{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/sn00z72k1v/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Legha, Sewa"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/252/original/HPL_ArchiveBannerCDM2.jpg?1738348845","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Foundation for Indian Studies"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://rightsstatements.org/page/CNE/1.0/?language=en\"\u003eCopyright Not Evaluated\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePermission to publish or reproduce must be obtained from the Foundation for India Studies, Houston, Texas.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source"]},"value":{"en":["Houston Public Library Special Collections"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Legha, Sewa (interviewee)","Malhotra, Jawahar (interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2014-06-05 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["eng (primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Sewa Legha interviewed about culture, family, and educational background, as well as migration, contributions to the community, and work experiences."]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["digital recording, sound"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Houston (Tex.) (geographic term)","Oral histories (topical term)","Emigration and immigration (topical term)","Immigrants (topical term)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["indoamerican"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Moving Image"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Sewa Legha interviewed about culture, family, and educational background, as well as migration, contributions to the community, and work experiences."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://rightsstatements.org/page/CNE/1.0/?language=en\"\u003eCopyright Not Evaluated\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePermission to publish or reproduce must be obtained from the Foundation for India Studies, Houston, Texas.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Houston Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Houston Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/252/original/HPL_ArchiveBannerCDM2.jpg?1738348845","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/210/349/small/open-uri20231027-1243258-jcqj9y_1698432765.jpg?1698418366","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - FIS-OH0026.mp4"]},"duration":1980.3784,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/210/349/small/open-uri20231027-1243258-jcqj9y_1698432765.jpg?1698418366","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-houstonlibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/210/349/original/FIS-OH0026.mp4?1698418361","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":1980.3784,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349/transcript/60423","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349/transcript/60423/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nJM: Actually, you were with MD Anderson for practically all your career. Didn’t you just recently retire from MD Anderson?\nSL: Yes, my academic career was all spent at MD Anderson, where I spent 22 years, and that’s where I learned about cancer medicine and practiced and did some research and education and all those good things. \n\nJM: So which specialty -- cancer is so broad, which specialty was yours, was it certain part of the body that you focused in on?\n\nSL: In the early days cancer patients got grouped into blood cancers called hematologic cancers versus what we call solid tumors. So I trained in both, but opted for solid tumors because I really was interested in doing research in breast cancer. So I got assigned to the breast cancer department and spent several years learning about how to manage patients with breast cancer. That was my first area of specialty. Specialties in oncology were just beginning in late 70s when I was here; they were not well established. So there was free movement between different departments. In fact, most of these departments were created around 1978 to 1980 and I rotated through several of them and went from breast cancer specialty, to what we call head and neck cancer, and finally to a type of cancer called melanoma; a very scary, difficult cancer to manage and my boss assigned me that job as my area of expertise at MD Anderson.\n\nJM: I see! I see! So is that where you finally ended your career at MD Anderson?\n\nSL: That’s where I spent the last 15 years of my career; first seven or eight years were breast cancer, five years head and neck cancer, three years settled on melanoma for 15 years of research.\n\nJM: I see! And how long ago was that that you retired from MD Anderson?\n\nSL: I actually transferred from MD Anderson. I still was quite young when I decided to move. I moved over to Baylor College of Medicine and joined the faculty there and worked there for ten years before I decided to retire. \n\nJM: I see! How about that? I didn’t know that. \nSL: These are the nuances I am going to tell you today.\n\nJM: At Baylor, were you continuing on with cancer research?\n\nSL: Less research, more patient care and teaching. Baylor has medical students and residents; that was missing at MD Anderson, so I wanted to have a fill of that, training future doctor, both medical students and residents was available in ample supply at St. Luke’s Hospital, which is where I stationed myself after MD Anderson.\n\nJM: I see! So did you come from a family that had other people in the medical field?