Thursday, February 17, 2005
Presenting: Dr. Rajiv Arya,
My Cool Dentist
When your eyes are open you tend to find wonderful and extraordinary
people right around you. My dentist,
Dr. Rajiv Arya, is one of those indivdiuals. Whenever I go to
have my teeth checked we end up having a very deep conversation,
and I always marvel at what Dr. Arya is involved in. Not only is
he a practicing dentist and a practicing lawyer, Dr. Arya has volunteered
his time and expertise in places like India, Malawi, Zambia, and
of course, Canada. He is one of the most multi-faceted individuals
I know. Without further ado, here he is: Dr. Arya:
1. Please tell us a little bit about your personal and educational
background.
I am married and have a little daughter of 22 months. It’s
been a truly profound experience having her. I have found that just
when you thought that marriage was the best thing in and for your
life, having a kid is even better. My life overall is relatively
uneventful. The great thing is I have a supportive family on both
sides. I consider myself very lucky.
2. You practice actively as a dental surgeon and as a lawyer.
Why did you decide to do that and what in general is your philosophy
related to work?
I actually get that question a lot. Why did I get into dentistry
and law? I guess it was self-preservation. I felt that I needed
another profession to give me complete or a further satisfaction
in my work life that I was looking for. It definitely wasn’t
for the challenge- as both professions are very challenging. What
one profession would not offer the other one could and vice-versa.
It was a bit of a gamble to make this choice. But it was never about
making more money, or being uniquely qualified. I am not as goal-oriented
as people would think. This choice was more about self-fulfillment
and I don’t regret it for a second. The end result is that,
yes, I do have a busy week; but more importantly, I am usually smiling
and contented throughout it.
Dr. Arya on his trip to Nepal during March
2005
What made me go into these fields carries over into the rest of
my left. I attempt to look at life in a broader, holistic manner.
In dentistry I take interest in the patient, not just the clinical
procedure before me. If there is one thing I can give myself credit
for it’s that I have an uncanny ability to remember details
about my patients and clients for a long time. On check ups, I will
often comment on earlier things they told me and follow up on the
details of their lives that they have shared with me. Sometimes
I surprise myself, even more than the patients, how much I remember
about them personally.
I take an interest in my patients that goes beyond just the treatment,
I look at my patients more on a holistic well-being approach. Similarly,
in law, I look at the client from a bigger kind of picture. What
are we really trying to accomplish here? That way- all the parties
involved are appreciative of what you are trying to do for them.
I would like to think that I take a casual approach to both jobs
since I am not a big fan of pretenses, or acting like as if you
know absolutely everything. I don’t appreciate smoke and mirrors.
I also try not to take myself too seriously. In both professions
you come across experiences that you just don’t know the answer
to at the moment. This can present as a very challenging situation.
I am the first one to say that we need to look a situation from
more angles and perhaps bring in a different expertise. Clients
and patients appreciate that candor and I find that they, in return,
talk to me on a different level- a more candid level. It always
surprises and pleases me when my patients and clients inquire and
remember things about my life outside of work. It gives me some
sense of belief that they also care. What you see is what you get.
I am not a flashy lawyer or dentist, there are no Armani suits here.
3. How do you manage to combine a busy law practice with
your work as a dental surgeon?
I find that achieving balance is not as difficult to manage as
one would guess. You have to know your limitations and priorities.
My priorities have always been clear: I wanted to have a very strong
family life and an equally fulfilling professional life. In law
I am fortunate that I virtually only take on the cases that interest
me. In dentistry it’s a similar sort of thing - if something
is beyond my capabilities or outside of my area of interest I refer
it out to other specialists. Similarly, I spend a lot of my time
with my little one. At the moment, she usually gets up around 5:30-6am
and is in a good mood right away. Since I have the morning shift
with her, I have to quickly buckle up and start smiling back at
her. These hours are precious and more times than not, I seem to
always learn a little bit from her every single day.
Essentially I eliminate the extraneous things of the day and somehow
everything falls in place. I have to also say that I have a very
supportive wife who is very organized and keeps things in check.
My philosophy is “Just do it”. If you like what you
do, if you like your life and want to maximize the finite time we
all have on Earth, then you do what’s important to you. Even
during law school I practiced about 20 to 25 hours of dentistry
a week, and I missed out on going to the pub on every Thursday night.
I also didn’t just hang around and have coffee during the
day waiting for the next class to start. I tried to maximize.
Attending to blisters on his trek to Nepal
In general, if people really need to do something they’ll
do it. It’s the same with friendships – you make time
for the people that are really important to you.
