It was a depressingly cold, wet night in Nalloorkadu, a remote Adivasi village in the lower Kodaikanal hills, accessible only on foot in 1991. I was away from my wife, Mary, an obstetrician trained at Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, and my two little daughters who were in Oddanchatram, 40 km away.
I had decided to spend two or three days each week away from the Christian Fellowship Hospital, a wonderful, busy secondary care hospital where I worked. Why? Because I realized what India needed was not more hospitals but effective primary healthcare which would reach the weakest sections of society.