When Sudha Murthy graced the achiever's seat on 'Weekend with Ramesh' - Part 2

Simplicity, Sacrifice and Social-causes

One of her earliest encounter with charity was after the Indo-China war, when defense officials went to her school and asked donation in any form. Everybody gave four annas or eight annas, but Sudha gave away her finger-ring citing the reason: "it's for the nation". After returning home, she asked her mother to get her sister's ring for her, albeit, her request was denied.

Many years later when she met Mr. Narayan Murthy, fell in love and decided to marry him, she had to let go of all her gold that she had received from her parents or inherited at Mr. Murthy's request. She had married a jobless person who had an ambition of his own. Being the breadwinner, she could not give all her time to their first-born so she let her into her mother's and sister's care. She says that it took her daughter five years to recognize her as mother. Once she had to pawn her mangalsutra to ensure that the employees received salary on time. "A dream as big as Infosys required sacrifices", she says.

Years later when she was asked to head Infosys Foundation, she says that it was her daughter's words that drove her to resign from her job to start this new journey. Her daughter had once told her that being well-read, educated and travelled, if she couldn't contribute for social causes, then she did not have any right to educate others on social work. The first cause she navigated towards was eradication of the devadaasi system or prostitution. Meeting them for the first time had rendered her sleepless for months. She agonized about the invisible line that separated them from her in that they suffered while she could sit in an AC room and just talk about the wrongs in the world. From being thrown chappals and tomatoes at her for approaching the devadaasis to help prevent AIDS, to being accepted to help them when incentivized with scholarships for their kids, she declares that today district Raichur is free of this evil practice. She has given a better account of her struggles in this cause in her works, 'Wise and Otherwise' and 'Three Thousand Stitches'. Infosys Foundation, under her able guidance has several accomplishments today.

• reconciling 75000 kids found in railway stations with their families
• providing study kits to lakhs of students
• rehabilitation to men in defense who were injured in action
• disaster relief

During her engineering days, she felt the pain of not having access to ladies toilet. The college had not constructed any until then and did not want to only for her sake fearing it would be a waste if she left. Today, she has helped build 15000 toilets. She helped renovate her school and named it after her teacher. Her grandfather, being a teacher himself, had asked her to pledge to donate books to libraries when she was capable of doing so. She has donated books to over 70000 libraries through Infosys Foundation.

Her eldest cousin sister speaks highly of her that she was aptly named 'Sudha', meaning amrutha or nectar. That she has served and improved lives of crores of people. To which, Mrs. Murthy retorts: "enithu janarige, enithu janmagalige, enithu runiyo? Haagendare, badukembudu runagala ganiyo"
Translates to: "to how many people and births can I owe, when life is a mine of debts"

She has received the Padma Shri award for her contribution to social causes.

Writing

Her first book, at the age of sixteen, was published in the regional magazine Karmaveera. She has written over 30 books, won the State Award for her achievement in literature and social work. She has won the R. K. Narayan award for literature and  the Life Time Achievement Award at the Crossword-Raymond Book Awards. She says that writing is a stressbuster, an outlet for her happiness and sorrow. Reminiscing about her early days of marraiage, she says that both had a pact to save money each month to buy books. This reminds me of Napolean Bonaparte's quote:

“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” 

Even today her husband's ideal gift to her are books. Today if he wants to borrow books from her, she tells him to buy them as he is rich enough so that writers like her survive.

Of course, she received help from most quarters in her service to mankind. Her parents, family, friends and colleagues supported her throughout. Most of them were present with her on the show. Though, let us note that it is not how much we have inherited but what we make of it. How aptly did Ramesh sign-off this episode by saying "achievement does not see gender. More power to women!"

When Sudha Murthy graced the achiever's seat on 'Weekend with Ramesh' - Part 1

This week I was moved deeply on two occasions, when I read the short-story, 'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson and when I watched the episode on the celebrity talk show 'Weekend with Ramesh' graced by one of my inspirational figures, Mrs. Sudha Murty. While it would take another write-up on how the former has affected me, here I would like to present the disclosures that were made during the show. I was excitedly discussing some of the highlights with my colleagues on the day after the telecast, during lunch, when one of them asked, "does the video have subtitles"? Aw, how I and she wished that she would be able to view and understand that particular episode.

This is my attempt to translate the revelations that made a lasting impression upon me.

Value-system
Growing up as a teenager, I caught fancy from Hindi movies the stretching of one hand to someone's feet (or even knees) to take their blessing, but when I tried it the first time on some elderly person (after all, it doesn't require any pressure on your backbone), my dad was furious and reproached me for this half-hearted gesture. I didn't learn any lesson that day but did what was expected of me thereafter. However, when I saw this 68 year old celebrity completely bow and touch her teachers' feet with her hands and head, I was humbled. Further, when her teachers talked while still standing, she stood beside them refusing to sit in her designated chair saying with a smile, "it doesn't feel right to sit when her teacher is standing". I am lucky to have witnessed such acts of humility. Mrs. Murthy said that she imbibed values from her grandparents with whom she would spend a few months every year during childhood. During these days, she learnt around 2000 vachanas, a form of Kannada literature about morals.

Reading
Bit by the bug in childhood, even when doing her homework, she would hide the regional children's magazine Chandamama in her textbook. When she had to aid in kitchen work, she always volunteered to grind masala as it required no intelligence but only one hand to turn the peg of the grinding stones while she could hold a book in another and read. Her sister narrated that young Sudha's aim after class 10 was to spend her life reading books. During her engineering studies, once a teacher mentioned king Barthaari. Quickly a hand was raised (no marks for guessing). She pelted info about the king, the ruler of Ujjain, his famous brother, the connection to Vikram-Betaal stories. When he asked how she knew, she answered that she has read most of the books from the Hubli central library during holidays. Another lecturer tried to test her once. He threw a line from Kaalidaasa's epic poem, which too, she automatically completed.

Ambitions
Sudha and her siblings grew up competing with each other in studies, and were encouraged by parents to take part in extracurricular activities. When Sudha started class 11, she had to switch medium from Kannada to English. When she expressed her concern at having to study in an alien language, her mother advised her to practice 25 lines in English daily, compulsorily. Remembering this during the show, Mrs. Murthy quoted from the Bhagavadgeetha, "abhyasenatukaunteya" which means "constant practice". After class 12, she dropped a bomb on her family when she declared her interest to pursue engineering. She joined engineering as the only female student in her college even when her relatives advised her against it for she wouldn't be able to find a groom to match her qualification. Irrespective of the constant stares, teasing and love letters she aimed to excel in her studies. She aimed "like Arjuna". She has elaborated on her experience of engineering days in the chapter 'How to beat the boys' in her book 'Three Thousand Stitches'. She emerged a university gold medalist in engineering and master's. She had also received scholarships for PhD from prestigious foreign universities, however she joined as the first female employee of Telco courtesy her fight for opportunities for women in India, the detailed story of which is widely known today.

Two of her teachers who taught her at different levels of education repeated the sanskrit saying "Shishyaad ichcheth paraajayam" meaning that a teacher derives happiness when defeated, or outshined, by the student. Her lecturer in engineering college expected her to return to the college to teach. Return, she did but many years later as a director of the college. Mrs. Murty said she is a life-long learner and these days she is getting coached on Halegannada (or old-kannada which, I may add, is rather closer to Sanskrit than Kannada).

Her achievements surpass the length of my article. Here I am, tired of scouting to remove lines and words, spilling over to a separate post.