I Too Had a Dream

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 realising 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' was 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 us comprehend the magnitude of his contributions and his multifaceted personality. 'I have often claimed that I have had but one good idea in my life: true development is the development of women and men. This idea took such a hold of me that I remained in this small, sleepy town of Anand for over fifty years as an employee of farmers. I was never able to give this up for what many call "a better life". These years have, without an iota of doubt, been the most rewarding years of my life. Over the years I have spoken ceaselessly of this idea, hoping to enthuse young women and men to adopt my passion as theirs. I have been fortunate that there have been many who took up the challenge.'