How I Taught My Grandmother to Read and other Stories Read online

  He said to himself, without anger or jealousy, ‘All students from the IITs study well and do big things in life. But it is not the institution, ultimately it is you and you alone who can change your life by hard work.’

  Probably he was not aware that he was following the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita: ‘Your best friend is yourself and your worst enemy is yourself.’

  Later he worked very hard, and focused on one thing, never bothering about his personal life or comforts. He shared his wealth with others. He never used the help of any caste, community or political connections to go up in life.

  A son of a schoolteacher showed other Indians it was possible to earn wealth legally and ethically. He built a team of people who were equally good.

  He became a pioneer of India’s software industry and started the Information Technology wave. Today he has become an icon of simplicity, uncompromising quality and fairness, apart from being a philanthropist. He really believes in the motto, ‘Powered by intellect and driven by values’.

  He is none other than Infosys founder and present chairman, Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy.

  The Rainy Day

  When I was young, before a girl got married, her mother would give her some words of advice. They were usually like: ‘You must adjust to your new house and in-laws, try to learn how they eat and cook their food, go out of your way to be friendly and helpful to everybody,’ etc.

  My mother, Vimala Kulkarni, told me similar words when I got married. But along with this, she said something which helped me immensely in later life. She said, ‘In life, we never know when a rainy day will come and you might fall short of money. In order to be prepared for such a situation, you should always save some money from your salary, and if you are not earning, then from your husband’s salary. If your salary is one thousand rupees take fifty or hundred rupees and keep it separately. This money should not be used for buying ornaments or silk saris. When you are young, you want to spend money and buy many things but remember, when you are in difficulty only few things will come to your help. Your courage, your ability to adjust to new situations and the money which you have saved. Nobody will come and help you.’

  When I heard her advice, I laughed. I felt it was impossible that such a ‘rainy day’ would ever come in my life. I was young and thought every day was a sunny day. But I always listened to my mother, so I started saving slowly. The money was kept in a safe place in my kitchen cupboard and I never counted it.

  After my marriage, for a while life was smooth in Bombay. We had a daughter and were happy like any other middle-class family. We used to stay in a flat in Bandra. I used to work for TELCO at Fort and Murthy for PCS at Nariman Point.

  One day, my husband returned from office looking very worried. By nature he is not talkative and is reluctant to share his emotions, but that day he was different. I was making some chapattis in the kitchen.

  ‘Why are you looking so worried?’ I asked him.

  He replied, ‘Software is going to be the biggest new business in the years to come. We have no dearth of intelligent people in our country. Writing software requires a logical mind and hard work, which we can find plenty of in India. I feel I should harness this talent. I want to start a software company.’

  I was shocked. I had never imagined we would ever think of starting our own company. Both, in my family and Murthy’s, there was not a single person who was an entrepreneur. I had thought Murthy would work in PCS and I would work in TELCO forever and we would lead a quiet and contented life. My immediate reaction was ‘No’.

  Murthy started explaining his plans and vision for the business to me. ‘You are fond of history. You must appreciate my reasoning. You know we Indians missed the Industrial Revolution. That time we were ruled by foreigners. Now the world is on the threshold of an intellectual revolution. We must make full use of this. We have to bring this revolution to our country. If we miss this we shall never get a chance to do well in life. I want to take this step not for money alone. This is one desire that I have had for a while now. Let me do it now. It is now or never.’

  My mind went back to my childhood days. One of our relatives had started something on his ‘own’. He ended up incurring heavy losses. Finally he had to sell his family property. So for me, starting our own business was synonymous with loss. I was afraid the same thing would happen to us. We did not even have any property to sell in order to cover our loss. Apart from that, we had a daughter now. I was confused.

  Probably Murthy read my mind. He said, ‘This is a new kind of industry. It is driven by intellect and does not require large capital. I need your wholehearted support.’

  There was sincerity and honesty in his voice. I have always respected and appreciated his honesty.

  As I sat there wondering what was right, I smelt the chapattis burning in the kitchen. The smell reminded me that we would have to have our dinner without chapattis that day.

  Still I sat and measured the odds and consequences of the problem. Murthy had a large family and they were dependent on him. He had unmarried sisters. In such a situation, if he started a new company, our financial stability would be severely affected. I was worried, but I also had a lot of faith in him. I felt that unless I supported him wholeheartedly, he would feel uncomfortable starting a new venture like this. In business there is always profit and loss. If we went into a loss, we would lose our precious savings of many years. Yet, when I thought about it, in my heart, I was also sure that we would survive somehow.

  I asked him, ‘Are you alone in this?’

  Murthy rarely smiles. This time he smiled and replied, ‘No, six of my young colleagues are joining me. This is our one chance to earn money legally and ethically. I have a dream that India should be a leader in this industry which will bring pride and revenue to our country. You have to help me. Can you give me some money? If you don’t help me now, my dream will remain unfulfilled.’

  I knew that if I did not give him the money he would not be able to start his company. At that moment I remembered my mother’s words. ‘Save some money and use it only in extremely essential situations.’ This was one of those situations. Finally, I came to a decision. I went inside the kitchen and opened my rainy day saving box. I took out the money I had deposited in it every month and counted. There were ten thousand rupees. I took it, offered up a brief prayer to God and gave it to Murthy.

  ‘All the best Murthy, that’s all I can give you. With happiness I will bear all the responsibilities of this new enterprise. By the way, what are you going to name this company?’

  ‘Infosys, and thank you for your support and the seed money. Be ready for the most bumpy ride in your life for the next few years.’

  When I look back now, I realize that our lives changed completely because I had listened to my mother’s valuable lesson.

  I often tell this story to my children and students. One never knows when a rainy day will come. And when it does, my mother’s words will always stay true.

  Doing What You Like Is Freedom

  One day, I was travelling by train from Bangalore to Belgaum. It is an overnight train and the only rail link between Bangalore and north Karnataka. I was travelling by second class as that’s where one can meet lots of people who are eager to talk. I have noticed, the more expensive the ticket, the lesser the co-travellers speak.

  As I settled down in my seat, I glanced at the opposite berth. There was a small family of husband, wife and son. The son was about eighteen or nineteen years old and probably going to college. The family was obviously quite well-off. I sat and watched them. The parents were giving numerous instructions to their son.

  ‘It is very cold, why don’t you wear a sweater?’

  ‘Are you hungry? Shall I serve food?’

  ‘We have got three berths, lower, middle and upper, which one would you want to take?’

  ‘Have you brought your bathroom slippers? If you are going to the bathroom please use them…’ and so on.

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