Page 116 - USA_final__3-10-2020_Neat

PEACE THROUGH EDUCATION: SUNBIRD TRUST AND
MY FRIEND COL. CHRIS REGO
By Dr. Vivek Bhaktaram, Oklahoma City, OK

Vivek Bhaktaram and Chris Rego at VPA Convention 2019

Colonel Chris Rego and I were classmates and good friends at St. Joseph’s Boys’ High
School, Bangalore from 1970 to 1976 and again from 1977 to 1979 at St Josephs’ College,
Bangalore. He qualified for admission to the prestigious National Defence Academy
at Khadakwasla, near Pune, standing first among the candidates from Karnataka.
Commissioned as an Army officer in 1984, he continued a tradition of four generations
of men in uniform. His grandfather was a veteran of World War II and his father, an Air
Commodore in the Air Force, a veteran of the 1962 Indo-China War. After graduating
from Josephs’, I went on to Medical College in Manipal and spent the next eight years
completing my MBBS and MD. I subsequently worked at St. John’s Medical College,
Bangalore, for four years before moving on to University of Oklahoma in 1993 where I

completed my residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Cardiology. Since 1999, I
have worked as an interventional cardiologist in Oklahoma City.

During his Army career, Chris developed a fascination for the North East. He claims that
he had a selfish desire to serve in that beautiful part of the country where his hobbies
as a musician, photographer, nature lover, amateur herpetologist and traveler, came
together. Serving with the Assam Rifles in Mizoram from 2003 for four years, he and
his wife Myrna (from Mangalore) found that many local people harbored angst against
“Indians” and sometimes even against “India” itself. Chris and Myrna used their time in
this verdant state to learn about the local people, their rich culture and traditions, and

their daily realities. They visited the homes of their local Mizo friends and in turn invited
them over frequently, learning about their perceptions, and aspirations.

While traveling on duty through the remotest areas across the state, Chris began
to understand why many people, in Mizoram, and in the Northeast, did not perceive
themselves as “Indians.” For one, they barely had access to any symbols of the Indian
state – namely, they had no policemen, postmen, roads, electricity or government
services. Many had never seen a doctor in their lives. Accentuating the emotional divide

112