Dr Kurien – Up, Close and Personal (A guest post)

Mitu Jayashankar
Updated: Sep 30, 2012 09:19:08 PM UTC

My small tribute to Dr Kurien drew many emotional responses from readers, both from people who knew him and even those who didn’t. It was clear that Dr Kurien had touched and inspired lives. But few people knew the man behind the leader. Sanjeev J Phansalkar, Program Leader at Sir Dorbaji Tata Trust and Allied Trusts and author of six books, is one such individual who saw Dr Kurien at very close quarters. Professor Phansalkar spent 13 years at IRMA (from 1981-1994) as a faculty member. I had the good fortune of being one of his students. A gifted teacher, he was sharp, engaging, blunt with an acerbic wit to match. Here he writes a personal account of what Dr Kurien was like as a boss and a leader. And he does it in the same forthright way in which he taught his classes. It is by far one of the most candid accounts of The Milkman from Anand.

MJ

VKurien

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Dr. Kurien: A Colourful Doyen

By SJ Phansalkar

Jatasyahi  dhruvo  mrityu. And so it came day before. Memories of my association with him-undoubtedly my Hero and some one who has influenced me a great deal, swelled in my mind.

I had joined IRMA and continued working with them till 1994 all because of my starry eyed admiration for him. Had my family constraints not made me shift to Nagpur I would have continued to be there till date. My first personal encounter was in 1982 when I had made a mistake in the work assigned to me. As the person assigned to prepare invitation letters for dignitaries for the first convocation of IRMA, I had addressed a letter to some high dignitary as “Dear Robert” or some such thing. The protocol was that he would be addressed as Your Excellency. I was called Dr. Kurien’s office office and told simply but in a stentorian voice: a)if you do not know some thing, ask those who know even if they act tough to you and b)if a job can at all be done, then it can be done well.

For quite some years I saw and heard him only in large meetings and public forums. He was undoubtedly the master of all he surveyed in Anand. His speeches were phenomenally inspiring. In one faculty meeting which he addressed, I was so engrossed and wrapped up in his talk that I forgot I was sitting next to our Director and visibly doodling, drawing what turned out to be a majestic banyan tree. The Director, possibly with an intention of putting me in place told at the end of the meeting that I would write the minutes of the meeting. And I stunned him by writing out a full five page summary-quoting almost verbatim from Dr. Kurien. He was a superb speaker. Some of his statements still ring in my ears. A few of his pet statements were

  • Farmers of India may be poor but they are not stingy. And even if they have to eat less than a full meal, they will ensure that their friends who help them can lead a good life.
  • Most houses you visit will have a toilet and also a puja room where deities or their photographs are kept. What you choose to focus on reflects more on you than on the house.
  • You would have led a good life if when you come to the end of your life, you leave the world a little better than what you found to start with.
  • People ask me my religion and I say I am a rice Christian. They gave my starving forefathers some rice for them to become Christians and my forefathers did. But my true religion is to change rural India and give the means of production in the hands of the producers themselves.

 

Over time, there were more occasions to interact with him during the course of our work at IRMA. It was amazing to note that he was very tough, almost mean to those who immediately reported to him but extraordinarily kind to younger people. This gave us youngsters a sort of thrill to note our bosses squirm in their chairs as he would direct his wit and barb at them. On several occasions when he called me to his office, he would on the phone ask “Professor, would it be convenient for you to come here now or you have some engagement?” making me feel hot under the collar not knowing whether he was being polite or pulling my leg. But he was scrupulously polite with me. Even when I made mistakes. An event that is almost engraved in my memory was when I sent a policy paper on some subject for him to read and use. I was called on the phone and asked “Does this paper have page number 5 in it? Professor, it must have because it has pages 6, 7 and 8. Would you be so kind as to send me the page 5 also?”

He was a perfectionist and was adept at finding faults. On one occasion, he entered the room with some visitor and as soon as he entered, he drew my attention to the corner of the roof where a beginning of a cobweb appeared. Amazing. His point was simple: when you point out small mistakes to your people and make them alert, they simply would not dare commit blunders!

When demolishing some argument, he would be unrelenting. He would bring all the power of polemics to bear on the opponent. And this he did often forgetting why he was being opposed. Once he rang up and told us that for some particular policy issue, he had taken a position. He would state the position and then he wanted us professors to act as devils’ advocates throwing tough questions at him. My seniors knew better and asked one or two perfunctory questions which he dismissed “Tccah, that is all you can ask?” I was associated with the subject and started asking a series of more tough ones. After about the third he blew his top and started shouting at me calling me cynical enemy of the farmers or some such terms. I was taken aback and just did not know how to vanish from there before being further disintegrated by the power of his polemic. Fortunately Amrita Patel (Chairman, NDDB) intervened and said “Don’t you think you are being unfair? You asked them to ask you these questions!” Instantly he cooled down and asked for coffee to be served.

Once in 1992, I was called to his office. I went in. He asked me to sit on the sofa and asked me if I wanted some coffee. I was surprised since he never did such a thing before. He said I have to be there for the next few hours. Then the Editor of some Gujarati newspaper walked in and started interviewing him. That interview was famous and was printed the next day in super-bold headlines. Dr. Kurien made many strong and at times intemperate statements. These were duly quoted verbatim by the Editor. And the statement on the headlines was “Kurien says Government helping private trade make Rs.700 crores a year”. Naturally there was a furor since he himself was a Government servant. And when the matter heated up, he called me and said “Professor, you gave me this figure of 700 crores, now justify it.”  Then mischievously smiling he said, “I know I was saying Rs. 2000 crores and you brought down the figure. I also know I at that time called you conservative and scared of making bold statements. Nevertheless, you justify that statement.” Thus was born my article titled “The Story of Rs. 700 crores” which was carried by The Times of India and raised a lot of ruckus, making me and IRMA non-grata in many Government offices in Gujarat for the next few months.

That he inspired a lot of our boys and girls is beyond doubt. A large many of us had come to Anand and IRMA because of him. We stayed on because of him. We learnt to take interest in affairs of the rural poor because of him. We learnt what we know because he insisted that we should be allowed to do our job without any interference and he supported us to the hilt. He gave us a fabulous work environment and excellent facilities. His explanation for the top of the line infrastructure for IRMA, whenever any one asked him how boys trained in this sort of infrastructure could work in villages was “You cannot breed princes in a pigsty”.

Towards end, the doyen may have lost much of his vigour and a lot of his colour, but he certainly has changed the world in a way no one else did for this country and left it far better than what he found.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

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