Day 3

Yesterday, we deboarded in the ancient city of Madurai, a place I doubt I would ever visit on my own. We were taken to Aravind Eye Care System. 

Founded in 1976 by Dr. G. Venkataswamy when he himself was 58 years old, AECS today is the largest and most productive eye care facility in the world. Today, AECS is more than an eye hospital. It is a social organization committed to the goal of elimination of needless blindness through comprehensive eye care services. It is also an international training centre for ophthalmic professionals and trainees who come from India and overseas. It's an institute for research that contributes to the development of eye care and superlative training facility. 

AECS began with 11 beds about forty years ago. Today, in addition to the hospital in Madurai, there are four other AEC hospitals with a combined total of nearly 3,590 beds. The number of surgeries they perform is astonishing! Dr. V's goal is to adopt a McDonald's type efficiency in the health care sector. 

In the Yatra so far, yesterday WAS the most inspirational day. At the beginning of the day when we were told that this would be our role model study, I was initially disappointed because I really, really wanted to get Bunker Roy. But as the day progressed, I felt more and more inspired. Last night my group had a very interesting discussion on how we can replicate some of their  processes in our sector.

Discussions about the ed sector always get heated because EVERYONE thinks they understand it and are experts. Coming up with a problem statement is even more difficult because there are so many.    We have our presentation this evening and I have left my group to it. I hope they do a good job. We have two graphic designers in our group and I am sure the presentation will look pretty if nothing else. 

On a personal note, the Yatra coordinators keep warning us about a dip in energy levels just when we hit Chennai. I think I got the blues a day sooner. Being on this train is not easy to begin with. To add to that, there is almost no time or space for a little bit of personal reflection. While I have been doing reflections with my group every night, I myself haven't had an time to introspect. We are constantly being bombarded with information and new experiences without much time to process it. To add to this mental and physical exhaustion, the level of uncertainty is very high on the journey. We usually don't know what we are supposed to do until the last minute and then there are multiple, sometimes contradicting instructions. It appears disorganised and that is very frustrating though I know the organisers are doing their best at all times to stick to schedule and feed and keep us comfortable. 

Being thrown into a situation like this reveals so much about yourself. I get frustrated because I am frustrated. I fail to meet my own high expectations of maturity. My desire for everything to be excellent all the time gets in the way of me enjoying the moment and going with the flow. So, for the rest of this Yatra, I am going to practise just that.