Pump Up Your Book Chats with Khanjan Mehta, author of The Kochia Chronicles

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ABOUT KHANJAN MEHTA

Khanjan Mehta is the Founding Director of the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program at Penn State. The HESE program challenges students and faculty from across campus to break down disciplinary barriers and truly collaborate to develop technology-based solutions to address compelling problems facing resource-constrained communities. The objective is to develop transformative social innovations and scalable business models to transform these technology solutions into sustainable and scalable ventures that enable and accelerate positive social change. Mehta has led technology-based social ventures in Kenya, Tanzania, India, China and other countries. These ventures range from telemedicine systems and ruggedized biomedical devices to low-cost greenhouses, solar food dryers, cell phone-based social networking systems, and knowledge sharing platforms for self-employed women.

Mehta’s research interests encompass affordable design; systems thinking; social entrepreneurship pedagogy; agricultural technologies and food value chains (FVCs); global health and telemedicine systems; cellphones, social networks and trust; indigenous knowledge systems; development ethics and grassroots diplomacy; women in engineering and entrepreneurship; and informal lending systems for micro-enterprises. The objective of these research endeavors is to democratize knowledge and mainstream HESE as a valid and rigorous area of learning, research, and engagement. He has published over 50 journal articles and refereed conference proceedings with a similar number in the pipeline.

Mehta has served on several university-wide and international committees and taskforces. He has delivered invited talks and keynote speeches on technology innovation, social entrepreneurship, and global sustainability at several universities and international conferences. The HESE program was the recipient of the 2013 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award (Northeast Region) from APLU, 2011 Outstanding Specialty Entrepreneurship Program Award from the US Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) and was named by Popular Mechanics as one of thirty “Awesome College Labs” across America. While these are good accolades, Mehta’s primary focus is on the HESE ventures that his students are striving to build up to multi-million smile enterprises.

Q: Can you tell us why you wrote your book?

After leading poverty alleviation and sustainable development projects in East Africa over the last decade, I really wanted to share my experiences and lessons learned with everyone. I have co-authored over sixty research publications about my work. They are boring and pedantic; my mom would never read them! Hence, I decided to meld my experiences with research, facts, statistics, emotions, musings, and sketches and weave a series of short stories called The Kochia Chronicles. The Kochia Chronicles take readers headlong into the lives and adventures of people in a quintessential African village as they usher in an era of design, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Q: Which part of the book was the hardest to write?

Some of the stories, like the one about how funerals kills people, are based on complex and complicated socio-economic dynamics. Such stories were very difficult to write since I had remove some nuances and details to keep the stories engaging. At the same time, there are other stories like the last one about the naïve projects of outsiders that are very funny and easy to write.

Q: Does your book have an underlying message that readers should know about?

Yes, indeed! People’s knowledge about Africa is largely based on what the popular media feeds them – violence, corruption, disease and starvation. We do not hear stories of the amazing people, their positive attitudes, and their elegant innovations to solve community problems. My goal with the book is to educate people about the real challenges facing the African continent and how people from all spheres of life are coming together to address these complicated challenges.

Q: Besides books, what else do you write? Do you write for publications?

My research group write lots of scientific articles that are published in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. They span many areas of engineering design, social entrepreneurship, agricultural technologies, telemedicine systems and so on.

Q: Would you like to tell us about your home life? Where you live? Family? Pets?

I live in State College, Pa with my parents, wife, and five-month old daughter. We are a very close-knit joint family and would not have it any other way. And yes, my wife and mom and daughter get along very well.

Q: What do you do to get away from it all?

Read Sherlock Holmes, or even Hardy Boys! If I have more time, I love traveling with my family. Over the last decade, I have traveled extensively across about 40 countries. My favorite regions are East Africa and South East Asia.

Q: Are you familiar with the social networks and do you actively participate?

I use Facebook for personal networking and LinkedIn for professional networking. Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to spend on social networks…but I do wish everyone in my network a Happy Birthday

Q: What is the most frustrating part of being an author?

Meticulously editing and proofreading the manuscript again and again can get frustrating and boring…but it is very important.

Q: What is the most rewarding?

Hearing back from people who have read your book. While it is great to hear praise for your book, criticism is just as welcome. Essentially, someone spent their valuable time reading your book and in this day and age, I consider that a compliment of sorts.

Q: How do you think book publishing has changed over the years?

Of course, the advent of self-publishing companies like Createspace and others is a major inflection point in the history of book publishing. They have really democratized the book publishing process and given people a chance to tell their stories.
On my red-eye flight from San Francisco to Philadelphia today, I was sitting next to an elderly woman who was writing a book about her experiences with fighting breast cancer in her family. She had very inspiring stories to share. She acknowledged that few people will read her book but that did not matter to her. She just wanted to share her story. “Even if I can inspire or comfort one person, my book has done its job,” she told me. I like that.

ABOUT THE KOCHIA CHRONICLES

Kochia, a sleepy community on the shores of Lake Victoria in Western Kenya, is caught in the turmoil among traditional ways of life, excitement brought about by development projects and the throes of relentless globalization. Cellphones are spreading HIV and funerals are killing people. Cows are drowning in enormous holes dug by white people. Girls are dropping out of school and children are being rented to orphanages. Crusades and miracle services are blurring the lines between religion and crime. Along with the rapidly declining fish population in the lake, the time to ‘teach people how to fish’ has passed. It is time for direct and decisive action. Obongo, Okello, Sister Phoebe and friends unravel the complexities of community challenges and design practical solutions to address them. From cardboard coffins to toothbrush currencies and professional praising services, the solutions are simple, frugal and ingenious. The Kochia Chronicles take readers headlong into the lives and adventures of people in this quintessential African village as they usher in an era of design, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Kochia Chronicles owe their genesis to the author’s experiences in conducting research and advancing technology-based social ventures in East Africa over the past decade. They draw heavily from the vast literature on development studies and the work of several innovators and entrepreneurs. The stories weave a compelling web of concepts, approaches, facts, statistics, norms, musings, emotions…and full-page illustrations to help readers empathize with the people, their context, and their choices. The Kochia Chronicles are fictitious narratives that bring to life the paradoxical simplicity and complexity of development challenges with the objective of informing and inspiring innovation that leads to the self-determined improvement of lives and livelihoods.

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