How the Light Gets In بقلم Ashok Alexander ... There is an adventure inside every person, waiting to be had . . . the discovery of a self, long buried within. This personal belief reverberates through Ashok Alexander's How the Light Gets In. In his memoir of an improbable start-up in public health, he writes about an organization with the audacious goal of ending needless deaths and sickness at scale, amongst India's poorest mothers and children. It is a great leap emboldened by an unshakable faith in the 'idea that cannot be denied'. It is a tale of adventure filled with twists and turns, told with a disarming honesty. Ashok writes with his signature ability to transport the reader from the ground-level view of a Mumbai shoeshine boy, through hushed hallways of power, and on to the green forests and enchanting hills of tribal Madhya Pradesh-where much of the book is set. This book is a curated tour of the other India, with all its pathos and ineffable beauty. This is also a story of personal transformation-Ashok left a high-profile job in corporate India to be inspired by the everyday heroism and grit of utterly marginalized women, soon after realizing a simple you must ask the way from those you serve. The journey described here will leave you awash with feelings-joy, anguish, anger, compassion and much laughter. It is about the adventures waiting within, that give great hope and never fail to inspire.
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Ashok Alexander
Ashok Alexander is the Founder-Director of The Antara Foundation, a non-profit focused on public health. Prior to establishing Antara Foundation in 2013, Ashok headed the India operations of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He led the creation and expansion of the Foundation’s India office from its inception in 2003 until 2012. There, he created Avahan, India’s national AIDS program, which rapidly became the world’s largest ever private HIV prevention program.[1]
Before the Gates Foundation, Ashok spent 17 years at McKinsey & Company, and left as Director of the firm's Delhi office. He joined McKinsey in 1986 in New York and was part of a small group that moved to India to establish its highly successful India practice.[2]
Ashok is a graduate of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, a post-graduate from the Delhi School of Economics, and has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Married and has two sons, his passions are painting in oils and charcoal, and chess in which he has been a US Master. He is a founding board member of the Public Health Foundation of India, served on the board of CARE India, and been a founding trustee of the America-India Foundation.