\n\nSL: Not really. My folks were really farmers. I was actually the first person in the family to go beyond high school. So doctoring came slowly. It wasn’t really planned that way. I just wasn’t a very good math student so I wanted to do science, but I had a choice of mathematical sciences or biological, so biology was an easier subject and that led to medicine ultimately.\n\nJM: Do you have children?\n\nSL: I have three children, yes.\n\nJM: And did any of them go into the medical profession?\n\nSL: Yeah, by default, I think they all three ended up in medical school.\n\nJM: How about that? It usually happens that way, doesn’t it?\n\nSL: That’s the only thing I could guide and teach them about. \n\nJM: I see! Okay. But medicine was not the only area that you focused in on; you have been very active within the Indian community here.\n\nSL: Fortunately, I had several opportunities when I first moved to Houston. Our community was relatively small and I always wanted a side diversion. After working hard with cancer patients I wanted to really also get to know our local community. So I was inducted into ICC in mid 1980s.\n\nJM: Which is the India Culture Center, for our viewers in the future years that will see this; the India Culture Center, which is the oldest umbrella organization here in Houston.\n\nSL: Yes. So I became President of India Culture Center in 1984, I think, or thereabout, and served in that role for two years. \n\nJM: I see! But that didn’t stop you; you have still been active in one way or the other within the community circles. \n\nSL: Yes, I enjoyed that phase of India Culture Center activities, really getting to know a wide spectrum of Indian community than I had known in India. Growing up in the northern part of India I was really not all that familiar with the customs and the cultures of South India, so ICC opened up my eyes that there was a lot more to India than just Punjab and the surroundings. \n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349#t=308.0,604.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349/transcript/60423/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nSo thereafter, we took up a bigger project, which was to establish a Community Center, which led to the genesis of India House, which is our current Community Center. And I was involved in organizing early years of India House Foundation. I was the Chairman of the Council that actually led to community engagement for building India House.\n\nJM: India House is located on West Bellfort, near Gessner, and it is a facility that’s been around for now 10 years I would believe.\nSL: Yes, just about 10, 11 years now.\n\nJM: Right! And it has become a focal point for all sorts of community activities.\n\nSL: That was our intent, that we did not have a decent community facility where we could meet and celebrate important occasions, festivals, functions that were relevant to Indian community, like our recent election celebration. So it is the only Community Center which is sizeable for the whole Indian community and that was our goal. And we are very happy that we were able to get that done, although it took a lot of effort to build it, but now it's a very nice facility.\n\nJM: Yeah, it's a really fine facility. And the elections that you are talking about are the elections for the Prime Minister -- Narendra Modi’s party, the political party?\nSL: Yes, the elections in India with Modi as our new Prime Minster was celebrated in a big way and I was very proud that finally our community had a place where they could gather and celebrate Indian things when they wanted to really come to that type of occasion for our community. \n\nJM: But lately you were tapped in for your expertise on oncology related issues for another organization, tell us about that?\nSL: Well, being an oncologist, teaching and helping people and our community with cancer as a disease and management is very dear to my heart, and I do that of course without too much effort. So we started an organization here called Indian American Cancer Awareness Network, called IACAN, and that organization is now five years old. And I was involved into it by my former colleagues from MD Anderson. Several members of our organization are former MD Anderson employees and some of them knew me and invited me as an oncologist to help them. They were mainly non-medical people, they were not physicians, and I got invited as an oncologist to be a consultant, adviser and help patients with cancer. So this is an organization which is growing very nicely, and we are very happy that we can provide that service to our community, both here, and as well as their relatives in India.\n\nJM: And do you think this organization is actually making inroads in teaching people how to survive or to handle cancer? \n\nSL: I believe so. Cancer is a frightening illness. People get very desperate when they have this unfortunate news or diagnosis given to them and they are looking for people who can guide them, reassure them that there is treatment for it and network with their families and basically show them the way about where to go and what cancer treatment is all about. And also educating our community about the nature of cancer and how to be alert and aware about its diagnosis, particularly early diagnosis is critical. And if you are not alert and aware and know something about it, many people have a late diagnosis of cancer, which is very bad news for the victim of the cancer because it's a very difficult disease to control once it gets to an advanced stage, which unfortunately is the case among lot of Indians. They wait for things to really become very obvious and sometimes it's too late.\n\nJM: So are there some cancers that are very particular to Indians or South Asians?