After reading the book, I was reflecting on which category I should place this book in. It is a biography of a doctor or innovations in a field or scientific developments of a specialized medical discipline. This book is many things in one and perhaps also the personality of Dr Sangwan himself, a compassionate doctor, a problem solver and mentor to many. The book is not just about him, but his pursuit to spread curiosity, in Feynman’s words “the pleasure of finding things out” and translating those curious meanderings to sustainable solutions for many to benefit.
First of all, I should start by praising the author of the book to make the story accessible. Rajroshan has done an excellent job in writing the book. I have read every word of the book from cover to cover, with a temptation to never keep it down.
On the other hand, the characters painted in the book are so lively infront of me to go find them in real life. For a curious reader this book is a testament of sheer passion and joy of the journey of a village boy making it to the top scientific league in the world. A big part of it maybe is due to the grounding and staying honest to the purpose of the profession. The book at the same time is also a story of a fledgling scientific discipline of a developing yet large country where appreciation of theoretical scientific work is rare among practitioners. These initial examples become the lighthouse where an ecosystem matures and the forthcoming generations develop on, “the shoulders of the giants”. This book reminded me of Seema Singh’s book on Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. I ended up gifting that book to many as a story of the biotech industry in India. The Indian ophthalmology landscape has some great world class institutes like Aravind Eye care and LVPEI, after reading this book, one can learn why they are great!
I would highly recommend this book to the ones who have hope and believe in solving problems with limited means with an honest and sincere pursuit.
