The Knight In White Armour

Priyanka Rout

The Knight In White Armour

Be it ‘Utterly-Butterly Delicious’ or the ‘Taste of India’, Amul has not only found its way, not only into our refrigerators but also our hearts. The ads that made our childhood more interesting are indeed the brand that only connected us as Indians but also held us together with the farmers of the country and this was perhaps the biggest achievement of Verghese.

When He "Dairied" His Dreams: Verghese Kurien; Image Source: Amar Chitra Katha

Have you ever persuaded your parents to buy a bottle of Amul Kool after seeing that ad where a bunch of kids keeps on jumping, singing to the famous jingle line of ‘Amul Kool peeta hai India’? Have you ever tiptoed at night to the kitchen to eat that small packet of Amul butter just because The Amul Girl claims that it’s ‘utterly butterly delicious’? If your childhood were filled with these moments, then Amul at some point in time, was your favourite food partner and it has been with you faithfully till today. The amount of trust it has gained all over India, starting from our grandmothers and mothers to the farmers, is certainly quite large in number.

It was on 9 September 2012 when India mourned the death of its beloved milkman. Verghese died due to a prolonged illness and being a Christian before turning into an atheist, he was cremated.

Two years after his death, all the major dairy groups and the Indian Dairy Association came together to celebrate his birthday on 26 November as National Milk Day. Kurien was further awarded several honours like Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Ramon Magsaysay Award, Padma Shri, and honorary degrees from the Michigan State University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

In his ninety years of life, VK faced many troubles but he made sure to face them with a smile on his face and courage in his heart. Though he is no more with us, his contribution will forever be a legacy that India would be proud of.

Jammu and Kashmir se lekar Kerala tak, Gujarat se lekar Arunachal Pradesh tak, Amul has become one of the most loved and trusted brands throughout India.

But every success story has a character who drives the success, who makes the brand, who takes the brand to newer heights of success, and the one who takes effort to bring the brand to its customers. The lucky charm and driving force of Amul were Verghese Kurien, who is popularly known by names such as Father of the White Revolution of India and Milkman of India.

The town of Kozhikode in Kerala woke up with the first streak of sunlight entering the houses. Dr. P.K. Kurein too grabbed his briefcase and stethoscope, donned his white court, and left for the hospital. As usual, the house buzzed with Mrs. Kurien’s constant shouts to wake up her son from his deep sleep. Getting ready as fast as he could, Verghese ran for his school. Days passed as Verghese grew up to a young gentleman. He soon took admission to Loyola College and graduated in physics.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering at Guindy, he had this innate desire to join the Indian army engineer. All his dreams came to a sudden halt after the demise of his father who was integral emotional support for him. Kurien's mother suggested he join the Tata Steel Technical Institute at Jamshedpur upon his uncle’s insistence who was a director with the Tatas. Though he graduated in 1946 from TSTI, he had quite distinct dreams.

After leaving the Tata institution, Verghese applied for a scholarship that was provided by the Government of India since he wanted to study dairy engineering. He was soon sent off to the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry situated in Bangalore where he studied the milch animals closely before flying off to America.

Upon landing in America, Kurien went on to study at Michigan State University with the help of the government scholarship that was provided to him. When he returned to India, he said, “I was sent to study dairy engineering on the only government scholarship left. I cheated a bit though and studied metallurgical and nuclear engineering, disciplines likely to be of far greater use to my soon-to-be independent country and, quite frankly, to me.”

The turning point of his life came in the year 1949 when Kurien was sent to the creamery at Anand as an officer in the dairy division. Every week, he made up an excuse by saying that he had some work in the city. But under the pretext of work, he helped Tribhuvandas Patel to process the milk that was purchased from the farmers. Together they also planned on setting up a cooperative to purchase milk from Kheda.

After working for five years at Anand, Kurien finally decided to quit his job. On the other hand, he was persuaded by Patel to help him set up the dairy cooperative, and together they came up with Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited which was later renamed Amul.

Not only this, but Verghese came up with many innovative ways to utilise milk and make the best use of it. There were times when milk was in surplus but there were no buyers. Times like these called for desperate measures. Thus, he came up with the idea of producing milk powder and condensed milk that beat Nestle (the top milk-producing brand) and Glaxo (the top baby-food brand). He had also set up a packaging unit that was attached to the milk factory to cut the extra production costs. One of the most unique features of Amul was that the farmers were directly linked to the customers and there were no middlemen who would meddle with the hard-earned profit of the farmers.

His story became popular worldwide when the famous filmmaker Shyam Benegal launched the film Manthan that was based on the story of Amul. The making of this film holds within it a very interesting story. Since Shyam did not have enough funds to make the film, Kurien persuaded all the farmers to contribute two rupees. With the help of the fund raised by the farmers, the film was finally launched and many farmers came to see the film as well. Soon this film gained nationwide attention. This interest of people to learn more about Amul and its initiatives further inspired Verghese to go to different parts of the world where he showed the film to different farmer communities and inspired them to make their communities. Later on, UNDP too came forward to help screen these movies in different parts of Latin America and Africa to inspire the farmers.

Kurien also had a big hand making ‘The Amul Girl' ad campaign successful and today, it has the reputation of one of the longest-running ads of the entire world. He also wrote a book named I Too Had A Dream, based upon the empowerment of the farmers and the development of milk cooperatives in India.