Gujarat 'milkman' is now a comic book star

Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) is known to have enlightened kids down the ages with stories from Mahabharata, Ramayana, Indian mythology, and, of course, India’s freedom struggle. Hence, it came as no surprise when it chose to trace the journey of Dr Verghese Kurien, the Legendary Milkman of India in a graphic novel. 

So, Verghese Kurien — The Man with the Billion-Litre Idea, is an inspirational story of a man behind the success of Amul and milk cooperatives in India.

“Amar Chitra Katha was created by our founder editor Anant Pai to provide role models and icons from Indian heritage to our children. Kurien’s life and achievements, courage and focus, and most of all, his ability to see the greater good, all made a compelling case for the creation of this biography,” said Reena Puri, editor of Amar Chitra Katha.

Books, articles and Kurien’s autobiography were scanned by scriptwriter Nimmy Chacko before finalising the content. “Nimmy also went to Chennai and Anand to meet and talk to Nirmala Kurien, Dr Kurien’s daughter, his colleagues and friends. While writing the script, she remained in touch with Nirmala so as not to miss out on any detail and, artist Zoheb Akbar went through piles of photographs to get the correct look. Kurien’s character had to be depicted at different stages of his life. This was a challenge as we had only one photograph of his youth,” stated Puri.

Important milestones like the day Kurien got off the train in Anand to the split-second decision he took to stay on for a few more months to help a fledgling milk cooperative, a decision that changed the destiny of millions. His marriage, which provided him a partner who believed in his dream and walked that extra mile to help Kurien turn that into a reality; the birth of Amul and creation of the Amul moppet; the national and international recognition he got for the immense work he had done in the field of human development are all covered in this graphic novel.

ACK took a year to commission this book, said Nirmala. “Yes, they have done their research and spoken to people, who knew my father and also worked with him. Even today, children need heroes to look up to. Heroes, who can inspire them to dedicate their lives to everyone and not just their own self,” she said.

Admitting that it was not easy for 10-year-olds to pick up a biography and read it, Puri said: “During my interactions, too, with young people, I have often come across boys and girls saying that they loved a character from history or a freedom fighter. So, I do hope that Dr Kurien’s story will be read and understood for its relevance today. If this book could inspire even a hundred young people to think, feel and act like him, our job will be done. This is a story that could teach honesty, integrity, determination, courage and extreme patriotism.”

Sharing a story about her father’s integrity, Nirmala said: “My father was always into integrity. He would often say, ‘I do not require anything else if I have integrity. If one is honest to a cause, honest to oneself and to others, then everything else will fall into place. We did not have big colleges like IIMs and Harvards. We had small villages with ordinary men. But we had leaders who planned everything’.”

Harbouring utmost dislike for inequality and discrimination, Nirmala said he practised equality with his farmers. There would be one rate for every can of milk, one vote for every farmer in the cooperative irrespective of whether he had one buffalo or 1,000 buffaloes. “For this, he faced resistance initially as it was unheard of till the time he incorporated it. Later, though, it became every farmer’s right,” said Nirmala.

She also proudly informed that her father always believed that women should get paid and treated with equal dignity like their male counterparts. “My father believed that a woman would use the money to educate, feed and look after her children. They must be given a standing in society with economic independence and hence the cooperative project was a powerful tool to empower women as well. In order to remove disparity between rich and poor, he wanted the cooperative model for all agri-products,” Nirmala pointed out.

Stating that Kurien was happy doing what he did as he never thought of it as work, she said: “I would often return late from work. So, he once asked me how many jobs I handled. When I replied one, he smiled, ‘Beta either you are disorganised or definitely you don’t have my brains’”.

Insisting that her father was the biggest prankster of his time, Nirmala said Kurien loved watching television and sports, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Discovery were his preferred channels. He was also a great sportsman, excelling in boxing, tennis, cricket, chess and badminton. “But dad quit boxing after he broke his nose during a competition for his college. He was also passionate about numbers and could rapidly solve any difficult equation without calculators,” she said.