Mandya,(DHNS): Uncles, aunts and cousins of Dr Vivek Hallegere Murthy in Hallegere village, Mandya city and also in Mysuru and Bengaluru, rejoiced as they learnt that he was administered the oath of office as the 19th US Surgeon General by Vice-President Joe Biden at Conmy Hall, in Fort Myer, Virginia State, on Wednesday.

H K Vasanth Kumar, one of his uncles, said, if not for the gun lobby that was against a reformist like him, Dr Vivek would have been sworn in long back. “Now that all the hurdles have been cleared and he has been sworn in, the people in our village and all the relatives are happy.

At present, Vivek is the highest ranking official of Indian origin — in the rank of Vice Admiral — in the US,” he said. H A Venkatesh, former Senate member of the University of Mysore, a relative, said, with this Vivek has become the youngest-ever, at 37, in charge of the US’ public health. “His gesture of taking oath on the Gita should make all Indians proud. It proves that he has not forgotten his roots,” he said.

H R Gopalkrishna, another relative, recalls how Dr Vivek organised and even took part in health camps and other social activities in Hallegere and neighbouring villages through his Scope Foundation.

Dr Vivek is the grandson of the late H C Narayana Murthy, who was a director of Vikrant Tyres and also Mysore Sugar Company. He is the son of Florida-based Dr H N Lakshminarasimha Murthy. His uncle (father’s elder brother) H N Sathyanarayana, who lives in Bengaluru, worked as an executive engineer with the State PWD. Dr Lakshminarasimha Murthy, an alumnus of the Mysore Medical College, moved to London for after a short stint with the Acetate Factory Hospital in Mandya.

Vivek was born in London and raised in the US. During his swearing-in ceremony, Dr Vivek recalled the sacrifices of his grandfather in educating his father. He said, “I am who I am because of my grandmother’s faith, my father’s strength, my mother’s love, my sister’s support and my fiancee’s unyielding belief in me. I am blessed to have all of them here with me today.

I will always be grateful to them for the sacrifices they have made. My family was never supposed to have left. My father is the son of a farmer in rural India. He was supposed to have been a farmer, as was I. But for my grandfather’s insistence that his son get an education — even if that meant going into debt — we might have never left that village to go out in the world.”