“. . . harrowing and humorous . . . a pandemic memoir that doesn’t minimize the Covid-19 virus’ deadliness or the efforts of health care workers.”
— Kirkus Reviews
pa•tient /ˈpeɪ.ʃənt/
noun
a person who is under medical care or treatment.
adjective
bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.
Now available from author Akshay Rao
Patient: A Humorous Memoir of Healthcare and Healing
Despite Covid cautions—N95s, solitude, vaccinations—the author’s renal rebound lands him in the ER. Hospital week unveils a quirky cast—specialists, caring nurses, concerned kids. Time bends with tales of plane capers, orangutans, spectral kin.
Echoing Wodehouse and Sedaris, this memoir novella humorously captures American healthcare’s enigma and the need to embrace change, and adopt compassion on the road.
Patient - A book presentation by Akshay Rao
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Alliance Française 227 Colfax Avenue North Minneapolis, MN, 55405 United States
Join us at the Alliance for a presentation of Akshay Rao’s new book: Patient: A Humorous Memoir of Healthcare and Healing. The author will be discussing the inspiration, journey, and insights behind his latest work. Akshay R. Rao, Ph.D. is a professor and General Mills Chair in Marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
Moth Radio Hour - Story Grand Slam
October 2024 at the Fitzgerald Theater, Saint Paul, Minnesota (Details TBD)
* I WON THE MOTH STORY SLAM ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024!
The Moth Radio Hour is broadcast on weekends on Public Radio (noon on Saturdays on Minnesota Public Radio), and people from all over the world get to tell stories. To get on the radio, you first have to show up at a local Story Slam, throw your name in a hat, and 10 people get picked at random to tell a story in front of a live audience. On April 11, 2024, I was picked and told my “Kiss of an Orangutan” story (chapter 11 in my book Patient), in front of a wonderful audience of some 500 people in Saint Paul.
Judges (selected from the audience) awarded points to all storytellers, and I WON!
Now, I get to go to the Grand Slam in October, to be held at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul. I hope those of you who live in the Twin Cities will plan to attend and join the cheering section.
And this may be another reason to consider acquiring my audiobook, which is now available on Amazon.com.
“Rao recounts his harrowing and humorous interactions with the United States healthcare system. . . . While his condition was critical, Rao describes his hospitalization with ample humor. The title of the book, in fact, is a play on words, denoting his status as a patient as well as serving as a reminder of the frequent refrain he heard from doctors to ‘be patient.’ The author likes wordplay; he recalls waking up with ‘a sense of impending Zoom’ and asserts that he ‘pfelt pfine’ after his Pfizer vaccinations. The book’s optimistic prose includes reminders to readers about choosing kindness in their daily lives . . . a humorous pandemic memoir that doesn’t minimize the Covid-19 virus’ deadliness or the efforts of health care workers.”
– Kirkus Reviews
Read Patient for yourself
Delightful, charming, quirky, irreverent, …
Two months after several positive Covid tests, Akshay Rao finds himself in the Emergency Room, having been diagnosed with acute renal failure. This, despite donning N95 masks indoors and out, living life as a hermit, and getting vaccinated and boosted at the first available opportunity.
What follows is a delightful, charming, quirky, irreverent and sometimes poignant romp through the travails of being hospitalized for a week, featuring specialist doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and the Rao children valiantly attempting to hide their concern. And, we travel through space and time, with stories of “rerouting” a commercial airliner in India, a close encounter with an orangutan in Malaysian Borneo, an anecdote about little Rao children contemplating their father’s mortality, and an apparition’s role in the birth of a grandfather.
The core message is one of hope and acceptance, and the recognition that all is impermanent, so it is incumbent on us to be compassionate. When somebody cuts you off on the highway, imagine they are driving to the ER with a case of acute renal failure, and give them the right of way.
In Other News
I CONDUCTED THE MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA ON MAY 4, 2024!
At the Annual Gala for the Minnesota Orchestra, you can bid on many things including the opportunity to conduct the Orchestra for a short piece. I bid (a small fortune). I WON!
To be on stage with these extraordinary world class musicians was a thrill beyond description. I had so much fun as you will see in the attached 5-minute video, conducting the William Tell overture. What an absolute delight, and for one brief moment, they called me “Maestro!”
I am also now the proud owner of an autographed baton signed by Maestro Thomas Søndergård himself, as well as a copy of the sheet music autographed by all the members of the Orchestra!
Akshay Rao
Akshay Rao is a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. When not teaching graduate students and writing academic papers, he indulges his interest in writing creative nonfiction, learning French, and theater, both as a performer and a consumer. He lives in Minneapolis with his cats, Moscato and Mojito (their sister, Mimosa, and mother, Sangria, were adopted by somebody else—clearly alcoholism runs in this cat family). When not writing or working his day job, Rao plays some golf (poorly) and tennis (reasonably well) and replenishes a quickly depleting wine cellar frequently.
Contact Prof. Rao
Contact me for speaking engagements or consultations.