4. Please tell us a bit about your travel experience in
general.
Someone I know and respect said recently: “life is made up
of experiences. If I have to measure the quality of my life, I look
to experiences that I can remember, that have moved me.” Travel
is one of those things. Travel is one of those pillars in life,
like marriage or births or deaths or other major events, that has
the ability to move humans.
I often, but not always of course, pick places off the beaten path
since I enjoy seeing alternative places. Travel for me has to have
some level of profoundness in general. It needs to be something
that is moving. It’s the closest thing that we as adults can
do to bring us back to childhood. When you travel, you look at life
almost with the curiosity of a little child, you look at street
signs, light posts, the way people act. There is a freshness about
traveling, it’s childlike. When I observe my little girl I
notice that she is so curious and playful. Travel brings us to that
level of openness. It’s very refreshing, liberating and reviving.
5. You have also volunteered in countries such as Canada,
India, Malawi and Zambia. Please tell us more about these experiences.
I have practiced volunteer dentistry in hospitals in India. I have
also helped out with such far out tasks as applying bug repellent
on trees in Zambia, visited hospitals in Zambia and Malawi, and
even have done dental work in Canada for troubled youth.
Volunteering in general is something where you always get more
than what you put in. That’s a fact. A few years ago I went
to India, and it wasn’t at the happiest time in my life. However,
I feel like just when you have nothing left in your life, when you
are empty, and then at that point when you decide to give more,
you start to fill up. This is a very valuable lesson about volunteering
in general. It is good for the soul. More than you know!
6. You have also participated in racial equity and leadership
initiatives in South Africa, Poland and Germany. Please tell us
more about these experiences.
These initiatives were actually started by my wife. She is very
vocal proponent of racial equity in the Toronto School Board where
she is a vice-principal now. She always had an inherent notion of
equity, even before it became politically correct. She always seemed
to be on the cutting edge.
She always brought home articles written by educators or other
commentators about racial equity. This conveyed to me a little twist
on how to see things. A few years ago she had an opportunity with
a Catholic education organization to go to South Africa. Since she’s
a big friend of animals, and elephants in particular, she said that’s
a good enough reason to go. She just wanted to go for a few weeks.
Once I started reading the outline, I decided that I was coming
too. Whether she liked it or not!
Dr. Arya, hiking across a bridge in Nepal
30 of us went down and we got to speak with community leaders,
went to leadership meetings, spoke with interesting people who helped
South Africa come out of apartheid. We visited a lot of areas and
it was an eye-opening venture. The experience was very moving, particularly
since the free elections were in 1993.
The group leader that took us to South Africa was already thinking
of studying the holocaust in Poland and Germany. I had already been
to Israel earlier and since the tour was organized on a very high
level, I wanted to come along. I was pulled into this by people
that I respect and admire. That’s how everything got started.
As the saying goes, ‘if you hang around with eagles then
you will soar, but if you hang around with turkeys…..’
7. A few years ago you went on a very interesting trip
that took you to the sites of the Holocaust. Tell us more about
that trip.
I recently heard a commentator speak about the Holocaust and people
who visit the sites. He said there is absolutely nothing to be learned
from the Holocaust and we should not study it because it’s
so horrific there is nothing to be learned. Although I appreciate
his sentiment, I feel, with due respect of course, that I do not
agree with his commentary.
What you see at the sites is so horrific and moving that words
cannot explain it. Everyone needs to see what occurred. And not
just here - other places too - like Rwanda etc. However, there’s
been a physical preservation of it in places like Poland and Germany.
There are many concentration camps and death camps preserved. It’s
an experience that shakes you to the core. This goes back to one
of the broader reasons for travel. Go and try to experience something
because reading, video or other media can’t move you in the
same way.
It was a very sad trip, but at the same time I tried to make it
more academic, make it more scholarly, to try to understand what
happened. I had the luxury to do this. I didn’t have to experience
it directly. But I ended up with more questions than answers.
8. You are scheduled to be a focus commentator in a documentary,
entitled 'The Gate', currently in post-production, that attempts
to analyze the tragedies of the holocaust from a pluralistic perspective.
Please tell us more about that project.
It’s very interesting how it came about. We have a good Jewish
friend who comes to our house, we also have her over for Shabbat
dinner regularly on Fridays. We told her about going on the Holocaust
trip. Her first reaction was “I am never going to Poland or
Germany”. This was 6 months before our trip. So we talked
more about why she didn’t want to go. Her family had suffered
in Poland and she didn’t want to go and revisit any of that.
