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All Indians Aren't Born To Be Doctors By- Melvin Durai Melvin Durai is an Indiana-based writer and humorist. Born in Tamil Nadu, India, he grew up in Zambia and moved to the U.S. in the early 1980s. In 1995, while working as a reporter for a daily newspaper in Chambersburg, Pa., he began writing a regular humor column. His weekly column now appears in several newspapers and on a number of Web sites. He also writes a twice-monthly column on Indian and Indian-American issues. He is a diehard fan of the National Football League and also likes to run, lift weights and play soccer, tennis and pool. An award-winning feature writer and aspiring novelist, he plans to publish a collection of his best columns. You can write to him at comments@melvindurai.com To read his older columns, go to http://www.melvindurai.com

M. Night Shyamalan is undoubtedly a talented film director and potentially a great one, though some critics thought his last movie "Unbreakable" should have been called "Unbearable."

He's perhaps the most famous Indian-American, especially if you exclude that incomparable businessman whose voice is heard all over America: Apu, from "The Simpsons."

Moviegoers should be glad Shyamalan, writer-director of the 1999 mega-hit "Sixth Sense," resisted his parents' expectations. Like so many Indian parents, they wanted their son to become a doctor. After all, they were both doctors and so were ten others in their family. The Shyamalans, apparently, were born with stethoscopes in their ears. Instead of saying "It's a boy!" the excited father would announce, "It's another doctor!"

"Medicine was in my genetic makeup," Shyamalan recently told Rolling Stone magazine. "As an Asian child, it comes as natural as driving a car."

If Shyamalan actually believes that, he's definitely in the dark. Perhaps that's why he changed his middle name to "Night."

It's a good thing he didn't become a geneticist. He'd still be examining his DNA through a microscope, searching desperately for that "doctor" gene. I can just picture him making a big announcement to his assistants: "Eureka! There it is! The 'doctor' gene! I knew I'd find it. No, wait. That's just a particle of curry powder from my lunch."

If medicine comes to Asians as naturally as driving a car, what about all those Asians who have no clue how to drive? While it's true that many Asians do become doctors, Shyamalan's statement only serves to perpetuate a myth: that we're somehow predisposed to medicine. Not that I have anything against doctors. We need them badly. I certainly don't want to find myself on an operating table with a doctor snarling at me: "Aren't you the guy who wrote a critical column about doctors?"

I just hate to see Indian youths being pressured to pursue one profession or another. These days, so many are specializing in computers and I can't help wondering if they're all passionate about that field. Or are some just passionate about making money?

As a youngster, I felt a lot of pressure myself. Of course, my mother did give me several career choices. She said I could become any of the following: surgeon, cardiologist, ophthalmologist or pediatrician.

Needless to say, I eventually disappointed her and became a writer. I've learned to use colons well, but fortunately never have to operate on them. My mother still regrets my decision. Several months ago, after she cut her finger in the kitchen, I applied a small adhesive bandage to it. "You did that so well," she said. "You should have become a doctor."

Yes, I thought, I could have become a great doctor. I could have erected a big sign outside my medical practice: "Melvin Durai, Doctor of Minor Cuts."

It doesn't help that so many Indians of my generation became doctors. Every time my mother meets one of them, she probably thinks, "That could have been my son." And every time I see one of those doctors driving a Mercedes, I think, "That could have been my car."

Actually, I'm not envious of them at all. I'm happy as a writer. And I dream of the day when all Indian children can explore their interests and talents without constraints from parents and society. Then perhaps more of them will sing like Lata Mangeshkar, write fiction like R.K. Narayan, and direct films like M. Night Shyamalan.

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