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The year is 1948. India has just become free and is trying to have a tryst with destiny. And in a country with endless possibilities, you are a 27-year-old man from an affluent family.
You have also studied in prestigious institutions like Loyola College and College of Engineering Guindy and have been given a scholarship from the Govt of India to go to the USA and study Dairy engineering.
You go to the USA and realize that studying metallurgy and nuclear engineering is more useful and interesting than studying techniques of extracting milk from cows. You follow your instinct and successfully complete your course.
You are now a nuclear engineer. And in a world that has just gone nuclear, the opportunities you have are limitless. The world is at your feet.
Then the Govt of India becomes a reverse Lannister calls in its debt. They want you to work for them for a limited period as an obligation to whatever they did for you.
You have no choice but to come back.
You hope you are sent to glamourous locations like Bombay or Madras where you can spend your obligatory time in comfort and luxury. You are an America Return Nuclear engineer after all.
But the Govt of India cares as much about your designations and qualifications as a Nokia 3310 cares about a drop. So, they play a cruel joke upon you.
They send you to a small decrepit town in Gujarat which doesn't even have electricity. Your accommodation is a rundown Garage and the only sign of life around you are the mosquitos, who are trying to taste your blood.
The town is called Anand. And the only Anand you have there is its name. Else it is all despair.
You, an affluent gentleman from south India, who doesn't speak a word of Gujarati, who has never lived in a village, are now stuck in a god foresaken village in the middle of nowhere. And You want to get out of this god forsaken place on the first chance you get.
Then something happens.
You start going around the town. You start speaking to people. You understand their way of life. You understand what they want. Without you realizing you start falling in love with the place. You want to do something for them.
And then you create a revolution.
A revolution that has changed the face and fate of India.
A revolution whose gifts we are still reaping 65 years after it started.
And You are the one who started it all.
You are Dr Verghese Kurien.
Operation Flood was, is and will be one of the greatest movements India has ever had.
We went from a country that used to import milk powder from New Zealand and other countries to becoming the largest milk producing country in the world, in 30 years.
It gave livelihoods to close to more than 100 million farmers over the years and has lifted more than 50 million people out of poverty and starvation. If you count the people emancipated by Operation flood, it would be the 30th largest country in the world, ahead of Spain, South Korea and Argentina.
Today, we move the global dairy market and it is singularly because of Dr Kurien.
And he didn't stop at dairy.
He realized that India was heavily dependent on Southeast Asia for its edible oil needs. So he got all the oilseeds growers together and started Dhara, India's own edible oil brand.
He so thoroughly disrupted the edible oil industry that for a brief period of time, he significantly reduced our dependance on palm oil.
Unfortunately, our babus intervened and as they usually do, destroyed it all. But that's the story for another day.
When Karnataka's Cocoa farmers went to him to seek salvation from Cadbury's oppression, he created Amul Chocolates and created a big dent in their market share. He also ensured Cadbury treated the farmers with a lot more respect and fairness, now that the farmers had option.
When Indira Gandhi complained about farmers not getting fair price for their vegetables, he started Safal, a vegetable selling co-operative under the NDDB umbrella and made it a success.
Now most of this is known.
But what we don't know more about was Dr Kurien the innovator.
Dr Kurien and his friend JJ Dalaya were the first in the world to synthesize buffalo milk and convert it to powder. This allowed us to store and supply milk during times of deficiencies.
He was the first to create condensed milk or as you call it, Milkmaid / Mithai Mate, from buffalo milk and ended Nestle's monopoly in this segment for good.
He was also the first to pack a dense substance as oil in a Tetrapak, something that their own Swedish engineer's thought was impossible. He made it possible.
I can keep going on and on.
In today's world, words like Legend, GOAT, superstar are thrown around very very loosely.
People who hit balls with a stick, give useless expressions on a giant screen and make cringy unwatchable 30 sec videos on some apps or crack some vulgarly unfunny jokes are given these epithets today.
So, what would you call a guy who saved India from hunger and starvation? What would you call a guy who prevented India from malnutrition and stunted growth? What would you call a guy who made a basic commodity like milk, accessible to a billion people?
We don't have words for that. Maybe we need to invent some.
One more very commonly misplaced word today is disruption.
Anything and everything are disruption now. The development of an app, delivering grocery or food in 10 minutes or writing an additional line of code are all what passes off as disruption today.
That is not disruption.
Disruption is where you create something that changes the lives of people forever. Disruption happens when what you create, rewards people for Generations.
Disruption is where you help poor farmers break the vicious circle of poverty and throw them 354 steps up the economic ladder
Disruption is not how you change how people do certain things; Disruption is when you change the people themselves.
Dr Kurien was India's first and the greatest disruptor.
Dr Kurien is India's true GOAT.
So, Happy Birthday Dr Kurien. India is grateful that we had you walking on our soil. Thank you!!
P:S: The attached image is that of the recreated Garage that Dr Kurien first stayed. Garages have a unique connection to the world of tech, as a lot of tech companies started from there and are worth some bajillion dollars today.
This is a Garage that lifted 60 million Indians out of poverty.
With all due respect to HP and Google, this is the greatest Garage of them all.
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