SWISH SET
Southern Comfort
There's more to Augusta than the Masters-a prestigious medical college and its ancillary units, for one. And the Indians. Not the Red Indians, but the desi variety who are living it up in style.

By Prabhdev Singh

Leave the Bobby Jones' golf course aside and Augusta resembles many cities in the American South. Wearing colors literally on the sleeves, for one. And culture and history too, even if it chronicles a bitter black-white row. There is even a saying that you have to be born a Southerner to belong! And Deep South Augusta is, a sleepy town that wakes up once in a year during the Masters mayhem.

Augusta foursome (Clockwise from top left) Dr. M. Vinayak Kamath, Dr. Harinderjit Singh, Dr. Sridhar Gowda, Dr. Kapil N. Bhalla.

Perhaps the Augustan ethos of being rooted to your heritage suits Indians well. The few who have set up base there seem to be doing very well, some of them remarkably well as professionals. "I'm a hardcore Augustan," says Dr. M. Vinayak Kamath, a heart surgeon who has been living the American Dream in Augusta for the past 26 years. In reality too, he lives in a sprawling gated community with its own golf course, and a Mercedes and a Lexus in his garage. "People here do take a while to accept you, but if you scratch the surface, you learn that they would give their life for their family, honor and integrity, and they would also respect anyone who does the same."

Of all the places in America, Dr. Kamath, who traces his Indian roots to Indore, chose Augusta because he felt it was a small enough place to have close friends. And it is cosmopolitan. "If I have a tikka or a turban on my head, it doesn't provoke comments. That is saying a lot for the South," he says.
Dr. Harinderjit Singh, an ophthalmologist, would know better. "In fact, looking different has been an asset to me," says the turbaned doctor-hotelier. "Patients come to me from 150 km of Augusta, and many have never seen a Sikh before. They become promoters of my practice and tell others to go see the 'turbaned' doctor.

"I left Texas for Augusta, but when I reached here it was such a small place, and I wondered if they needed me at all," he recalls. Just out of curiosity, Dr. Singh decided to find out if there were any other 'Singhs' in the vicinity. As it turned out, there were a couple-a physician and a dentist. He tried to reach out to both: one didn't respond, the other became a lifelong friend.

That was in 1984, when Augusta's population hovered around the 200,000 mark, with very few people of Indian origin. Now 600-plus Indian families add up to the burgeoning population. Besides the Medical College, the U.S. Army signal center at Fort Gordon and the Central Savannah River Area, which provides planning services to school systems in the state of Georgia, contribute to the numbers. And as far as the Indians are concerned, it's not just quantity, but also quality. "I think it is one of the rare communities with high concentration of highly qualified, skilled and highly paid professionals," says Dr. Sridhar Gowda, an Associate Professor at the Medical College of Georgia.

There are churches in almost every nook of the town but among them also stand two temples and as many gurdwaras. Bringing the diverse community together is the annual arts festival, when the idli-dosas are as popular as the chole-bathuras, says Dr. Kamath. And, for the past two years, Jeev Milkha Singh, who's made it to the rarified confines of the Augusta National. Jeev's appearance has infused the community with a sense of pride. "We are proud of Jeev not only playing, but playing well," says Dr. Kamath.

As one of the oldest medical colleges in the South, the Medical College of Georgia has attracted a lot of Indians. Among them is Dr. Kapil N. Bhalla. One of America's top oncologists, he came to Augusta to set up a $55 million cancer center in 2006 and stayed on. "I came and saw the building and the facilities and the possibility of creating something, an opportunity to plan for the future," he says. He now lives in Augusta with his American wife and two children.

Rekha, and later her husband D.K. Bhaskar, joined Dr. Bhalla at the facility. "You can be easily lost in big cities but in Augusta there is a support system," says Bhaskar, founder of the Augusta International Photography Festival. As a globe-trotting photojournalist, his work keeps him on rollers all the time. "But I am happy to come back to a small place, where it takes me two minutes to check in at the airport."

He's also been lucky to have had a chance to photograph the Augusta National Golf Club. He had heard of the Masters as a premier golf event on a visit to Scotland in 2002. "I wasn't much into golf. It was a visit to the Augusta National which changed all that. I have shot images here that I couldn't even think about," gushes Bhaskar.

Augusta has been "good" to Shankar Balan too. He came to the U.S. in 1987 from Chennai. Driving through to Hilton Head for a golf event in 1994, he stopped by Augusta to buy a Masters T-shirt. "I liked the place so much that I decided to settle down," says the CEO of Palmetto Industries.

While Balan has had the fortune of playing the Augusta a few times-"it's a tough test, and humbles you"-Dr. Singh and Dr. Kamath have watched the four-day extravaganza from close quarters. The patrons' list closed in 1980 so fans can only apply for practice rounds, but friends ensure a steady supply of tickets. "Many times we give the tickets to friends because for us it is ghar ki kheti," says Dr. Kamath. "For friends from India and Europe, seeing the azaleas in full bloom is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Of course, there's the golf too."

(Clockwise from top) A gurdwara, temple and a congregation in Augusta.

As Bhaskar describes it, the advent of March sees Augusta wake up from the long winter. The planting of azaleas start, so does the trimming of lawns and spring cleaning of homes. The windows are swabbed and shop fronts mopped as the town gets ready to usher in the Masters.

The way Dr. Gowda sees it, come Masters Week you have two choices-you either leave town with your children who are into their spring break, or you stay back and enjoy the festive atmosphere. "It is more like a ritual for thousands of people to visit the golf course year after year, and for some, a chance of a lifetime," says Dr. Gowda, a keen golfer himself. He took to the game a few years ago while tagging along with his son who played for his high school. Dr. Gowda is now a member at the River Golf Club, one of the top five golf courses in and around Augusta.

It's a week that Bobby Jones inadvertently provided Augustans with an annual windfall. The board in a motel round the corner from Bhaskar's house reads $459.95 during the week. On the following Monday it was $39.95-$49.95 for double occupancy! That's a motel. In the top-end hotels like Dr. Singh's (he owns five of them), his Double Tree fetches him $500-$550 a day during the Masters. Jeev does prefer to stay in one of his hotels, and the sucker for Indian food that he is, the two Indian restaurants in Augusta, Bombay Central and Taj of India, supply him the naans and the tikkas once the day's work is done. "Our takeaways increase during the Masters," says Sunny Kalra of Bombay Central, which has a delicious mango kulfi on its menu. You can say the Masters ensures Jack Daniels and Jim Beam evenings for days to come.

D.K. Bhaskar, a much traveled photographer.

After the hectic week, everyone slips into their roles, even if divided along racial lines. "We don't even bother locking our cars," says Dr. Kamath. But when the need arises, most people stand up to the occasion. Like an elderly black gentleman, who did what he thought was 'right' for Dr. Kamath's nephew, who was driving from Florida. It was getting late at night and he was lost about 60 miles out. The nephew stopped at a gas station and told the attendant of his predicament. The attendant volunteered, "I have to go to Augusta tomorrow to see a cousin, why don't I go tonight?" He locked up, jumped into his car and Dr. Kamath's nephew just followed him for 60 miles into town. "You don't see these kinds of gestures too often," says Dr. Kamath.
But in Augusta, you do. "It's a place where you would like to see your children grow and succeed," endorses Dr. Gowda.

July 2008