How The Light Gets In

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 truth 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.