An Evening with Dr.

Verghese Kurien
We, PRM-31 had an interactive evening with Dr.Verghese Kurien on 8th March, 2012 at AMUL Auditorium. The description of Q & A session1 is as follows: I like meeting students because some of their youth gets transferred to me. I am 90 years old and I need frequent transfers of youth to me. The Institute of Rural Management was set up in Anand so that the youth in Anand may remember and appreciate their youth. - Dr. Kurien. Q1: Sir, Can you tell us the story of establishment of IRMA and its episode with IIM, Ahmedabad? A1: I wondered that there should be some arrangements in Anand for training young people to become rural managers. I asked IIM Ahmedabad that whether they can arrange to produce students of rural management. IIM said that you want to produce rural managers to milk cows! That put me off because their concept of rural managers was those who milked cows. I said that I dont want rural managers to milk cows. I want them to look into the rural problems that beset India and find solutions to these problems. I had a cousin who worked in Ahmedabad. He happened to be the Director of IIM AhmedabadRavi Mathai. He said that rural managers cannot be produced easily. They must learn all the problems of rural areas and possibly evolve solution to those. So why dont you start your own Institute of Rual Management? He said I can help you teach rural management to the students you may admit into. So they agreed to help me and this led to the starting of Institute of Rural Management. Ravi J Mathai unfortunately passed away when he was still young. So it is that I was left without the man I had selected to help me. The only thing I could do was to talk to Prime Minister and invited and persuaded him to dedicate the library of IRMA to be institutes library. So that is how IRMA got built. You are all lucky to be students in this Institute of Rural Management, a creation of Prof. Ravi Mathai.

Compiled by S. Sarath, PRM-31 with the help of Media Committee, IRMA

Q2: Sir, your suggestions to the outgoing batch who will be starting their careers in one months time? A2: Those suggestions are to be found by yourself. You have to find your own solutions, I cannot teach you. Q3: Madam (directed to Mrs. Kurien), you are the person who backed him and made him. Can you help us understand how Sir operated and how you had contributed to it? A3: I was just a housewife. The only thing I could do was support him, nothing more than that. He knew that I was there for him.- Mrs. Kurien. Q4: Sir, Whether u knew that whatever you are going to do will turn out to be a successful model? A4: "I do not start anything unless I am sure of its success. Everything I started had to be successful. Q5: Sir, What is your expectation from IRMAns? A5: I expect the Institute of Rural Management to turn out graduates who would work for rural development. India is a rural country. It has a no. of people, no. of regions, religions and plenty of scope for rural development to be taken up. My expectations from you would be that you should create Institutes of Management throughout the country. India is a very big country, it has many religions, castes, creeds and to develop them in a uniform manner is not going to be an easy job. You will have to play an important role in doing that. If you need any help for that, you can approach Professors; they are here in order to help you. And if that does not happen then you will have to look at libraries and many other places from where you can derive some help. There is no other Institute of Rural Management in my knowledge in India. This is the only institute so the responsibility on you is very high.

Q6: Sir, For people like us, handling one job itself is very difficult! But you were the MD of GCMMF, Chairman of NDDB, Chairman of IRMA and also many other boards at the same time, how did you manage your time? A6: Why do you say that you are not able to handle even one task! You come from a place like Anand where institutes and people of different types are there and you can find satisfaction in developing those people. I feel students of IRMA should find satisfaction in their job. If you are not then you should consult the professors, if still not you should consult library. It should be possible for you to find satisfaction in the jobs you are asked to do. You all are bright young students. If you cannot decide, I do not know what professors are here for, whom they are going to satisfy! Q7: Sir, How did you expertise in handling different roles at a time? A7: I dont transfer it to them (students). They should be able to find it themselves. Q8: Great success comes with great involvement. Sir, how are you able to be involved in everything that you do? A8: May be I am a very versatile man! If there are people who know more than me, I learn from them. You must be always prepared to learn. It is not difficult to learn if you set your mind to it. And in a place like Anand where there is so little you can do other than to learn. Q9: Sir, What should IRMAns be, future leaders who leads and make others to follow or better managers who mingles and walk along with the team? A9: "Students of IRMA are supposed to lead. Of course when you lead you have to walk with others. You cannot lead unless you work with others." Q10: Sir, What is that which distinguishes us from other managers like those from IIM, Ahmedabad? A10: Have you been to IIM, Ahmedabad? Tell me how is your accommodation? (Participants answer- Very nice). What about the fact that you are given single rooms? (Participants answer-

Excellent). All these were not done accidentally. The students of IRMA are given the best facilities to stay, to study, to work. Q11: Sir, Why were chimes put up in IRMA? A11: All educational and religious institutions I had seen had chimes and bells. It is a sign of educational institutions. So I decided to have chimes and to have chimes is not easy. I had to get it imported from Netherlands. When it came here I got into trouble as nobody could tune it. So I had to call someone from Netherlands to come here and chime these bells. But when you build anything, you have to build into it character. You dont build institutions without character. I asked one of the best architects in India that whether he can build character into it. He said lets see. And what we today see is an Institute of character. Q12: Sir, What was the motivation behind doing all these? A12: I was born to create. And fortunately for me when I joined Amul in 1949, I decided to work under a man called Tribhuvandas Patel. He inspired me! You must find such people who inspire you and Tribhuvandas was that man for me. He was a simple man but he was able to inspire me. First and foremost he was a man of character. Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru was another person. I was fortunate to have such people. Q13: Sir, One thing you still want to create? A13: If I do not create, I will not be happy. Each one should have an inspiration to create and you should give full commitment to that inspiration. THANK YOU KURIEN SIR from PRM-312, IRMA

Compiled by S. Sarath, PRM-31 with the help of Media Committee, IRMA