Boston resident Adnan Khera, 28, is anything but your average doctor—through him we see that it is possible to create a unique and even eye-catching way to give back to the community.
When Khera is not wrapped in the tedious hours of a doctor’s schedule, he works on a special project and helps people find their individuality.
“Expressing individuality is largely a matter of having the courage to be a critical thinker and forge your own way,” Khera said. “Societal norms largely dictate how we act.”
Khera added that good actions and creativity can lead expression to increase individuality.
“When there is clear communal good from your actions, however, you will not only be allowed but encouraged to pursue your individuality,” he said. “All it takes is a bit of creativity.”
Using creativity, Khera said he knew his passion for street dancing was the right way to infuse his core message and spread it throughout the community.
“I became interested in street performing several years ago when I realized how powerful my dancing was as a tool to inspire others,” he explained. “I thought it would be an excellent learning experience and a lot of fun—and it has been both.”
Confident with this dance moves, Khera not only wanted to dance to inspire people but found a way to raise and donate money for several charities.
“I try to pick charities that are considered positive to every group of people: such as sick or poor children, sick adults, amputees, injured veterans, domestic violence victims, abused animals and the environment,” he said. “I want the focus to stay on the idea of individuality and not on any particular cause, so the charities are intentionally diverse.”
Since he uses his love for dance to inspire and raise money, it was no surprise that Khera hit it off on such a high note right from the beginning. In fact, it wasn’t long before he was recognized by one of his patients who had seen him perform.
“I was seeing a patient in the emergency room in Baltimore who recognized me, ‘Oh, I know you! You that doctor be jammin’! I’m going to go back and tell everyone I got seen by that doctor be jammin’!’” he recalled.
It was then that Khera said he decided to adopt the nickname “DoctorBeDancing” and take his project to the next level by incorporating it into his social media usernames.
“I thought it was cute, so I adopted a modified version of it as my hashtag (#DoctorBeDancing) when I first started busking in May of this year.”
After launching his social media profiles, Khera saw how easy support came from strangers who believed in him.
“Support comes in many different forms: donations, smiles, dances, collaborations, media requests, kind words, emails, followers on social media, or some combination of the above,” he said.
Although he received encouragement from many strangers it was harder to receive the same support from his family. Khera recalled a time when his father’s suggestion was to forget about dancing and focus on more important goals.
“His suggestion was that I leave behind the ‘dancing thing’ to have more time for the other endeavors,” Khera said. “I got upset because he didn’t seem to understand how significant the dancing was. I told him, ‘I wish I could show you what I see.'”
Despite his family’s lack of motivation for Khera’s dancing goals, he kept pursuing expression of movement through dance and continues to bring about awareness for individuality.
With his good deeds, Khera said he hopes charity projects expand their views of South Asians when it comes to achieving success and happiness.
“If there’s one thing I think South Asians could glean from #DoctorBeDancing, I think it’s the role of passion in achieving both success and happiness through the resilience it inspires,” he said. “What makes #DoctorBeDancing truly unique and resilient is that it has viral value with the substance to back it up.” Khera explained, “Even if no attention was paid by the public and not a single person [was] inspired to pay-it-forward, I would still have raised thousands of dollars for charity.”
He’s taking all of his goals in stride, one step at a time, but he has major plans for the future he hopes to become an author and motivational speaker.
“I hope to achieve my other goals of writing my book and would be honored to give a TEDtalk to inspire even more people with my ideas about individuality and self-expression,” Khera concluded.
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