Pen Pal From India -- From the Land of the Peacock

By Evegene Garrison

At this point in time, I have four international friends—a very long time lady in Germany, a new lady in Sri Lanka (both snail mail). a new lady in France via e-mail, and the one I propose to introduce to you.

In the summer of 1998, I had several poems used on various sites on line. One day I found an unfamiliar name in my in box. One I couldn’t pronounce. Dr. Rohit Joshi had written me a lovely note about how much he liked one of my poems. I was thrilled because he told me he was in India which sounded very exotic and appealing. So naturally I wrote back to him. That was the beginning of one of the most warm and loving friendships I have ever experienced.

For two weeks before Rohit’s birth, the rain poured down in his native city of Ludhiana, in the state of Punjab, but the day he was born (December 31, 1973), the rain disappeared and the sun shone brightly. That’s how he came to be known as “Sunny”, a nick name that couldn’t fit him better. He has a beautiful smile, a warm and caring attitude, and is one of the finest Christians I¹ve yet to meet. Shortly after he was born, his parents traveled to the U.S. where he was christened, and where his godfather is located.

It isn’t by coincidence really, that he became a doctor. His parents are both doctors at Christian Medical Center (CMC) in Ludhiana, and his younger sister is at present extending her medical degree in Australia. Sunny’s interest was accelerated when his grandmother died of undiagnosed gall bladder disease.

Sunny and I wrote often and regularly and became very close. At the time, not only was he in medical training, but he was also fighting his own medical battle against Hepatitis B, and I had lots of chances to be an encourager and a listening ear.

Somewhere along the way, Sunny had the good fortune to introduce a young American Medical Missionary who was at CMC also, to an Indian doctor there. They fell in love and came back to the United States to get married in her home state of Louisiana. Since he had introduced them, they wanted Sunny as their best man, so gifted him with round-trip air fare.

He arrived at his godfather’s home in the Atlanta area, and from there not only traveled to Louisiana, but to various other sites in the country, including the M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital in Houston. Of the dozen or so people he wanted to visit, I was the only one he hadn¹t met besides the bride¹s family. Each “host” was sponsoring Sunny¹s transportation for his side trips, and so I volunteered to help if he would like to come visit us. He was overjoyed, and on a Friday evening in early December of 2000 we found ourselves traveling to the airport to meet his plane.

In the beginning, I never dreamed that I would be so fortunate as to meet Sunny, much less keep him for a couple of days, so I was elated. The weekend went by much too fast, and on Monday morning another trip to the airport delivered him to the plane that would carry him back to Atlanta, and then back to India. Our goodbye hug at the airport was something I could never describe to anyone. It was as if God’s arms encircled both of us and created a bond that needed no words, and one that 5000 miles could never break. The peacock is India¹s national bird, so I was left with a lovely engraved plaque featuring that beautiful winged creature, as well as a beautiful and colorful scarf.

On his return to Ludhiana, Sunny began treatment for his hepatitis.