Ms. Sudha Murty – A Role Model and Icon

‘In an ocean of poverty and misery, whatever I do is insufficient. I’ve never felt that I’ve achieved anything in life….at the most if somebody recognizes my work, I feel good about it.’       – Ms. Sudha Murthy.
Ms. Sudha Murthy, wife of Mr. Narayana Murty of Infosys, is an icon and role model to the Indian women in general and to the youth of our country in particular. Born in 1950 into a respectable middle class family in Karnataka, Ms. Sudha Murthy has many firsts to her credit. Apart from her famous philanthropic work and social action through Infosys Foundation, she is an eminent writer, ardent teacher, devoted wife and loving mother. She had a brilliant academic record all through. She did her Electrical Engineering from BVB College of Engineering in Hubli, stood first in Karnataka and received a Silver medal from the Chief Minister of Karnataka. She pursued her M. Tech in Computer Science from IISC Bangalore, stood first in class and bagged a Gold Medal from the Indian Institute of Engineers. She teaches Computer Science at Christ College for a few hours every week, earns Rs 50,000 a year and values her financial independence greatly. She does this because she loves teaching.

Ms. Sudha Murthy published eight novels and several other technical and educational books in Kannada and in English. Her works are translated into other Indian Languages too. Her “Dollar Bahu’ is serialised on Zee TV. Her recent anthology of short stories, ‘The Day I Taught My Grand Mother and the other stories’ captured the attention of the readers. Her writings are inspiring and they generally carry a moral or a message. A young man married a girl with leucoderma motivated by her novel ‘Mahaswete’.

When she was in BVB College of Engineering, she was the only girl student in her class among 250 boys. They used to rag her mercilessly. Yet, she remained undeterred as her goal was to become an Engineer. She was never absent even for a single day during the five years of her engineering studies.

Ms. Sudha Murthy was the first woman to work on the Shop Floor at Telco, Pune in 1974. A post card addressed to JRD Tata got her the job! When she was in her final semester of M. Tech in Bangalore, she saw an advertisement in the Notice Board inviting applications. The advertisement said that there would be campus interviews but women students need not apply. She got bugged when she read the last line and wanted to protest against the discrimination. She at once bought a post card and boldly wrote to JRD Tata – “Benevolent Tatas who have done so much philanthropic work, innovative Tatas who started the first Iron and Steel industry, Textile industries – I am surprised and ashamed at your attitude toward women students. If you can do this, then any body can do it”. Surprisingly, after a week, she received an interview call from Telco and they would bear her travel expenses!

She appeared for the interview. The reasons given by the interviewing officer were that the selected candidate had to work in shifts and drive a jeep. Another reason was that a woman would quit after her marriage.

Ms. Sudha assured them that she would learn to drive a jeep, work in shifts and would not play the gender card. She accepted the challenge of learning to drive a jeep at 23, because she took inspiration from her grand mother who learned to read and write at 62. And her grand mother’s teacher was none other than 12 year old Sudha!

However, she told them frankly that she would leave the company if she got married but certainly would not quit if she received a better offer from a rival company.

The circumstances of her marriage with Mr. Murty, their setting up of Infosys and their phenomenal success, will read like a fairy tale. However, she says that people will be badly mistaken if they think that she had no hardships, no arguments with her husband and no tears in her life. She faced all the challenges with a smile and forged ahead to become what she is today. Mr. Narayana Murty pays rich compliments to her saying, “She is a happy person with the ability to see the positive in a situation. Her cheerful disposition helps her to make friends easily. She is one of the finest managers I have seen, meticulous about completing every task on time with quality and within the available budget.” Mr. Murty acknowledges the sacrifice she made and says, “She has sacrificed so much for me and the children by giving up her job as Manager in Mumbai in 1981 to move to Pune. Without that sacrifice I am not sure if I would have been able to found the Infosys along with my six colleagues.” She is a true Sahadharmini to him.

The Infosys Foundation, established in 1997 with one of the objectives being the upliftment of the less privileged sections of the society, is headed by Ms. Sudha Murthy herself. Ever since its inception, the foundation has been taking up various social service activities in the areas of Health, Education, Rehabilitation, care of the Visually challenged, building libraries, hospitals, orphanages, schools, science centres, and organising mid-day meals for school children. In liaison with ISKCON, Infosys Foundation is contributing huge sums to the ‘Akshaya Patra’ scheme which caters to the mid-day meals of 10,000 school children in rural and urban areas of Karnataka. Yet another novel scheme, ‘Shale Ondu Granthalaya’, which is the first of its kind, is started with the sole purpose of inculcating reading habit among young children. Under this project, 10,000 school libraries in villages in Karnataka have been provided with 195 to 2000 books of different categories.

Infosys Foundation, under the active leadership of Ms. Sudha Murthy, has been doing yeoman service in all these fields and so far has donated nearly 40 crore rupees. A staggering amount indeed! And yet, she is not really satisfied with this stupendous work. She still wants to serve and give more and more. This is a good example of industry being used in the service of the society.

Unlike most women of her status, she works very hard and leads a simple and austere life. She does not have a maid at home! She says that she thinks twice if she has to spend Rs. 10/- on an auto when she can walk upto her house. The couple made a conscious decision to live a simple, middle class life and even now continue to live in a modestly furnished Two-bedroom house. Her house has no lockers because she has no jewels. She wears stone earrings which she purchased in Bombay for Rs. 100/-. When she visited Kasi some years ago, she vowed to give up shopping, because it is an Indian custom to renounce something which one likes most. Since then she has neither gone for shopping nor bought a sari for herself. She does not carry a purse. Her secretary or driver would keep some extra cash with them for her use. However, she promptly settles her accounts every evening. Her divine simplicity lends a glow to her face and a stately dignity to her bearing.

As the head of Infosys Foundation, she receives 10,000 applications per year and more than 120 calls every day, seeking donations. But she has learned to segregate the hood-winkers from the genuine because she strongly believes that “Philanthropy is a profession and an art.” She runs the Infosys Foundation the way Mr. Narayana Murty manages the Infosys in a thoroughly professional manner. She is a shining example to men and women.
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The oral tradition of Vedic chanting has been declared an heritage of humanity by UNESCO. In a meeting of jury members on November 7, 2003, at Paris, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, declared the chanting of Vedas in India an outstanding example of heritage and form of cultural expression. The proclamation says that in the age of globalization and modernization when cultural diversity is under pressure, the preservation of oral tradition of Vedic chanting, a unique cultural heritage, has great significance.
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USA-based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Chandra Bose and not Marconi.