I Too Had a Dream

This is the autobiography of Dr. Verghese Kurien - the architect of 'Operation Flood', which made India the largest milk producer of the world. The story is inspiring and humbling, to say very little. Not only did I enjoy the details of India's progress from prevalent milk shortages to self-sufficient milk production, I loved learning about them from the eyes of this wise, honest, and unassuming leader - a leader who truly believed in the strength of his people, of India's farmers.

Reading this account was almost like reading a synopsis of India's political history as well, as Dr. Kurien mentioned the visits of the different prime ministers and presidents to Anand, where it all began. Some of the inspiring bits and a couple of interesting anecdotes (there were many more) are included below. And a poem which deserves a post of its own.

I have often spoken of integrity as the most important of these values, realizing that integrity – and personal integrity, at that – is being honest to yourself. If you are always honest to yourself, it does not take much effort in always being honest with others. I have also learnt what I am sure you, too, will find out someday.

Life is a privilege and to waste it would be wrong. In living this privilege called ‘Life’, you must accept responsibility for yourself, always use your talents to the best of your ability and contribute somehow to the common good. That common good will present itself to you in many forms every day. If you just look around you, you will find there is a lot waiting to be done: your friend may need some help, your teacher could be looking for a volunteer, or the community you live in will need you to make a contribution. I hope that you, too, will discover as I did, that failure is not about succeeding. Rather, it is about not putting in your best effort and not contributing, however modestly, to the common good.

And in the end, if we are brave enough to love, strong enough to rejoice in another’s happiness, and wise enough to know that there is enough to go around for all, then we would have lived our lives to the fullest.

Jawaharlal Nehru arrived at Anand to tremendous fanfare. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, accompanied him. We first took them to my house. We had already received detailed instructions about his breakfast, and how he liked his coffee and milk piping hot. However, we were faced with the slight problem of getting the right trademark rose for his buttonhole. It had to be got in advance but had to be kept at the right temperature because it must look absolutely fresh. It had to be the right shade of red, the right size and in just the right degree of bloom. Molly had to experiment with many a rose. She finally figured out that we would have to store the flower in the fridge for a certain time and keep it at room temperature for a certain time before offering it to the Prime Minister. We did all this and had the rose all ready for him. To our surprise, when Jawaharlal Nehru came out of the bedroom, he already had a rose in his buttonhole, picked from the flower vase in his bedroom. Then he saw us with the rose on a platter. He immediately removed the one from his buttonhole and put on the one Molly offered him.

One day while I was on one of my unannounced rounds in the cold store, I spotted an old employee, with a big moustache and a beard, who had opened the lid of one of the milk cans and was sucking the cream. Suddenly, he looked up and saw me. We stared at each other for a moment. There was cream dripping from his mouth, onto his chin and he faltered, ‘No, no Saheb, I am not drinking, I am not drinking.’ I just turned around and walked away. But the very next day, I told the Manager that every worker had to be given half a litre of milk. These men were handling vast quantities of milk all day long and they were hungry. It was not fair that they did not have a share of the milk.

I remember then explaining to Nirmala that it is terrible to have too little money because you will not even have enough to eat and appease your hunger. But it is far, far worse to have too much money because then you will surely get corrupt. Our family, I think, was truly very blessed because we always had only just enough.