Wednesday 10 October 2012

The Milkman Of India

Dr. Vergese Kurien, the architect of India's White Revolution who catapulted India to be the largest milk-producer of the world, died on the 9th Sept. 2012 at the age of 90. The Amul (acronym for Anand Milk Union Ltd.) story, started by him at Anand in Gujarat became a catalyst for farmers' co-operative. Born in Kerala, he chose Anand as his karma bhumi.  He is fondly called the 'Milkman of India'.

 The film 'Manthan' made by Shyam Benegal tells the Amul story. This film was funded by 5 lakh farmers of Gujarat, who contributed Rs. 2 each.The lead roles are played by Girish Karnad ,Smita Patil and Nasiruddin Shah. Sadhu Meher, the well-known Bollywood actor from Odisha, makes a special appearance in it.The wife and I had watched this film in 1976 or 1977 when I was posted at the small District Head Quarters town of Etah in U.P. Daughter I  had accompanied us as a baby and had also 'watched' it. I am not sure whether she enjoyed it as much as we did because she laced her viewing with intermittent whimpers .

Here is the film

5 comments:

  1. wowww ... I didn't knew Amul was an acronym. Nice to know about it :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dr. Kurien was indeed an 'amol' (invaluable) son of India.

      Delete
  2. 'Amul' means 'Amulya', how beautifully it describes 'Milk' for us. I am preparing a case study for project management in Singapore and it is on 'Amul'. I watched 'Manthan' just before a few weeks.An awesome movie with a goose bump title track! The folk song makes me nostalgic like no other song! A very clean post! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The title 'Manthan' (Churning) makes one not only think about the churning of curd to extract butter but also leads to a churning inside the mind about the wonderful idea of successful co-operatives.

      All the best for your project.

      Delete