\n\nSL: Yes, cancer does have a geographic predilection. The cancers in Asian region are quite different than those in the European heritage, people in Europe or United States. We have a particularly high incidence of cancer of the cervix among women. We have a very high incidence of cancer of the mouth and throat and food pipe, the esophagus. These are cancers which are relatively uncommon in the United States, they don’t make the top ten; for India they make the top five, cervix and oral cancer. \nJM: So the esophagus, the oral cancer, is that as a result of the food they eat or smoking or what? \n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349#t=604.0,900.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349/transcript/60423/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nSL: It's a combination of things. It's always a bit hard for us to pinpoint the cause of why someone got cancer. It really is a complex interaction of lifestyle issues, genetics, and unknown unfortunate events that happen at the cellular machinery in our body. That’s even difficult to know what turned the normal cell into a cancer cell, it's a very intricate process, but tobacco contributes in a big way. So we know that chewing tobacco or smoking tobacco is one of the most common and preventable cause of cancer and Indians have chewing habits of pan, and particularly with tobacco, and that definitely contributes, but there is more to it than just tobacco.\n\nJM: I see! Recently there has been news, actually just these past few days there has been news about immunotherapy being added to the treatment of cancer. There was a cancer specialist conference in Houston at the MD Anderson I suppose this past week. Are you familiar with that? Do you see greater hope for people through immunotherapy?\n\nSL: Yes, what you are referring was a national -- actually an international cancer conference in Chicago, from which I just returned day before yesterday. So that is our major cancer conference that involved the whole world around it, and it brings up the new updates and news about cancer every year. So this happened last weekend. MD Anderson plays an important role, so a lot of what comes out in Houston looks like it’s coming from MD Anderson, but it's coming from our Society Meeting, the Cancer Society Meeting. \nSo immunotherapy is what we call a fourth modality of cancer treatment; the other three being surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and the newest modality is immunotherapy, which is a very important factor in controlling cancer causation and its course. If your immunity is good, theoretically you shouldn’t develop cancer. One of the theories of cancer is there is a failure of your immune system to eliminate cancers when they are starting. \nBut be that as it may, once cancer is established, the immune system tries to get rid of it, but the cancer cells are very smart, they paralyze the immune system. They create chemical that basically hijacks the normal immune cells.\n\nSo we have discovered those culprits now and have developed antibodies against them. So you can undo these what we call breaks on the immune cell which activate the immune system in a big way. And immunotherapy is much more effective if it is activated in the right manner; it can eliminate the cancer completely. \nSo we are starting to see that for the last three or four years now gradually the immunotherapy getting substantial crack at it, and quite impressibly, effective. So we are slowly getting there and it's going to become a very important part of our treatment.\n\nJM: So as I understand it, when the chemotherapy and radiation, that treatment happens, it attacks not only the good cells, but also the bad cells, and some of the immune system is suppressed as a result of those types of treatments, so that the good cells aren’t able to attack the cancer cells.\n\nSL: Our immune system is very complex; it has several different types of cells in it. We have front line soldiers or forces, the army, which is white cells. Chemotherapy suppresses them transiently for a week or so, so that’s what you are referring to that it hurts the good cell. \nBut the real hardy cell that are the infantry force of the body are lymphocytes. They are not affected by chemotherapy. In fact, lymphocytes are just suppressed by the cancer itself. So the cell that attacks cancer in the body, the immune cell is called lymphocytes. These are not suppressed by chemotherapy. \nSo we have an acute suppression, transient suppression with chemotherapy, but more long-term suppression caused by the cancer itself. That’s where the success of immunotherapy is coming. These are what we call are lymphocytes and they are subtypes of them called T lymphocytes, these are killer cells. They can attack the cancer and kill it.\n\nJM: So the new immunotherapy actually encourages the lymphocytes to attack the cancer cell.\n\nSL: That’s the goal, it activates them, charges them, proliferates them, enlarges their numbers, takes them where they need to go, and allows them to kill the cells rather than cancer blocking the ability of the lymphocytes to kill.\n\nJM: So there is hope that people can increase the immune system maybe through organic products.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349#t=900.0,1200.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349/transcript/60423/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nSL: Organic products play some part. Our food definitely has effects on keeping us healthy and one thing some of the foods do is enhance your immune system, but it is not a -- it's for healthy immune system. If you want heavy gun activation of the immune system, then you need some chemical we call growth factor that feeds that. It's a fertilizer for the lymphocytes that we use and enlarges their numbers 10, 20, hundredfold, and makes them able to attack and kill them, punch holes, kill them off. So that’s working out quite well.