Editor’s note: This essay is adapted from The DNA of a Doctor: How Upbringing, Culture, and Unbridled Ambition Curates Achievement (Post Hill Press, 2026)
Both of my grandmothers, living in two separate small villages in India miles apart from each other, had each secretly become believers in Jesus. At that time, in that environment, it was dangerous to be a Christian. Becoming a believer would have disgraced your family.
Neither grandmother hid her faith from her children, though they did from everyone else. While most of their offspring went back to practicing Hinduism when they married, my dad and mom, independently and alone of all their many brothers and sisters, had each developed a strong Christian faith.
They just didn’t know this about each other.