It is early morning and the first rays of the sun bounce off the leafy tendrils that dot the screen doors in the living room.
On first sight it would seem like an ordinary couple tending to their favourite plants in the cosy confines of their house. But soon you realise this couple is anything but ordinary.
Having had a personal meeting with the prime minister of India just the day before this interview, Dr Ramakanta Panda is definitely one of the most talked about men in the country right now.
Living up to the adage, ‘behind every successful man is a woman’, wife Sanghamitra has been a pillar of support for the 54-year-old heart surgeon through the early years of his career and then through the two years when he spent every waking moment hunched over work at office, laying the foundation of what he calls his pet project, the Asian Heart Institute.
Ask Dr Panda what he loves best about his wife, and you see the shy couple exchange furtive glances. He explains, "I have watched my wife single-handedly bring up our two kids. She loves to be independent, even making breakfast and packing lunch for our daughter who lives with us."
Says Sanghamitra, "In the first few years of marriage, when I joined him in the US where he was working, I learnt to do my own laundry cleaning and shopping for my own fruits and the vegetables."
Sanghamitra, who has been content to be a homemaker since marrying Panda, laughs out aloud when she recounts their wedding 21 years ago. "He had come to India with two days to look for a bride. My picture was one of the countless profiles his family had gathered. I was lucky enough to be chosen!"
Given his busy schedule at the hospital, Panda admits he pines to spend some quality time at home. Sanghamitra surprises us by saying, "If he could, he would watch only Tom and Jerry on the cartoon channels. I have given up on him."
Not fazed at all, Panda says, "You may say ours has been a typical Indian marriage. Due to my work schedule, I am always late to meet friends and family and hardly take any vacations. It is my wife who has shaped our family and what we are today."
