In 1981 I went to the Foundation for Research in Community Health with an economist friend who had applied for a job as a researcher there. He came out of the interview impressed with Dr Antia and suggested that I see him. I walked in uninvited and in two minutes flat Dr Antia offered me a job to head a new research project to review what non-governmental organisations in Maharashtra were doing in the health sector. All I had told him was that during my post-graduate studies I had worked on a project enquiring into what the corporate sector was doing in rural development activities. This chance meeting became a career in research on health systems financing and economics in India.