In 2003, Ashok left McKinsey for the Gates Foundation, to create Avahan – an initiative to stem the growth of HIV in India. Avahan, became the world’s largest ever private HIV prevention programme, averting over 600,000 new infections. Ashok’s first book, ‘A Stranger Truth: Lessons in Love, Leadership and Courage from India’s Sex Workers’, is a chronicle of his adventures with Avahan. Currently, Ashok heads his NGO, Antara Foundation, working in mother and child health. He has been a Senior Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, and a health columnist with ‘Mint’ and ‘Hindustan Times’.