Medicine & Philanthropy

Promote intercultural communication

I next pursued my Masters in pathology on a fellowship from the University of Illinois in Chicago. Under another fellowship from Howard University in Washington DC, I earned a dental license in 1954 and became the first Indian dentist in the USA. I started teaching at the same university as a professor while practicing part-time. Under an exchange programme in 1959, I went back to India and was offered a job on probation at JJ Hospital, Bombay (now Mumbai). I politely refused the job offer and returned to the USA in 1961 with my family.

We found the climate of Los Angeles more comfortable than that of Chicago and thus moved there, where I invested in a house bought on my own in 1962. I was the first Indian to own a home on Baldwin Hill.

The Indian community in the USA started growing in the 1960s. People showed interest in understanding and promoting Indian culture. I motivated and guided the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Foundation to form the Indian American Society. I was also successful in persuading for the sister-city relationship between Bombay and Los Angeles in 1968. Later, I was elected as the Chairman of the Bombay-Los Angeles Friendship Society.

In 1969, we donated a building on Vermont Avenue in Hollywood for the gurudwara to mark the 500th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak ji. I feel elated watching Vermont Sikh Temple, which became the first religious place and a focal point for the Sikh community in the USA after 1947. It has come to be known as Hollywood Sikh Temple.

I was chosen as the city commissioner in 1974, owing to my equal involvement with the Indian and American communities. I have also chaired the Cultural Heritage Commission and the Hollywood Art Commission for 18 years. We identified 300 sites that were later declared protected monuments, like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Roosevelt Hotel, the Ambassador Hotel, etc. We followed an open process under which people could complain and ask the council to overturn its decisions. We have also been actively associated with Sikhs in India and help them promote the interest of the community. Back in the early 1960s, when there were just a handful of Indians here, we’d open our doors to every Indian for a lunch to bring them all together in seven years. People tell me that I have paid college tuition fees for around 105 Indian-American students. I have also hosted many fundraisers for national politicians. I, in fact, have campaigned for Dalip Singh Saund, when he was looking to become the first Asian to be elected into the US Congress in 1956 that broke the barrier to the US Congress.

When Punjab & Sind Bank was nationalised in 1984, I associated with Dr Inderjeet Singh to open a new bank, Bank of Punjab and increase its branches at a rapid speed.

The University of Illinois started a fellowship on our, Kuljit and my, names, Howard University named an emergency dental wing after my name and the entire Los Angeles honoured me by naming a square after me on my 93th birthday, the first ever time that an Indian was honoured in such a way by the city. I wonder if I am worth it?