Wit Wisdom and Whoop

DISCLAIMER: This blog has NO commercial intent or any other intent except as a opportunity to share my views. Hence any pictures used here are just to demonstrate/ illustrate a point being made and these have been taken from the internet - with sincere thanks to whoever has copyright over the images. The last few weeks apart from the Covid has seen huge sabre rattling at the border with China. There have been all kinds of demands by various people and everybody are fishing in troubled waters trying to catch whatever fish they are chasing. I decided to pick a bunch of issues and share my thoughts. Border: Lets face it. There is a dispute. If there was clarity there would be no dispute. A border almost always is not some great wall of China that clearly demarcates 2 sides. It’s just a line drawn on a map and as long as it is backed by satellite pictures, notice boards, etc, signed off by both parties there is clarity but there can still be disputes. And there is NO signed agreement/maps ...

Till fate ordained that I land up at this place called IRMA in Anand I had never even heard of the place, let alone Dr. Kurien. My first introduction to the man was when on day 1 we were given a tour of AMUL dairy and the chap who took us around said – “30,000 farmers, 50,000 cows welcome you”. Going forward wherever I use quotes, they convey the message, but not exactly verbatim. The next 2 years plus I was a transformed human being. I got the opportunity to observe life up close, realised there was a whole different nation out there which we, living in cities didn’t know existed. I saw and experienced the challenges to development, change, getting people to even accept what you knew to be the gospel truth, their native intelligence, the biases, discrimination, poverty, determination…. Like I said it changed my life all together. As Prof Sanjiv Phansalkar said, – “I am going to tear you up and then put you back together the right way”. No, this is not about myself because this was to ...

It was world milk day recently and I saw a few messages, hashtags etc. On the whole I felt that a more than a few generations of 21st century India have little or no idea of the grit, determination, hard work, vision and the will of a man backed by a nation to create a milk/ dairy eco system in India. In a world of apps how many know the history of what it meant to create an industry. Few seem to even know how the industry functions and so I thought will share a brief here without going into details. This to me is the real spirit of MakeInIndia or AtmaNirbharBharat As India progressed towards its tryst with destiny to become a free nation, the founding fathers were busy planning their vision for a India of the future. One such man was Sri Vallabhai Patel. In those days India imported milk and milk was an elitist product served at the breakfast tables of the colonial masters along with butter. A popular name then was Polsons. Now milk is a seasonal product. During what is called the flu...