Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993                   TAG: 9308200088
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

WRONG NUMBER, MAYBE, BUT THE OUTCOME WAS RIGHT

Ajay Acharya is a cardiologist and his wife, Paras Acharya, is an allergist. They worked together in an office he designed off U.S. 11 east of Pulaski Community Hospital, but their receptionist-secretary, Melissa Martin, said she has no problem getting their calls mixed up.

"We know most of our patients," Martin said.

But when the couple was practicing medicine in Queens, N.Y., three years ago, Ajay Acharya got a call meant for another Dr. Acharya there whose specialty was obstetrics and gynecology and who was being recruited for a rural area.

"They called my office by mistake," he said. After that was straightened out, Ajay Acharya asked jokingly, "You have anything for a cardiologist?"

And the caller said she did. "We have a small town in Virginia that's looking for a cardiologist."

Almost on a whim, the Acharyas came for a look. "He likes to take chances," Paras Acharya said. But they liked what they saw.

"And before we knew it, we were down here," Ajay Acharya said. "We got everything done in 60 days. That was just a miracle. People wait for years sometimes just to sell their home."

They have been in Pulaski County since August 1990 and in their building almost two years. First, they worked out of an office next to Pulaski Community Hospital.

"But for two people, it was kind of small, and, you know, you always have this lifelong dream of going into your own office," Ajay Acharya said.

They left India together in 1977, planning to spend just a few years in the United States. Then they decided to stay.

They had met during their first year in college - he is the youngest in his family and she the oldest in hers - and went through medical school together in India. They were married shortly after arriving in New York.

Both had to go through internships, he in medicine and cardiology and she in pediatrics and allergies, before they could go into private practice. He opened an office in Queens in 1982 and was joined by her in 1984.

"We were really not looking to move at all," Ajay Acharya said. "We did not know anybody around here. I didn't know a soul. I didn't know where Pulaski was."

"I didn't even know where Roanoke was," Paras Acharya added.

"Now I think that place is a jungle," Ajay Acharya said of Queens. "I think the concept of cities is not natural."

The couple had three daughters: Priya, now 13; Gayatri, 8, and Ragini, 5, and worried about their safety. "I think the drug scene was getting to us," he said.

Paras Acharya disliked the city traffic and congestion. Too much time was spent just getting from one place to another. They made good money, but had no leisure time to spend it, she said.

She likes the slower pace and polite people in Pulaski County, she said, not to mention being able to go to a pool for a quick swim during lunch.

"I think Virginia gives a good mix of cultures," he said. "I think I'm in good company with quality physicians at the hospital."

Ajay Acharya hopes to expand their building a little more this winter.

When he designed it, he was surprised to find that space requirements for parking lots around medical offices made parking the most expensive item in the whole project.

"We never have parking problems, let's put it that way," he said.