Author: Syed Khalioue Ahmed
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 29, 2005
Introduction: Doctor whose donation
to US varsity made news has taken good care of village where he has his
roots
DR Kiran Patel's largesse of donating
over $ 34 million to the University of South Florida, which makes him the
biggest individual donor to a US university, hasn't surprised this village,
where his father was born.
For Patel has already spent crores
of rupees on improving living conditions here. He has set up schools,
a hospital, a gymnasium. He has donated for a college in a neighbouring
village. He has helped in building roads and public toilets.
He's also taking up a housing project.
"We owe all this to Bapuji's son
Dr Kiran Patel," says Suchet Patel, pointing to the concrete lanes of the
village.
Bapuji is what villagers call Kiran's
father Chhotubhai Patel with reverence. In the early fifties, Chhotubhai
migrated to Zambia.
Kiran was born in Zambia and spent
his early years there. He came to India to complete his MBBS at the
BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad. He returned to Zambia and in 1976
migrated to the US, where he set up a medicare and health insurance business
that earned him the fortune he is generous with.
According to the Shaktikrupa Charitable
Trust, which undertakes projects financed by Kiran, he has spent more than
Rs 11 crore on the village alone. In addition, he has donated for
earthquake relief in Kutch, and for victims of the tsunami disaster in
south India
Jitubhai Patel, who heads the trust,
says Kiran has spent Rs 5 crore for English and Gujarati medium schools,
with huge lawns, sports complex, gymnasium, and hostels; Rs 3 crore on
a 50-bed hospital; and Rs 30 lakh on laying concrete roads and lanes.
Next week, the trust will begin
work on providing flush latrines to some 270 poor families of the village.
Kiran has contributed Rs 11 lakh for this.
Villagers know all about their mentor,
who visits them regularly - in February and August every year. He
brought along Sunil Dutt on one of his visits. They speak of his infatuation
for MBBS classmate Pallavi Shah, now his wife. Kiran began by setting
up a chain of 13 clinics in Tampa, in US, employing Indian doctors. In
1980, they bought Wellcare Health Plans Inc, a health insurance company,
realising that their clinics were paying a lot of insurance premium.
In 1996, he gave up his practice to concentrate on Business. And in 2003,
he sold off the business for some Rs 250 million. Now Kiran is in
the real estate business with his son. His two daughters are doctors.
Villagers say that when he's in
Mota Phophalia, Kiran hardly gives the impression of a US business magnate.
"He speaks in fluent Gujarati, enquires
about the well-being of everyone," says Shankarbhai Patel, a villager.
"From his language and demeanour, you can't say he's from the U.S. He's
the perfect Gujarati when he's here."
