Dalit NRI donates 20 million dollars to his Kerala village

A Dalit based in Buffalo, New York, for the last 34 years, has given 20 million dollars to his village in Kerala.Eighty-one-year-old Kumar Bahuleyan, a neurosurgeon, who once led a lavish lifestyle that included moving around in a Rolls Royce and five Mercedes, besides an aeroplane, has used the money to build a hospital specialising in neurosurgery, a health clinic and a spa in Chemmanakary in Keralas Kottayam District.

New York, Aug 1 : A Dalit based in Buffalo, New York, for the last 34 years, has given 20 million dollars to his village in Kerala.Eighty-one-year-old Kumar Bahuleyan, a neurosurgeon, who once led a lavish lifestyle that included moving around in a Rolls Royce and five Mercedes, besides an aeroplane, has used the money to build a hospital specialising in neurosurgery, a health clinic and a spa in Chemmanakary in Kerala's Kottayam District.

Bahuleyan said that the desire to do something for his native place germinated between 1982 and 1987, when he visited the area, and found that nothing had changed.

He said that he felt like returning something to the village, which had taught him and made him something in life.

Bahuleyan says he lost two younger brothers and a sister to water-borne disease in 1930s, and even today he says he is haunted by their dying screams.

As a 'untouchable', Bahuleyan had to take a circutious route to school because he wasn't allowed to pass a Hindu temple.

A brilliant student, he succeeded in joining a medical college in Madras. From their, he proceeded to Edinburgh for six years of neurosurgical training before returning home.

Unfortunately, there was no vacancy for a neurosurgeon in those days, and Bahuleyan left for Kingston and then Albany Medical College, before coming to Buffalo in 1973 to work with noted American neurosurgeon Dr John Zoll.

During his 26-year career, Bahuleyan served as a clinical associate professor in neurosurgery at the University at Buffalo before retiring in 1999 as a multi-millionaire.

In 1989, he set up the Bahuleyan Charitable Foundation, which built a small clinic in India for young children and pregnant women in 1993 in south India. Bahuleyan's foundation also built the Indo-American Hospital Brain and Spine Centre in 1996, starting with 80 beds.

The foundation opened the Kalathil Health Resorts, offering luxury rooms, health spas and exercise rooms in 2004.

Bahuleyan's latest venture -- East India Seven Seas Sailing Company, plans to invite applications from Americans willing to spend a few weeks in India, to volunteer in Bahuleyan's hospital and to teach sailing.

Bahuleyan lives with his wife, pathologist Indira Kartha. He spends six months of the year in America, and rest in India, looking after the work of his foundation.

ANI