To cover the events of today we must start with events that occurred yesterday. Arun knocked on Tammy and my door around 11PM to see if we were watching the news. Apparently, the prime governor of Tamil Nadu has been in the hospital for several months and her condition worsened last night. The news came out last night that she is on life support. Several of Arun’s family members had called to let him know that we might need to modify our plans for tomorrow because of the political unrest.

This morning everything was still normal in Madurai so we continued with our plans to visit Aurolab, Aravind’s manufacturing facility outside of the city. Just like yesterday we piled into the van and drove through Madurai’s hectic streets to the outskirts of town. We arrived at Aurolab, a large modern facility constructed by Aravind in 2007.

As part of the Aravind Eye Care System Aurolab fits into the overall goal of providing low-cost, high-quality eye care by manufacturing medical equipment. Prior to Aurolab’s development the cost of surgical equipment and pharmaceuticals served as a major barrier to Avavind’s mission. Aurolab solves this problem for the Aravind system and also expands Aravind’s impact by providing equipment and pharmaceuticals both for Aravind patients and patients all over the world, particularly in other Southeastern Asian countries, Africa, and Latin America. For example, the cost of an intraocular lens used in Aravind’s common cataract surgeries was reduced from $200 on the world market to $10 when produced directly by Aurolab.

Although we were not able to take photos inside the Aurolab facility we did get a photo in what Maya called our “Ooompa Loompa” outfits before heading in:

We were lucky to have a fantastic tour guide, a member of Aurolab’s domestic marketing team, to show us around Aurolab’s five departements: intraocular lenses, suture needles, blades, pharmaceuticals, and general equipment. The whole experience felt a bit like being in an episode of Discovery Channel’s “How it’s Made” and we were mesmerized by the process, from the microscopic examination of suture needles to the simple mechanical boxing of eye drops.

What I found particularly amazing about our visit to Aurolab was the way that even in a sterile, air-conditioned setting, far removed from the individuals who benefit from Aravind’s products the same value based motivation we saw in the hospital and vision camp was still present. This was evident both in tour and on a message board created by Aurolab’s employees. As one of the messages said they see themselves as part of Dr. V’s path to providing vision for people all over the world:

When we arrived back at Inspiration House for lunch we received word that our planned visit to Madurai’s Meenakshi Amman Temple was off due to the volatile situation with Tamil Nadu’s governor. Although we are hopeful that we will get the opportunity to tour the temple before we head back to the States we all got some much-needed rest. We napped, watched the local news, and rested up for the final remaining days of the trip!

-Kristen Chalmers ’17