SWOON OVER MIAMI: LOVE AFFAIR WITH TROPICAL TORPOR CONTINUES. 2016
Just a few days ago, I said a symbolic good
bye to Europe. It is symbolic rather than pedantic, as I have said good-byes to
Europe previously, Sweden, France, and England. I still long for London but to
others I have no attachment.
American Airlines Flight 39 took me from
London to Miami. On arrival, Global Entry machines demand your fingerprints and
then cautiously questions, in print, were you on flight 39? I answer yes and
that is it, you are welcome to the USA and within minutes I am waiting for my café
cortado ..On the other side.. The Cuban Miami.
Miami was love at first sight when I
arrived here as a Graduate Student and then again as a full-fledged doctor to
study Endocrinology.
More importantly this is where my love for
Cuba was born! To be able to live on “ambos lados del rayo” on both sides of
the line has been a privilege.
Coming to Miami before going off to other
destinations has the advantage of integrating yourself into American Culture
and environment. My sister lives here and I am always relaxed at her house, the
fact that she can make the best Baba Ganoush, Taboule and Hummus is an added
incentive of course . Years ago while enjoying this common Mediterranean foods,
I was able to formulate the concept of Genetic Food, that you must eat your ancestors
food, which in my case , resembles what my sister cooks for me.
My younger brother who would travel a
hundred miles for a good foul madames, must be green with envy as I feasted on
foul, hummus and other delights of our ancestors.
The languorous days were broken only by
visits to Carlito’s Café where the seasoned Cuban waitresses extended their
effusive welcome, and I realized that in Cuba, Starbucks would only be popular
among the tourists. We already have the champagne of coffees there...
Harvard scientists following the original
class of 1938, had made the startling but fresh discovery that in the end
relationships is all what that matters. Not being a member of Facebook, and
knowing the significance of Dunbar number which caps our capacities for good
friendships at far below 15, visits to Miami on top of the tattooed in your
heart friendships in Cuba, I have my 15 already!!
In Europe it seems that relationships are
measured in terms of blood ties on which is based what one can do for another
or give and take. In Miami and Cuba, my aim in my relationships have always
been to appreciate the other to such a degree that it would bring them closer
to their dreams
(Brickell Bay and memories of student days in Miami)
This visit was especially good. A good
friend was visiting from Cayman Islands. My dear friends M and G were as usual
the gracious hosts with whom I had the luck of sharing a very nice meal at
Prima Pasta.
This emotionally satisfying visit,
congruous with what I believe happiness derives from, was capped by an
invitation received from TED MED to be a Research Scholar for 2016 with a
possibility to attend the meeting in November 2016. It is truly an honour.
Now in the days to come, I play the medical
anthropologist to the Indians of America, and return to the dear ISLA RICA
south of here to give two conferences, one to a group of Family
Physicians and the other to Endocrinologists of Havana
The second topic would be looking at
Obesity and Diabetes from the socio cultural point of view, rather than
physiologic or biomedical. The first talk is the one I am looking forward to
giving: 100 different thing you can do to make you and your patients happy and
healthy, which would be an amalgam of scientific studies, yogic philosophy,
Buddhist thinking and the teachings of American Indians.
