Foreword by Ratan Tata

Varghese Kurien is a professional bad-ass. He was as Mallu as anyone could ever be — an opportunistic self serving hot-head who jumped at the sight of a government job which guaranteed to take him abroad. Once this came to be he tried his best to scoot away from the contractual agreement for, the job he was offered post-foreign studies was, according to him,boring and underpaid.A farm in India is no place for somebody with a physics degree from a western university.The authorities didn’t take his rationale too kindly placed him on the wrong end of the gun and threatened to sue him and so he had no choice but to go to Anand,Rural Gujarat amidst a group of farmers. The rest is history.
Kurien figures out the structural infirmities that was resulting in low efficient milk production. One by one he moves on to fix these, what makes him different is that instead of waiting around for kindness from the government coffers, he encourages Farmers led by an awe inspiring Tribhuvandas Patel to set things in order and skyrocket milk production.
‘Anand Model’ became a thing- why wouldn't it? The cooperative was contesting directly against industry leader Nestle. The guy busted the then prevailing myth that curd couldn't be made from buffalo milk. What follows in Varghese Kurien’s life is an avalanche effect — the more he succeeded, more doors opened to him.One of the key points in his success story is how he was invited by Chief Minsters of other states, and even the leadership of Pakistan to replicate the success at Anand. Anand Milk Union Limited aka AMUL soon had its unique marketing campaign, a movie of its own Manthan,(you can watch it here).
What was the secret of Kurien’s success? for one thing he was at the right place during the right point of time.When reading the book, what one learns is that most of the problems in Indian agriculture was a result of lack of adequate leadership. Though Kurien addressed himself as a servant of the country and of the farmers of Anand, he had total power. This was power he acquired as a result of his competence in his field of work. It seemed that Kurien was unchallenged.Even people whom he managed to pissed off seemed to like him.This is visible in the case of Kurien’s relationship with Guruji Golwalkar. Kurien thought the man was crazy and the book tells of incidents where Kurien joyfully acted out in attempts to annoy the Sarsangh Chalak. But on his deathbed, Golwalkar sends a disciple to Kurien to wish him all the best. This action acquires a divinity when you realise that it happened in the pre-virtue signalling era.
Another interesting aspect of this book is the small nuances it pluck off Indian Personalities. For instance Dr Kurien was one of those rare people of the non political class of India who could ring up the PM ,be it Rajeev Gandhi, or Indira Gandhi or Nehru on ther personal line, and talk to them and get things done. There is an instance where he calls up the PM and asks him to call a halt on milk imports in India. And there was a time when the Agriculture and Finance minsters granted him total freedom to use everything in their power to get things straightened up. The political class really looked up to this man, and that spoke a lot. Probably the only other Indian who commanded so much respect from them was Mr Kurien’s contemporary -Vikram Sarabhai. Those were marvellous times in Indian History.
The book reaffirms the reader, that India isnt as shitty a place as the news media portray it to be. Though not as fast, things are really changing, and what we need are prime movers like Varghese Kurien to carry the country forward. Recommended reading for anyone interested in Indian History.