Abhishek Rai

“the school building had been comprehensively repaired two decades ago. ‘It was badly damaged in the rains and there was no place for our children to study. We all came together and repaired the building,’ he said. When I visited, the floors were all gone, the walls were cracked, the yellow paint long peeled off, the roof leaky, and the whole structure covered in dust.”
― Josy Joseph, A Feast of Vultures: The Hidden Business of Democracy in India

“you need to know whether you do not like the pursuit of money and wealth because you genuinely do not like it, or because you are rationalizing your inability to be successful at it with the argument that wealth is not a good thing because it is bad for one’s digestive system or disturbing for one’s sleep or other such arguments.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder

“Finally the ancients perfected the method of random draw in more or less difficult situations—and integrated it into divinations. These draws were really meant to pick a random exit without having to make a decision, so one would not have to live with the burden of the consequences later. You went with what the gods told you to do, so you would not have to second-guess yourself later. One of the methods, called sortes virgilianae (fate as decided by the epic poet Virgil), involved opening Virgil’s Aeneid at random and interpreting the line that presented itself as direction for the course of action.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder

“According to recent estimates, some 66 per cent of rural residents do not have access to critical medicines, while 31 per cent Indians have to travel more than 30 kilometres to avail themselves of any health care. Just 28 per cent of Indians in urban areas corner 66 per cent of India’s available hospital beds. Mind you, India is still largely a rural country, with around 70 per cent of its population living in rural areas.”
― Josy Joseph, A Feast of Vultures: The Hidden Business of Democracy in India