I Too Had a Dream

Verghese Kurien

Description

Architect of 'Operation Flood', the largest dairy development programme in the world, Dr Verghese Kurien has enabled India to become the largest milk producer in the world. A man with a rare vision, Dr Kurien has devoted a lifetime to realizing his dream - empowering the farmers of India. He has engineered the milk cooperative movement in India. It was a sheer quirk of fate that landed him in Anand where a small group of farmers were forming a cooperative, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers'Union Limited (better known as Amul), to sell their milk. Intrigued by the integrity and commitment of their leader, Tribhuvandas Patel, Dr Kurien joined them. Since then there has been no looking back. The 'Anand pattern of cooperatives were so successful that, at the request of the Government of India, he set up the National Dairy Development Board to replicate it across India. He also established the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation to market its products. In these memoirs, Dr Verghese Kurien, popularly known as the 'father of the white revolution', recounts, with customary candour, the story of his life and how he shaped the dairy industry. Profoundly inspiring, these memoirs help up comprehend the magnitude of his contributions and his multifaceted personality.

Sujets

• Biography
• Operation Flood
• National Dairy Development Board
• Agribusiness
• Ratan Naval Tata
• Dairy farming
• Amul
• Verghese Kurien
• Business
• Agriculture
• Autobiography
• Ratan Tata
• India
• Farmer

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 27 décembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788174368850
• Langue: English

Extrait

I Too
Had a Dream
Born in Calicut, Kerala, Dr Verghese Kurien graduated in science and engineering from Madras University and Michigan State University, USA, respectively.
He began his career in dairying at the government’s creamery in Anand, Gujarat, later joining the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (now Amul). As Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board, he implemented ‘Operation Flood’.
He has received countless awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1963), Wateler Peace Prize (1986), World Food Prize (1989), Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966) and Padma Vibhushan (1999).
Dr Kurien is currently Chairman of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation and Chairman of the National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India.
Gouri Salvi is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist. She has worked with Onlooker and Sunday magazines and with the Women’s Feature Service . She has written on development and gender issues, has co-edited Beijing! a book on the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women, and edited Development Retold: Voices From the Field , a book on the Indian Cooperative Union.
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I Too
Had a Dream
VER GHESE KURIEN

AS TOLD TO GOURI SALVI

LOTUS COLLECTION

ROLI BOOKS
Lotus Collection
© Verghese Kurien, 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published in hardback in 2005 This edition published in 2007 The Lotus Collection An imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd. M-75, G.K. II Market, New Delhi 110 048 Phones: ++91 (011) 2921 2271, 2921 2782 2921 0886, Fax: ++91 (011) 2921 7185 E-mail: [e-mail] Website: rolibooks.com Also at
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Cover design : Arati Subramanyam Layout design : Narendra Shahi
Cover picture : Gopashtami Pichhavai, Cotton, 275 cm x 183 cm ( courtesy: Amr Vastra Kosh Trust, New Delhi)
ISBN: 978-81-7436-407-4 Rs. 295
Typeset in Photina MT by Roli Books Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Syndicate Binders, Noida
Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done.
… Come, my friends, ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die.
… Tho much is taken, much abides; and tho We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
– Ulysses
Alfred Tennyson
Contents
Foreword
Prologue
Early Years
History in the Making
On a Roll
A Billion-Litre Idea
Operation Flood
Tough Times
Step by Step
From Organisation to Institution
Life of Service
A Look Back
Postscript
Annexure
Index
Acknowledgements
Foreword
I NDIA HAS BEEN IMMENSELY FORTUNATE TO HAVE IN ITS MIDST A SELFLESS , committed and self-effacing nationalist like Dr Verghese Kurien, who has been able to dedicate his working life to improving the quality of life and health of millions of citizens of the poorest segment of India’s population and transforming them into productive members of society.
This memoir allows us a fascinating view of the challenges, achievements and frustrations of Dr Kurien’s full and colourful life. Dr Kurien was never one to mince words. ‘You get what you see’, and you know where you stand with him. It is so in his memoirs too. He has recounted instances as they were and he has not cloaked his feelings with niceties relating to certain people; at the same time he has been generous with his praise for others where he felt it necessary. In doing so, his memoirs reflect a true sense of events as Dr Kurien saw them throughout his life.
All of us should be proud of the achievements of Dr Kurien. A true visionary, he built a series of institutions which made India the world’s largest milk producer, developed a logistic chain to produce and deliver hygienic and nutritious milk to millions and created the world’s largest food marketing business and the country’s largest food brand (Amul). He enabled India to nearly double its per capita milk availability and made India’s dairy industry the largest rural employment provider. The cooperatives he created have also become powerful agents of social change in empowering women and in embedding democracy at the grass-roots level in the country.
His memoirs reveal the experiences and inner feelings of a great nationalist who has made an enormous contribution to the development of rural India and who will leave his mark long into the future. The book should provide inspiration to many: that they should do something for their country. Dr Kurien’s involvement with dairy engineering was a twist of fate. He would normally have pursued a career in science or engineering. What he, therefore, did for the dairy industry in India is truly amazing. One cannot help but wonder what India would be today if we had a thousand Dr Kuriens with this type of vision and with similar commitment, dedication and national spirit.
1 September 2004

Ratan N. Tata
PROLOGUE
TO MY GRANDSON
Anand, 2005
My dear Siddharth,
When did I write to you last? I have trouble even remembering! In today’s fast-paced world we have become so addicted to instant communication that we prefer to use a telephone. But speaking on the telephone only gives us an immediate but fleeting joy. Writing is different. Writing – even if it is a letter – not only conveys our present concerns and views of the events taking place around us but it becomes a possession that can be treasured and re-read over the years, with great, abiding pleasure.
What is contained in the chapters that follow is, of course, more than a letter. You may not wish to read it all right away but, perhaps, a couple of decades or more from now, you will pick up these jottings of mine again and they will give you a deeper understanding of what I have done, and the reasons I pursued a life of service to our nation’s farmers. You will then discover in them a valuable reminder of the days just before the world entered the twenty-first century. And you may want to share my memories with those of your generation, or even younger, to provide them a glimpse of the world your grandparents lived in and knew.
I started my working life soon after our country became independent. The noblest task in those days was to contribute in whatever way we could towards building an India of our dreams – a nation where our people would not only hold their heads high in freedom but would be free from hunger and poverty. A nation where our people could live with equal respect and love for one another. A nation that would eventually be counted among the foremost nations of the world. It was then that I realised, in all humility, that choosing to lead one kind of life means putting aside the desire to pursue other options. This transformation took place within me fifty years ago, when I agreed to work for a small cooperative of dairy farmers who were trying to gain control over their lives.
To be quite honest, service to our nation’s farmers was not the career I had envisioned for myself. But somehow, a series of events swept me along and put me in a certain place at a certain time when I had to choose between one option or another. I was faced with a choice that would transform my life. I could have pursued a career in metallurgy and perhaps become the chief executive of a large company. Or, I could have opted for a commission in the Indian Army and maybe retired as a general. Or, I could have left for the US and gone on to become a highly successful NRI. Yet I chose none of these because somewhere, deep down, I knew I could make a more meaningful contribution by working here in Anand, Gujarat.
Your grandmother too made an important choice. She knew, in those early days, life in Anand could not offer even the simple comforts that we take for granted today. However, she ardently supported my choice to live and work in Anand. That choice of your grandmother to stand by me has given me an everlasting strength, always ensuring that I shouldered my responsibilities with poise.
Whenever I have received any recognition for my contributions towards the progress of our country, I have always emphasised t