Statistical Services. In his report of 32 pages submitted to the Indian Government, Joshi had given details of his observations and learning. At one point he wrote, ‘Their distribution is astonishingly punctual. The time when a postman enterd a particular building for delivery of letters is fixed and that schedule is meticulously followed. The postman used to enter the hotel in Paris where I was staying every morning at just three minutes to eight o’clock and throughout my stay of four months in that hotel he never missed that timing.’ Joshi left Paris just a month before the famous Paris Spring of April 1968. But even while he was there the unrest was erupting in France in different places. Students, farmers and workers were coming out in the streets to demonstrate for their demands. It is not unlikely that the rasta roko technique which Joshi adopted in later years during the farmers’ struggle was in some ways inspired by what he had seen in Paris. However, he himself has not mentioned it anywhere. Amongst his papers found after his death were sixteen A4 size pages handwritten in green ink. Left side corner mentions, ‘Paris, 1967, February’. This may mean that they were written during one of his earlier visits to Paris because for this particular longish visit he had reached only in August 1967. The first page mentioned the words ‘Theory of revolutions’. It seems to be a beginning of a major book he had in mind to write all the way from his student days and about which he had talked with this writer. These sixteen pages refer to many ideas without much expounding which he probably intended to do in the subsequent pages. There he wrote: There have been many revolutions in history and evolution in many areas. Many organizations were born. Did all these changes occur because of some great persons or because of some inexplicable global forces? Entering the Professional World
Q
45
