10 Questions with Dr. Naomi Kalliath
A master at hula-hooping, breast surgeon Dr. Naomi Kalliath loves cooking international dishes and exploring the Cape trails with her one-year-old daughter and husband, also a surgeon at Cape Cod Hospital. Dr. Kalliath joined CCHC last month and practices at the Cuda Breast Care Center at CCHC.
1. What was your very first job?
When I was 12, I worked on an organic farm in the Black Dirt Region of New York, helping out wherever I was needed: weeding, picking fruit, sometimes dealing with honeybees.
2. Favorite spot on the Cape?
The cranberry bogs in West Yarmouth. I take walks there every day with my husband, Matthew (who is a general surgeon at Cape Cod Hospital), our one-year-old daughter in a jogging stroller and Daffodil, our 50-pound spotted mutt. It’s really nice right now because we enjoy watching the harvesting process.
3. What is your favorite activity on your days off?
Spending time with my family and making dinner together. We cook a lot of international foods, including Thai and Indian.
4. What do you keep an emergency supply of?
Organic O’s cereal, the Whole Foods version of Cheerios, for my daughter. If she gets hungry and we are out in the woods, I always bring the O’s. Otherwise, she will be hangry.
5. What’s the very next thing on your to-do list?
We want to go on a big trip. We have been very much homebodies since Covid and having a young child. We want to go to India or Southern India. I have been to Northern India, but we’d like to go to Kerala, my in-laws state of origin. My husband still has extended family there. It’s very beautiful and tropical.
6. Did you travel a lot before Covid?
We went to Hong Kong on a whim for a five-day trip, went skiing in Austria and also traveled to Patagonia, where we did mountain biking, hiking and kayaking on melted glaciers. We were surrounded by huge chunks of icebergs. It was probably my favorite trip.
7. What have you been putting off?
I want to read more for pleasure. In fellowship residency, you don’t get much time to read on your own. I am in the process of finishing the Harry Potter series. I’m long overdue for that and making up for lost time.
8. What is your favorite time of day?
Definitely dusk. There’s a moisture in the air, the changing colors of the sun at horizon. There’s a lot of wildlife activity at that time, very active animals hunting and foraging. There’s some kind of excitement of the change going from day to night.
9. What is your hidden talent?
I am really good at hula-hooping. I did Relay for Life every year in medical school and we would always have a hula-hoop competition. If I enrolled, I would usually win. I could usually hula 20 hoops around my waist. I could do it forever.
10. What are you binge watching?
“Squid Game” on Netflix. It’s a little intense. You have a pit in your stomach the whole time you’re watching it. You feel bad for the people, but my husband and I are totally hooked.