\n\nJM: So tell me, digressing from your passion, which is obviously the medical research in oncology, a little bit more about yourself. You are a Sikh originally?\nSL: Yes.\n\nJM: You still are a Sikh, what am I saying?\nSL: Yes, yes, you are right. I am coming from Punjab and I am a Sikh, not a practicing Sikh, but Sikh by birth and certainly that’s my heritage.\n\nJM: I see! And there are a number of Sikh gurdwaras here in the Houston area right now; there may be about five or six.\n\nSL: Yes, we have at least five or six very active ones and the total number is actually eight, so we have a large Sikh community in Houston, about 5,000 families, sizeable.\n\nJM: I see! So between this large Sikh community and the other Indian-American community here, have you seen many changes in the roughly, what, 40 years that you have been here? \n\nSL: Yes, there is a sizeable population of Sikh family members and we have sizeable Punjabi community here, Sikhs and Hindus together. In fact, one of the other things that I played a role in was establishing Punjabi Culture Club.\n\nJM: Oh, that’s right.\n\nSL: So PCC, community club again for Punjabis, which included both Hindus from Punjab and Sikhs from Punjab. And that is an organization which is still very active and those interactions have been very healthy. And we certainly have commonalities in our celebrations, in our food habits, in our music, so there is fairly good interaction. Although on Sundays there is a collection of the Sikhs in the gurdwaras and many Hindu gentlemen go to temples, but we see some Hindu people who have belief in Sikh religion come to the gurdwara.\n\nJM: Yes, that’s true. So what about your future plans? You are still very active, you obviously are very active in the medical field, and you are working with the IACAN, what other activities do you see yourself being involved in, in the foreseeable future?\n\nSL: Well, I try to divide my day in patient care and consulting in oncology. I have fortunately many international patients and doctor connections around the globe, so I devote a couple of hours everyday answering my emails and giving consultation about patient management, whether it's in Chile, or whether it's in Peru, or India, New Delhi. So I do a fair bit of consulting activity with oncologists, particularly with my medical school in Ludhiana. We run a very active oncology department in Ludhiana, for which I consult on a regular basis.\n\nJM: I see! So you actually go and visit and teach over there too? \n\nSL: Yes, I have had an appointment there since 1998 and actually have a little office that they assign me every time I go there, with helpers. I see patients in Ludhiana in my medical school and give them lectures, teach them, and we run a tumor board. So there is that ongoing interest in oncology, so I stay current with that. \nAnd I also enjoy public teaching. My latest passion is to do healthy lifestyle type of education in our community, in gurdwara and temples, wherever there is a need or desire. It's an extension of IACAN. \nI also have been involved in organizing a national Indian oncologist organization called IACA, Indo-American Cancer Association, of which I was the founding President. And we run a very active Board of Directors and I am the past President of that organization, and we really promote education in cancer care in India and bring many Indian physicians to come here for further enhancement of their skills. So that’s one of the job that I have there is to do this traveling fellowship arrangements for Indian doctors who can go back and take the modern skills back when they go back.\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349#t=1200.0,1497.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349/transcript/60423/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nJM: So overall, would you say as a first generation American your experience of coming and settling in America was good to you? \n\nSL: Yes, my experience in America has been very, very good. I have been very fortunate that I got the best of what I was looking for, good opportunities for learning academic medicine, teaching, had a good taste of research, publication, writing books and lectures, traveling around the globe. So my wishes are 99% fulfilled very nicely. Grateful thanks to this country that gave such good opportunity, which I would not have had them in India. \n\nJM: And how about your family, you have second generation Americans in your family, do you have third generation Americans too?\n\nSL: Not quite there yet, but we have second generation. My children are engaged in medicine. All three of them are in different locations and they try to continue what I was doing most of my life, and hopefully they will do a better job than I did. \n\nJM: They are also in oncology?