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“You have to have a purpose in life, and that is number one. You also have to have a hobby. Everyone wants to be happy, and I believe that happiness depends only on those two things. Happiness is inside of you and within these two things. When I look back on all the 75 years of my life, I think that if I had to live again, I would live the same life.” Through his profession, through painting, and through tennis, Dr. Acharya has found happiness.

In his last five decades as a practicing physician, 75-year-old Dr. Arun Acharya has fallen in love with medicine. “Becoming a doctor has been the greatest blessing in my life. I get a lot of energy out of my practice. Whenever I see a patient beginning to heal, my joy cannot be expressed in words. A doctor makes a patient confident and fearless. That is what the profession is about.”

Besides the satisfaction that comes from his profession, Dr. Acharya attributes his deep-rooted happiness to his love of painting. 

“The joy I find in painting is unexplainable. When I am painting, I am only painting. From the moment I begin, I am no longer the painter, but I find my identity within the painting. 

Many people ask me, why do you paint, who do you paint for, what do you do with all of these paintings- I always tell them, ‘painting is my first love.’”

For Dr. Acharya, the meaning behind his paintings extends beyond the act of painting itself. “A lot of people have given me love and respect. Painting is my expression of all of that. It is an expression of all the love that has been given to me from my patients, my well-wishers, my friends, and my siblings.” He says. 

“The same thing happens when I play tennis. I like to win. I like to lose also. I like to be aggressive. I like to be patient, calm, and quiet also. Out of all my occupations and hobbies, tennis has taught me the most.”

To find the same happiness that he has achieved, Dr. Acharya recommends finding a hobby and harnessing it in your day-to-day life.