He attributed all his success to Patel and asked me to meet him. Patel was too old to speak much but I realised that they complemented each other. Kurien told me that he was more a Gujarati than a Malayali and asked me: “Will Keralites allow a successful Gujarati businessman in Kerala to become chairman of the Kerala State Electricity Board? They will not. But I was made Gujarat Electricity Board chairman”.
He said he lived like a Gujarati and will die like a Gujarati. He also told me that he did not like milk and never drank it. Today if India is the world’s largest producer of milk, the credit should go to Kurien and Patel, who saw potential in him. May the milkman’s soul rest in peace.
A.J. Philip is a senior journalist