\n\nSL: They didn’t want to be oncologist. My oldest daughter is an internist, but she is a teacher. She has as a faculty appointment at the New York University Medical Center in New York City. My second daughter is a psychiatrist and she wants to help the poor countries of the world. So she is currently working in Haiti as part of a program for Harvard University. She does psychiatric care there. My son is in Houston; he has actually joined MD Anderson. So we do have a little connection to cancer, although he is a radiologist. So he will be doing the diagnostic part of cancer as opposed to treatment part, which is what I did. \n\nJM: I see! How very nice! And do you have any other plans for writing books or publications; I guess that’s what you are mostly focused in on? \n\nSL: I enjoy education in any form. I certainly like to write articles for newspapers. You have been very courteous to me to accept some of those articles about cancer. The other thing there is to make our community aware of cancer the disease and how to detect early, how to get treated. So writing in newspaper is my current activity. Writing scientific papers requires active involvement. I have written over 150 scientific articles, so I have had my fair share. I was a co-editor of a book on cancer treatment, which I did with several other colleagues. Right now it's mainly teaching, lectures, and writing and basically speaking, wherever there is an opportunity to educate. \n\nJM: Now, you were referring to -- when you talked about the newspapers you were referring to the newspaper that I publish, which is Indo-American News, which has been around for 33 years now, and it's really actually almost a history of our own community as it has grown over here.\n\nSL: Absolutely! I have enjoyed reading that newspaper, writing articles. You get the news of the community much faster than we can so I look forward to reading my weekly issues.\n\nJM: Very nice! Well, that was very nice -- it was very nice talking to you and learning so many things that I didn’t know about you.\n\nSL: Thank you!\nJM: And I guess in one way your experience here with -- in cancer research and treatment is now gone full cycle that you are going back to India and giving back to India what you have learned from this country.\n\nSL: Yes, that’s ultimately the desire of many Indians who left their home country to come to the United States. We gained a lot. Medical education that I received in Ludhiana was top class, prepared me for practicing medicine in this country, with a very strong foundation, and we felt -- at least I feel strongly that we owe a lot to our country for providing us those facilities at low or minimal or literally no cost. My medical education probably cost me less than 10,000 rupees, which is now $250 or $300 in those days. So you can't get that. I wouldn’t have been able to afford that in the United States. Yet, they prepared me well to practice in this country. \n\nJM: Right! By the way, that’s one last, parting thought, when you first came here at MD Anderson let's say, and now the growth of the Indian physicians here has been phenomenal, wouldn’t you say?\n\n(","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349#t=1497.0,1794.0"},{"id":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349/transcript/60423/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":")\n\nSL: Absolutely! When I joined MD Anderson in 1976, we had one basic scientist Indian origin. No oncologist of Indian origin had come to MD Anderson before my entry there. And five years later we recruited a couple of them. And during my career they increased to seven, eight, now there are about 30 or 40 oncologists of Indian origin working at MD Anderson, so tremendous growth. \n\nJM: And that also reflects the growth of the Indian physician population in this Greater Houston area.\n\nSL: Yes, it's all proportionate to the numbers nationally. We are over 80,000 Indian physicians in the United States and Houston has about 2,000. Oncology is a new specialty and very popular among Indians; they always go for challenging new things, and therefore it's very popular among specialties of medicine. So we are fortunate that every section or department of oncology at MD Anderson, particularly medical oncology, has Indian physicians. \n\nJM: And one fine day we may have an Indian physician who is going to get the Nobel Prize for cancer research and treatment, finding the cure.\n\nSL: We have had scientists of Indian origin working on hardcore basic science get Nobel Prizes. Gobind Khorana discovered some of the basic genetics machinery of the cell back in the early 70s, the late 60s, got a Nobel Prize. So we have biomedical scientists of national repute and they are present in the top institutions, whether it's Harvard or Mayo Clinics or UCLA. I can find an oncologist in any one of these centers, and that’s what I use for traveling fellowship for Indian oncologists. We train them at MD Anderson or Sloan Kettering in New York or Harvard Medical School. So it's all because there are Indian physicians who are willing to spare their time to educate the future generation of oncologists in India. \n\nJM: And it's a fraternity, it's a good network that allows you to foster this sort of challenging environment. \nSL: Yes, we have a lot of commonalties in our background, in our thought process, in our desire to give back to our country of origin.\n\nJM: Well, thank you very much Dr. Legha! Once again, Dr. Sewa Singh Legha; he is someone that we have been talking to for the past 45 minutes. And once again, this is another installment of the Oral History Projects focused on Indian-Americans here in the Greater Houston area. And we are very fortunate to have so many physicians like Dr. Legha in the Houston area. And for all of you who look at us many years down the road, he will be a standard-bearer for oncology treatment. Thanks very much once again! \n\nSL: Thank you very much Jawahar! Thank you for spending the time with me and getting me to remember my past! \nJM: You are welcome! \n\nTotal Duration: 33 Minutes","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://houstonlibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2436/collection_resources/108904/file/210349#t=1794.0,1980.3784"}]}]}]}