A veteran cancer physician, Dr Fazlur Rahman's story is astonishing. He was born and raised in a Mullah family, an old-line Muslim clan, in a remote village in what is now Bangladesh, with its hardships and heartaches, its myths and superstitions. The people, places and cultures that he was a part of have almost entirely disappeared. The temples, mosques and palaces, though gone, come alive again in this beautifully written memoir. And the tales of love, suffering and fate of the village occupants are intertwined with Rahman's unlikely story of finding medicine and success in America. As a young boy, Rahman lost his mother, the heart of his family, and soon after, barely survived kala-azar, a parasitic illness. The Temple Road: A Doctor's Journey is an inspiring story of love, joy, suffering, medicine and achievement that takes readers from the jungles of Bangladesh to Dr Rahman's training in leading medical centers in New York and Houston, and the overwhelming emotions that come with his work as one of the most talented oncologists in the US.
Fazlur Rahman was born and brought up in what is now Bangladesh. After his medical education in Dhaka, New York, and Houston, he practiced cancer medicine for thirty-five years in San Angelo, Texas. He is an adjunct professor of biology (medical humanities and ethics) at Angelo State University, a senior trustee of Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and an advisory council member of the Charles E. Cheever Jr. Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. His writings on medical, ethical, social, and scientific issues have appeared in many national and international publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian Weekly, International Herald Tribune, Haaretz, Indian Express, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, Harvard Review, Short Story International, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Oncologist, and Lancet. His cultural and medical memoir, The Temple Road: A Doctor's Journey, published in India in 2016, tells about his upbringing and training years, his move to a new country, and his life and practice in West Texas. He and his wife, Jahanara (Ara), have lived there for most of their lives and have raised four children. They love walking in nature and going on wildflower adventures.
"In a time when doublespeak and the colonization of memory prevails, Fazlur Rahman's memoir, The Temple Road: A Doctor's Journey, is a refreshing balm of deep and crystalline remembering. To see the world through Rahman's eyes is to remember that the earliest maps we make are sometimes the truest. "I was that seven-year-old boy," Rahman marvels at the beginning of this beautifully painted portrayal of a man whose self-awareness spans continents and decades. Through his vivid and thoughtful prose, we too are allowed to delight and wonder in our own earliest understandings of what it is to be a self, and what it is to be alive and living in the middle of our own powerful story." -Tarfia Faizullah, author of Seam "The Temple Road is the story of a sensitive, gifted and determined young man who overcomes crushing loss, devastating illness, and humble origins to realize his dream to become a physician. His story is the story of countless strivers who, through strength of character, hard work, and the maintenance of core cultural values, find professional success in today's globalized society. Dr Rahman writes with luxurious detail, great poignancy, and hard-earned wisdom. If you take this journey with him, I promise it will be one you will never forget." -Jerald Winakur, MD, MACP, and author of Memory Lessons: A Doctor's Story. "A gripping story of a young man who came to the USA nearly half a century ago from a village in East Bengal which was to become Bangladesh. While narrating his tale of how he became a successful physician specializing in treating cancer patients and establishing himself as a highly respected member of his community, Dr Fazlur Rahman takes his readers through some awe-inspiring and exciting events. His recollections as a seven-year-old boy who went through the harrowing experience of his beautiful young mother dying during childbirth set a somber tone to the start of this mesmerizing memoir. His observations and commentary on medicine and society, the cultures of the East and West and fairness and justice clearly establish Rahman as a master storyteller. This is a most welcome addition to our contemporary literature because it proves beyond doubt that it is the immigrant population which makes America great, gives it its moral strength and the diversity it provides, its uniqueness in the entire world." -Dr Kanti Rai, MD, winner of the 2014 Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology
