As a child, whenever I saw a movie I could imbibe into me a part of the nature of my favorite character, even if it was for a few hours only. One of my siblings found it very irritating. I also identified myself with people I read about. I know it is funny, but as a child I identified myself with Tom Sawyer, the famous title character of the Mark Twain novel, and Josephine March created by the American author Louisa May Alcott. Both were wild.
Little did I know that I had a generous dose of empathy in me even as a child. Later, as a doctor I can feel the pain and discomfort of my patients, the anxiety of the patients' family and cry over a patient's death.
There was a man who sold tea in front of our home. He lived with his lame wife and children in a shed made of tarpaulin. How I wished I could visit their home and taste the dinner that his wife cooked, in a made shift oven constructed with two blocks of bricks, the fuel being dry leaves that was collected from the nearby park. I always thought how tasty the food must be cooked in that way.
Years later when I was teaching in China, I longingly looked from my apartment at the staff quarters and wished they would invite me for a cup of green tea in their shabby home. It goes without saying that I wasn't.
