II. Something About the Present

I am an academic. If had been told that this would be my life's path when I was young, I simply would not have believed it. This life that I now lead is as far from my early life experiences as were my travels through Afghanistan back in the mid-1970s. Even after three decades, I sometimes cannot believe that I am here right now, doing what I do. I know, though, that I am not here accidentally.

On the sunny afternoon of Friday, 16 January 2009 I left my home and the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, bound for Mumbai, India. I arrived here early on the morning of Sunday, 18 January 2009. I was greeted by Mr. Kumar, whose English was about as bad as my Hindi. My ride from the airport in the wee hours of the morning, narrated in broken Hindi, was a surreal blend of exotic smells and sights. No matter how many times I have taken that ride, each time it is pure magic for me.

I am here as a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow. The Fulbright Program, funded by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), was proposed by Senator J. William Fulbright who, in 1946, was the junior senator from Arkansas. The program is as much about cultural exchange and providing a basis in understanding to foster peaceful coexistence than it is about joint intellectual and scientific development.

Two outstanding organizations, Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health (Healis) and the Advanced Centre for Research Treatment and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) provide my home base here in India. Both Healis and ACTREC are located in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India and I work directly with their directors, Drs. Prakash C. Gupta and Rajiv Sarin. I will have much more to say about Healis and ACTREC, and their remarkable leaders, over the coming months.

As those of you who have chosen this profession already know (and for those aspiring to do so, be warned!), this is not an easy life. For me, this has entailed getting hepatitis, malaria numerous times, dengue (Breakbone) fever, and a host of other “occupation-related” conditions. Despite the uncertainty of research funding, very long hours, relatively low pay and, for me at least, the accompanying health risks, the rewards in the form of positively influencing young people's careers and in changing people's lives for the better are priceless. So, I sit here now in this office on the beautiful ACTREC campus in appreciative awe of how things have worked out.