Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Dr. Michael DeBakey

The world famous heart surgeon known as ‘Texas Tornado’ for practising a punishing schedule of non-stop surgeries is no more. That he treated peasants and presidents with equal panache (Newscape, The Hindu, July 13) is borne out by the following incident, whose veracity I personally vouch for.

In the 1960’s a small-time Central government official in Hyderabad wrote to Dr. DeBakey, who was a famous figure even then, that he needed to undergo open heart surgery. The procedure had not yet stabilised in India. The doctor replied that he would waive his fees and also prevail on the hospital to forgo fees if the patient travelled to the U.S. with an attendant. As the gentleman could muster enough money only for a single fare, he was asked to travel alone. After the successful surgery, a news item was posted in local dailies that an un-chaperoned patient from Andhra Pradesh was recouping. Immediately several Andhra families visited the hospital to boost the patient’s morale. He retuned home and resumed his career. Such was the generosity of the ‘magician of the heart.’

R. Ramachandra Rao,

Hyderabad

N.R. Krishnan,

Chennai

“India and the new scramble for Africa” by Jorge Heine (Op-Ed, July 14) was not only timely but also informative.

India should engage Africa in a much more active and innovative manner without committing the errors European nations made in the original scramble for Africa — blind and all-consuming greed and a fatal inability to understand a complex cultural environment.

The African continent is geographically larger than India but with a much smaller population. Indian industry would be well advised to view Africa not as a collection of individual countries but as a collection of regions. The dismantling of state control in practically all spheres of the economy in Africa and the development of the “knowledge / Internet” economy all over the world make this the right time for Indian industry to commit itself to a long-term economic involvement in Africa.

Vishwas Garg,

Visakhapatnam

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