Somewhere down the line, the University of Rochester threw up an offer that was hard to resist. Back in 1975, the hospital guaranteed him a minimum of USD 100,000 annually, if he continued to stay and work with them. Over some forty years ago, that figure was equal to about a million dollars today. That’s the kind of money no ordinary person would decline. Apart from the money Sahota would get perks and benefits. When an employer wants to pamper you, they throw in several other incentives. He would get an office, assured number of patients, and all the other expenses of staying in Rochester would be taken care of. The hospital management had made a calculated offer, quite certain that Sahota would not refuse.

But Sahota’s conscience did not let him down. He politely turned down the offer from Rochester on the grounds that he had a commitment to fulfill in Canada. “If I was after the money, I would not have moved out of Punjab in the first place. And certainly not out of Rochester in the second,” he muses many years later, sitting at home in Laguna Beach, California.