How they became icons
Himmat Singh Gill

Trailblazers of Gujarat
Kamlendra Kanwar, Harmony Publishers, Pages 270. Rs 495.

Some were originally from Gujarat while others like Verghese Kurien, who hailed from Kerala and who made India the largest producer of milk in the world, never went back and made the state their permanent home—all big names in their own right and considered role models and icons not only in Gujarat but the entire country. Kanwar has brought live the personal and professional lives of Indians like Bakul Dholakia, Ela Bhatt, BV Doshi and Tejas Patel to name some who adorn these pages, full centre stage for a round of well-deserved appreciation and applause. As a reviewer, one initially sometimes looks upon such books with a bit of suspicion, in that the work might well be a put up job engineered for the publicity of a few. Happily a full night read of Trailblazers left one in little doubt that this was a genuine account of a few genuine people who have excelled in whatever they had set out to accomplish.

Kurien’s contribution to the milk cooperative town of Anand to which he came one day 58 years back, is of course exemplary. The famous Amul brand came on the world map because of him, and he came into the creamery industry by default as he himself describes.

Ela Bhatt and her Ahmedabad based SEWA is today the largest single trade union in the country with a membership of 6,87,000 women. She has empowered and "deeply enriched the lives of millions of uncared for, extraordinary women who thought little of their latent skills and whom society treated with contempt and mockery". It will be difficult to name all the awards that Ela has won for her selfless service for the downtrodden female.

Indeed, Dholakia as the Director of the well known IIM, Ahmedabad resisted government control in the way of admissions and other policy matters such as the fee structure and steered the institute away to fuller autonomy. Cardiologist Tejas Patel is the only Asian to have patented in his name a catheter for angioplasty, has 45,000 cath lab procedures to his credit, and because of his popularity and name in the field.

Kaka Kantisen Shroff Chairman Emeritus of a giant corporate in Bhuj and Chandaben who has kept alive the art of intricate Kutch embroidery, find themselves in august company with the likes of Mukesh Patel the tax expert who has authored books like Axe your Tax and Relax and delved in movements such as the "right to recall" of elected representatives who were turning out to be non-performers.

Pranlal Bhogilal who also makes these pages possesses around 250 vintage cars including a 1911 Daimler and a 1927 Rolls Royce Phantom1 which he caringly looks after at his sprawling estate named Dastan on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. He recounts and possibly Amarinder Singh of Patiala could confirm this to our readers that, "The oldest car in India was a 1902 French car owned by the Maharaja of Patiala. I think they still have it".

Pankaj Bhai or Dr Pankaj Shah is another icon who first introduced chemotherapy in the country and thus saved the lives of countless cancer patients, besides developing an institute which has cottages for the terminally ill at Vasna. Sudhir Nanavati the lawyer and BCCI Finance Committee Chairman has affected a better deal for our cricketers while out on overseas tours as also while playing on the domestic circuit.

In the last of the 10 in this galaxy is Balkrishna Doshi the architect who came from Paris to work for Le Corbusier in Chandigarh but left after some time for Ahmedabad where Corbusier had some ongoing projects because, "Others in the office (at Chandigarh) grudged his senior position and the boss’ implicit faith in him". How typical of our work culture and office routines.

Doshi who had also worked with the legendary Louis Kahn says: "I try to create homes not houses", and has done pioneering work in designing housing for the poor and the slum dwellers. Some of his revolutionary works like the IIM Bangalore and the Aranya low cost housing are featured in this well illustrated account of the Gujarat Greats who have striven to rise to exceptional heights in making their dreams come true. Kanwar has written a readable account which today’s youngsters could try and spend some time on, and one hopes that one day this journalist-cum-author would chronicle the trailblazers of this entire vast land that is called India.

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