other topics discussed include: his work in training doctors around the world, his role in the founding of the Hindu temple, and his appreciation for the US.