It is surprising that despite being an avid reader Joshi himself never attempted to write any book during his years in Switzerland. Amongst his papers were found two folders containing 16 and 20 handwritten pages he probably wrote in the sixties while abroad. Both looked like books he had started writing, but he seemed to have abandoned both those attempts. While in Switzerland Joshi was a member of a large cooperative marketing society. It gave him an opportunity to observe how it worked. The Society had hundreds of shops spread across the nation. They used to buy goods directly from the farmers and sell them at very competitive prices. They still used to make a decent profit which used to be distributed amongst members. Joshi was very impressed with its working. He could also travel a lot in the country which gave him opportunity to understand the reasons for the Swiss prosperity. Leelatai, on her own, had also made interesting observations about the Swiss life. Many years later after returning to India she wrote a brilliant article outlining her impressions. By 1970, the Joshis were well-settled in Switzerland. The girls had started going to a French school and were enjoying it. The job was comfortable. They had bought their own nice home. Everything seemed to be going his way and yet unhappiness was seething in Joshi’s heart. When his father passed away in 1970 he visited India with his family and spent three months there. During that time he also travelled to many places. He had in mind to explore the opportunities he might have in India. Somehow the experience was not very pleasant. In an article Joshi wrote about that tour, he said, ‘We wanted our daughters to see India and had hoped that they would form a good impression. We did have an idea of returning to India at some point. But the girls just did not like India. We had planned a tour of Delhi, Simla and Agra. We had made excellent advance arrangement for our stay. We took a 58
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
