This writer had the good fortune of meeting a retired executive, Moreshwar alias Bal Sant in Geneva. He hailed from Pune and through a common friend I had gone to meet him, since I had heard that he knew Joshi well. He worked as an engineer with International Telecommunications Union. For the UN staff, ITU had designed a special three-month programme for training in Telecommunications. Joshi was one of the very few from UPU to have done that course. After a lot of perseverance he got the office permission to do it. That was when Joshi and Sant got to know each other. He mentioned how much Joshi enjoyed doing this course and how eager he used to be to discuss new technology products coming in the market. He recalled, ‘I am a former student of Pune College of Engineering while Joshi studied economics. But we invariably talked of technology. Even after completing that course, for his routine office work he often had to come to Geneva and we could meet frequently.’ Role of technology in Swiss life was visible to any observer. The way Swiss railways were built through mountainous terrain was a technological miracle. In Swiss dairy industry, technology played a big part at every step – right from milking a cow and gathering milk from different sources to cheese or butter processing and packing of finished dairy products. Joshi was impressed by this technology application in agriculture. The fourth point was immense value of freedom. Perhaps more than any other country, Switzerland has preserved individual freedom as something sacred. There had been a referendum in that country even on a mundane issue of what colour public buses should have! Swiss democracy was practiced in day to day administration of all Swiss Cantons. The same freedom of choice was extended to every individual. Joshi was enamoured by the way Swiss protected their individual freedom. 70
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