As we talked more about it, once we took the emotion out of it,
she decided she wanted to go. I suppose it was a very big moment
for her to make the trip. My wife and I were going, and we are not
Jewish, so our ancestors were not personally affected by the Holocaust.
My friend also works for an entertainment company, so she decided
to take a camera crew along.
Samiti Lake in Nepal
There were 15 or so of us on the trip. The camera crew filmed our
reaction to certain things, and recorded the debriefings we had
every night. From that, our friend picked 4 people who represented
different facets of the trip to create her documentary. My facet
was dubbed the “rational perspective”. In her opinion,
I tend to give a logical explanation to what’s happening.
I tried to explain, as best I could, my thoughts as we moved from
camp to camp.
The documentary is being edited right now and there have been some
delays due to some personal tragedies in my friend’s life,
but hopefully the documentary will be ready in the near future.
9. You are planning to do a trekking expedition to the
Himalayas next month. Tell us more about that trip. How long are
you going for, what are you going to see? How are you training for
this event?
I am going on March 11. This is something I have wanted to do it
for at least 15 years. I have had it in the back of my mind for
many years. My wife thought I was nutty - well, more than she would
normally think, I suppose. If you can divide your experiences into
mental, emotional, physical experiences, this one would be to see
the physical beauty of the Himalayas, and it also includes a physical
training component. I have started to get back into shape now for
6 months to a year now, I have been running, lifting weights - and
feel that I am in very good shape now. As far as altitude is concerned,
my family doctor is a travel doctor, and he said there is not much
you can really do to train for the altitude. But he gave me some
medication for altitude sickness.
We are going to Sikkhim, that’s east of Nepal. Due to the
political situation in Nepal, the organizers of the trip, which
will include 6 people, astutely prepared for a contingency plan.
So we are going to a more politically stable country. We are going
to go up to 22,000 feet and we’ll do 20 to 30 km a day, or
7 to 8 hours of trekking daily. Sherpas are going to come along
with us and we’ll be sleeping in tents on the ground. This
is a very environmentally conscious area which I am happy about.
In total the trip will be 17 days and the trekking component will
be 11 days.
After it’s over, there will be a couple of volunteer components.
We are still going over the proposals right now. We also plan to
visit a leper colony, and although we are not going to be providing
medical treatment, we are planning on helping out with structural
things.
10. You are also on the board of Directors of Health Outreach-
a registered Canadian charity (www.healthoutreach.ca
) that focuses on providing free health care to children in developing
countries using innovative delivery models. Please tell us more
about that organization?
This is a great organization. I wish I could take credit for all
of it. One of my good friends, Dr. Tim Lee, is the brainchild and
driving force behind it. Personally I have helped out more from
a legal perspective and I have not yet had the opportunity to perform
health care. It’s a registered charity that focuses on providing
healthcare, particularly dentistry, to young children in third world
countries. Our current focus is Guatemala. The website is http://www.healthoutreach.ca/
where you can see pictures from our recent initiatives. Please visit
this site.
Stonebreakers in Nepal
One year we arranged for two or three dental chairs in a clinic
on a floating boat and put notices out to families to bring in their
kids. The kids were dressed in their Sunday best to line up to see
the doctor. Now these were people who didn’t even own a toothbrush.
The floating clinic went from village to village. We had completely
self-contained units with generators.
As there is more interest developing in this, there are so many
volunteers that want to come and join us. We fundraise, we approach
doctors and dentists and we go to pharmaceutical companies. So far
it’s been a resounding success. The best thing is that because
it’s still a relatively small charity, all of the funds are
managed properly. There are very few administrative costs so virtually
all the funds are going to the youth. It’s a great experience
and I hope to be involved clinically as well.
11. How would you summarize your philosophy on travel
and life in general?
Well, we’ve already talked about a few of my viewpoints on
life, travel and work. I am a little uncomfortable about doing interviews,
I really prefer quiet success. After a certain number of years you
get to know who that person is and appreciate what makes them successful.
In general I prefer a lower key approach to things and I really
respect the quality of quiet achievements and humble achievers,
I find it a commendable characteristic. People don’t need
to know about every great thing or all acts of kindness that you
have done.
My philosophy in life and travel converge. As the saying goes,
‘We shouldn’t measure the quality of life by the number
of breaths we take; but instead, by the number of times our breath
gets taken away’.
Thank you, Dr. Arya, for spending your time with us. It’s
been very enlightening and we hope to hear more from you once you
go on your trek to the Himalayas. All the best to you for your personal
and professional endeavours.
Related articles:
Read some background info on Dr.
Arya in my interview preview.
Read about Dr. Arya's incredible and amazing trekk
to Nepal.
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