I was saying it tongue in cheek, but your reply got me thinking.
I did a search for the name “Patel” on the SC Board of Medical Examiners for the name Patel and Smith.
Patel got 224 hits.
Smith, a common name, got 452.
In little SC I suspect 224 is a pretty high count. But like you hinted at, the physicians I have known with that name all went to medical school in the US.
Amusing story: I was chatting with a kid of Indian descent. He told me that his father worked for Boeing in Cali and they moved to SC and live in the upstate. I asked what brought his family to SC and he told me they were pursuing the Indian dream and bought a convenience store.
Heh... having the kids follow in the parents' footsteps is a very old practice and not confined to India, but if India hadn't practice the caste system, they might have been the ones colonizing the Earth, instead of Europe. I blame Islam, btw. :^)