Karachi Doctor’s Wife Is His Secretary

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29239, 24 June 1960, Page 2

Karachi Doctor’s Wife Is His Secretary

When Mrs Roeinton B. Khambatta went to London from Pakistan as a girl to do a secretarial course, as part of her education, she was not to know that this training would form the basis of one side of her marriage partnership. As secretary to her physician husband in Karachi she makes his appointments, looks after his books and mail and finds the work deeply

absorbing. “In Pakistan there is no problem of domestic help as there is in New Zealand,” she said in Christchurch last evening. “We have plenty of servants to do our work, though not as many , home appliances as you have in New [Zealand. Pakistani women are thus free to do outside activities ”

Having been used to this way of life always, Mrs Khambatta prefers it to doing housework and cooking because she can follow the pursuits she enjoys—those for which she has been equipped by her education and upbringing. Welfare Work Mrs Khambatta belongs to the Lionnaides Club in Karachi, which is run as an auxiliary to the Lions Club to help the Lions with their welfare projects. Members of the Lionnaides Club distribute milk to schools where it is needed and collect old spectacles. “The spectacles, frames, and lenses are put into a ‘bank,’ and any poor person who needs glasses is tested by an optician, given a prescription, and then receives his spectacles free of charge.” she said. Mrs Khambatta is visiting New Zealand with her husband, who attended the Asian-Pacific Congress of Cardiology at Melbourne

last month. For the last three days they have been in Dunedin, where Dr. Khambatta has been making a tour of the University of Otago medical school and hospitals. Keen Photographer It rained most of the time, which prevented Mrs Khambatta from taking advantage of her hobby—colour photography. A keen camerawoman, Mrs Khambatta once won a photographic competition in her home city of Quetta. Now she often makes her own Christmas cards. “We have many Christian friends who send us Christmas cards, and we like to return them,” she said. Mrs Khambatta adheres to the Zoarastrian religion, the old faith of Persia, from where her ancestors came to settle in Pakistan. “Our main religious festival is held at our New Year, March 21. This we celebrate by going to church, having parties and dinners,” said Mrs Khambatta.