Renaissance Doc

Note: Abdhish Bhavsar graduated from the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1991. This story is reprinted from "Minnesota Medicine," and was written by Howard Bell.

Abdhish Bhavsar is a veritable Renaissance man of hobbies – amateur car racer, saxophone player, women’s jewelry designer, painter, and kite flier. Oh, yes – he’s also a retina surgeon at Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis.

Bhavsar races his ’94 Dodge Stealth twin turbo, an unmodified street car he sometimes drives to work. He caught the racing bug during his fellowship at UCLA, but quickly concluded that road rallied with 20 cars competing neck-and-neck were too dangerous. Instead, he races against the clock in Autocross meets, with only one other car on the track at the same time. The course takes about 60 seconds and includes lots of hairpin and 90-degree turns. Speed is secondary to handling. “You run most of the race in second gear at 30 to 60 miles per hour,” he says. “The skill comes in learning when and how much to brake, when to accelerate out of a turn, and how to keep from bumping into pylons, which slow you down. It’s not about going as fast as you can.” Last summer, Bhavsar placed first in his Autocross division. “Kind of exciting,” he says.

Bhavsar favors Dodge because he grew up near Detroit, next door to Bill Dayton, the Chrysler design chief who created the Lamborghini Diablo. “I used to watch him drive, which sparked my interest,” Bhavsar says. It’s not the adrenaline rush that appeals—it’s the calming effect racing has on him. “Autocross is not stressful like neck-and-neck, where you’re competing with a bunch of other racers, any one of whom could bump into you. Instead, you’re competing against yourself. You’re in complete control and it’s fun to get to know the car and its limits.”

 As for painting, it may be in Bhavsar’s genes. He’s always liked to draw. His physician father is an accomplished abstract watercolorist. A cousin is an abstract artist whose work hangs in national galleries. Bhavsar started painting seriously just two years ago, but he’s submitted a couple of his abstract acrylic paintings for consideration at Twin Cities art shows. … “No one will ever mistake my work for my cousin’s,” he says. “But I enjoy it just the same.”

 Bhavsar’s wife, Mary, needs a big box to hold the jewelry he makes from pearls and gems. Bhavsar became interested in pearls while living in Los Angeles, home to a major pearl wholesale market. He taught himself how to work with cultured and freshwater pearls. He designs necklaces and earrings with East Indian motifs – pearls surrounded with gold and tiny emeralds. For now, his creations are strictly gifts for family, but someday, he says, he will open his own shop.

Bhavsar plays the saxophone because he says he likes the way it takes him away from the stresses of work. “There’s something about music. It just makes you feel really good.” He used to be a serious sax student and had his own rock band during medical school at Wayne State University in Detroit. Now he plays for himself – blues, jazz, and classical pieces. Mary, who’s studying piano, sometimes joins him in jazz duets. Right now they’re working on Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.”

 On summer days, especially when he vacations near the ocean, Bhavsar flies his flexifoil kite 150 feet above the beach. He started flying kites as a teenager, when he worked at a Nantucket kite store. Flying a 10-foot-tall kite – which is large enough to lift a small child – takes a good deal of upper-body strength, and two 300-pound test strings are needed to control the kite.

Certainly Bhavsar would have even more interests, if only there were more hours in a day.