The desi who wants to be Munnabhai

Meet Vignesh Selvakumaran, a bioengineering grad from the University of Pennsylvania who wants to be a doctor and believes that while medicine cannot heal every problem, listening to a patients wishes and being compassionate can be just as effective.

Several times a month in the past year, Vignesh Selvakumaran would volunteer at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia -- to comfort and counsel small children about there loved ones illness and explaining why their sibling is sick and needed their parents' attention.

Selvakumaran, the first recipient of Sobti Fellowship who will be spending nine months at an eye clinic in Madurai, recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in bioengineering.

'A fundamental part of doctoring is physician-doctor communication,' he wrote in the essay for Sobti Fellowship, which was established through a gift from UPenn alumnus Rajiv Sobti and Slomi Sobti to provide funding for a recent graduate to conduct independent research in India and administered through the Centre for the Advanced Study of India at UPenn.

'Being able to communicate with anyone independent of age, race, or gender is an important part of establishing successful relationships and providing the best care. I see my work with CHOP as an invaluable opportunity to build my interpersonal skills.'

Selvakumaran wrote about a 6-year-old girl called Lily, whose sister Alice was born premature and was on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Talking to Lily about why her sister 'looked like a robot' was difficult because she barely spoke any English and was always unhappy about her parent's negligence of her.

Selvakumaran would play with Lily -- everything from Barbie make-up to building monsters with Knex toys. Eventually, he was able to talk to Lily about Alice's condition, and during the holiday season Lily and he created a picture frame for her sister.

'Lily and Alice taught me that while medicine cannot heal every problem, listening to a patient's wishes and being compassionate can be just as effective,' Selvakumar wrote.

Since freshman year, Selvakumar has been visiting underserved schools in West and Central Philadelphia through the Weiss Technology House.

"Education has allowed my family to escape poverty by providing opportunity," Selvakumar told India Abroad, "and it shall always be a foundation to the way I hope to doctor."

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The desi who wants to be Munnabhai