library which had books and journals from all over the world. During his interactions with fellow-students he also became well-versed with the thinking of business families, something that he found useful in his later years. One of the students, just one year ahead of him, was Jagdish Bhagwati who became some kind of a role model for young Sharad. Both loved Sanskrit and happened to go to the same teacher called Narayan Abhyankar for private tuition in Sanskrit. But the similarity probably ended there. Jagdish came from a very distinguished family. His father was a renowned lawyer at the Supreme Court. Jagdish had stood first in a few lakh students who had appeared for school leaving 11th standard or matric examination, which was a well-celebrated achievement. Jagdish later went to the London School of Economics and then to Columbia University in the United States. Today, he teaches economics at Columbia and some people feel he might even receive Nobel Prize before long. His brother Prafullchandra, like his father, became a leading lawyer and eventually became the Chief Justice of India. Interestingly, both the brothers have been honoured by the government with Padma Vibhushan, the second highest honour in the country and this might be the only example of two brothers receiving that honour. During his college years Sharad took part in many extracurricular activities. One was the national essay writing competition conducted by the Union Education Ministry on behalf of the famous newspaper The New York Herald Tribune in 1954. All Universities in the country had forwarded their selected entries to the Ministry. Sharad’s essay was amongst them. It was short-listed and he was called to Delhi for the final interview. The winner was to be sent to the USA for further education and all those selected for the interview were asked to bring along a medical certificate stating that they were fit to travel. Sharad and his entire family were excited. He was the first family member to go even to Delhi and of course none had 28
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
