Today we’d like to introduce you to Sanjiv Chopra, Best Selling Author, Inspirational Speaker, and Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School.
Sanjiv, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I had a life-changing event at the age of 12 years. I was studying at St. Columba’s High School in New Delhi. I played a cricket match on a warm sultry weekend. Late Sunday evening I took a brief nap and woke up. I was terrified as I could not see. When I told my older brother Deepak sitting next to me that I was blind he started to cry. My uncle took me to the military hospital. The doctors examined me and did not have the foggiest idea as to what was going on. They finally connected with my father, a brilliant physician and Professor of Medicine. He was 300 miles away and very calmly asked a number of questions. “Tell me what has happened to Sanjiv in the last couple of months. Any injuries, any new medicines?” I had a laceration to my right leg with a sharp object and had received stitches a week earlier. In addition I had been given an antibiotic and a tetanus shot. He probed further- what kind of tetanus shot? Anti-tetanus serum or anti-tetanus toxoid?” He was told it was anti-tetanus serum. I don’t know how he divined it but he said very confidently “Sanjiv is having a rare idiosyncratic reaction to the anti-tetanus serum. It occurs less than 1 in a million. He has severe bilateral optic neuritis. Start an intravenous and give him massive doses of corticosteroids. That was done in about 6 hours later my vision returned. It’s possible that I would have had permanent damage to my sight.
It was on that day, that I decided that I would be a physician like my father.
Has it been a smooth road?
I graduated from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences New Delhi together with my wife, Amita. We came to the United States in 1972 and have lived in the Boston area since 1973. The journey has been long and arduous. We’ve had some challenges with a chronic illness in one of our children. I do believe though that adversity is a gift. We are most fortunate to have an amazing family and a cadre of very dear friends- our chosen family.
My wife and I have practiced Transcendental Meditation for almost four decades. It has nurtured our life and infused it with creativity and joy.
My passion is teaching and writing and I’ve been privileged to have traveled to more than 100 countries, written 10 books and addressed world-wide audiences not only topics in medicine but also on Leadership, Invitation to Good Health, Dharma Happiness and Living with Purpose, Microbiome Man and Medicine and more.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I don’t own a business. I am a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. I had the privilege of serving as Faculty Dean for Continuing Education at Harvard Medical School for 12 years.
I’m a best-selling author and a sought after inspirational speaker addressing audiences of 20-7,000 on a diverse number of topics.
I help and mentor young individuals and help them define their purpose in life. I speak about Happiness and Joy. I believe that the Happiest People have 4 traits in common:
1. Cadre of good friends
2. Ability to forgive
3. Being of service to others
4. Expressing Gratitude
However, Happiness is more than the sum total of happy moments. In order to have sustained happiness one has to find one’s purpose and live it.
Mark Twain once famously said, “The Two Most Important Days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
In my most recent book, co-authored with Gina Vild and entitled: The Two Most Important Days. How to Find your Purpose and Live a Happier and Healthier Life, we offer ground breaking research, ancient wisdom, inspiring quotes and poetry, and practical exercises including those that can be done by children to start us, or nurture this amazing life journey of Happiness, Joy and Bliss.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes, Boston is a great city for Medicine. The intellectual capital between Harvard Medical School, Boston University, Tufts, University of Massachusetts and their myriad teaching affiliates is truly mind boggling.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sanjivchopra.com
- Phone: 617-632-1090
- Email: schopra@bidmc.harvard.edu
- Facebook: Sanjiv Chopra
- Twitter: Sanjiv Chopra
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