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.