Sundaram Vivek Anand: Patriarch. Surgeon. Artist. Non secular information. Born Jan. 10, 1931, in Rangoon, Burma; died Oct. 3, 2022, in Burlington, Ont., of coronary heart failure; aged 91.

At 16, Sundaram Vivek Anand was already fluent in 4 languages and an excellent scholar and left residence to attend medical faculty in Agra. Shortly after his commencement in 1953, his father raised cash to ship him to England to coach as a surgeon. He set sail for Liverpool with only a banana and £5 in his pocket. However this meagre begin led to a life full of riches of an important sort: household, artwork and love.

In 1958, Anand went to Eire to present a lecture on the rules of ethical rearmament the place he met Saroj Daulat Ram, a medical scholar, and their love grew from a mutual respect for Mahatma Gandhi and drugs. Saroj and Anand married in 1959 and went to the College of Ibadan in Nigeria to work as a husband-and-wife medical duo.

This journey was adopted in 1965 by a daring immigration to Kentville, N.S. Their curiosity in Canada was sparked by a visiting Canadian doctor who informed them Canada was an important nation to reside in and quick on medical professionals. In Kentville, the couple continued their medical practices and raised three daughters: Gita, Anita and Sonia.

Whereas Anand routinely left household dinners “to do an appendix” his daughters by no means felt an absence of affection as a result of he was additionally all the time busy baking for them and educating them new abilities and hobbies, together with French, piano and snowboarding. Anand and Saroj balanced their busy medical lives with household time, and Anand typically introduced residence trays of hospital meals when Saroj was at work, to make sure the ladies had heat meals for his or her dinner.

Anand took to Nova Scotian winters wholeheartedly, studying to ski and curl. Nevertheless, it was his ability as a normal surgeon that introduced him probably the most satisfaction. He practised for nearly 50 years, responding to calls from his group at any time: He had an on the spot bond with sufferers, lots of whom write to his daughters to this present day to specific their appreciation of his care. Notably, Anand pioneered gastric bypass surgical procedure in Canada, and printed a paper about it the Canadian Journal of Surgical procedure in 1984. He additionally accomplished short-term surgical locums in Canada’s North, in Iqaluit and in Moose Manufacturing facility.

Anand was additionally an artist. As a younger boy, he began to sketch and draw. In medical faculty, he excelled within the examine of human anatomy and illustrated medical textbooks throughout his postgraduate research. In Canada, Anand turned his consideration to the great thing about the panorama. In his later years, he exhibited and bought his artwork in exhibits at McMaster College, in Oakville, Burlington and Georgetown.

For Anand, artwork was an integral a part of his religious facet. His father was a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi and as a younger boy, Anand acquired to know the chief and have become a religious follower of his teachings. He typically stated that the a part of life that actually issues is our values and the way we reside. Anand had realized Sanskrit and took to reciting Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita on daily basis. This part resonated with him most deeply with its deal with the significance of discovering advantage in work; it impressed his life. Within the final months, Anand’s daughters joined him on this recitation.

One in every of Anand’s granddaughters described him as probably the most constructive particular person she had ever met. She was proper. The others described their “Nanu” as all the time being enthusiastic about all elements of their lives, eager to study alongside them, simply as he did along with his daughters. Anand died with Gita, Anita and Sonia by his facet, holding his palms and reciting his favorite shlokas, because the solar rose above Lake Ontario.

The film of his life may very well be referred to as “From Burma to Burlington, with love.”

Gitanjali Anand, Indira Anita Anand, and Sonia Savitri Anand are Anand’s daughters.

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