Here There and Everywhere Read online

  SUDHA MURTY

  Here, There and Everywhere

  Best-Loved Stories of Sudha Murty

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Contents

  Introduction

  1. A Tale of Many Tales

  2. ‘Amma, What Is Your Duty?’

  3. Honesty Comes from the Heart

  4. The Red Rice Granary

  5. Lazy Portado

  6. A Life Unwritten

  7. The Line of Separation

  8. India, the Holy Land

  9. Bonded by Bisleri

  10. In India, the Worst of Both Worlds

  11. How I Taught My Grandmother to Read

  12. Rahman’s Avva

  13. Cattle Class

  14. The Old Man and His God

  15. A Lesson in Life from a Beggar

  16. May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Children

  17. Food for Thought

  18. Bombay to Bangalore

  19. Miserable Success

  20. How to Beat the Boys

  21. Three Thousand Stitches

  22. The Meaning of Philanthropy

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  Copyright

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE

  Sudha Murty is the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and a bestselling author. She has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. She started her career as a development engineer and has also taught computer science at Bangalore University colleges. She is a columnist for English and Kannada dailies, with twenty-nine books and 200 titles to her credit. Her books have been translated into twenty languages. Among the awards she has received are the R.K. Narayan Award for Literature, the Padma Shri in 2006, the Attimabbe Award from the Government of Karnataka for excellence in Kannada literature in 2011 and, most recently, the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Crossword Book Awards in 2018. She has received seven honorary doctorates from universities in India.

  To Shini.

  You are my reflection in thoughts,

  in deeds and in appearance.

  Introduction

  Often, I sense that there is a lot of myself in my stories, whether it is my friends or family or the people I meet. However, the experiences that I write about are mine. I cannot disassociate from myself while writing about them. This book contains some of my most cherished experiences that are like beautiful flowers to me and have been put together here as if to complete a garland. While most of the experiences are from previously published books, there are two new flowers: one that highlights my literary journey and the other that elaborates on the true meaning of philanthropy.

  This book is dedicated to my brother Shrinivas. Writing about him is easy enough and yet so difficult. I look like him, think like him, read like him and eat like him. I have enjoyed his company since he was born—I was the second child and he was the fourth. I can spend hours with him without any boredom setting in.

  Today, he is a renowned astrophysicist who has innumerable awards and distinguished accomplishments to his credit. His work is all Greek to me, just like mine is to him. I think he is extremely focused and absolutely impractical—he doesn’t care much about his appearance, social appropriateness, what others think of him, or even food for that matter. I am much more practical in my approach. In my journey, I have been an integral part of the administration of many organizations. But despite what may appear to be major differences, we are the best of friends.

  When Shrinivas and I were children, we had decided to memorize a dictionary each during the summer holidays. Shrinivas was part of the first batch of a recently formed English-medium school in our locality. That school was Kendriya Vidyalaya. So, he chose to learn the English dictionary while I defaulted to the one in Kannada. At that time, the children in the family had been assigned the task of walking the family dog. At times, both of us did not want to take him out individually because we wanted to use that time to learn a few more words. After some thought, we decided to walk the dog together in an effort to recite the new words we had learnt and to avoid monotony. During our walks, we did more than what we had planned. I educated myself about madhyama yoga that my brother was learning in Sanskrit, and I spoke to him about trigonometry. I was surprised at the speed with which he learnt its concepts despite the fact that he was younger than me and that it was not even part of his syllabus at school. Other times, we loved to debate about our difference in opinion on various topics.

  From the time that I can remember, Shrinivas has loved his three sisters equally. When he was sixteen, he had gone to Nagpur for a debate and won a cash prize. With that money, he bought one sari. He brought it back and gave it to the three of us, saying, ‘This is all that I could afford, and I want all of you to share this sari.’

  Time has passed and our lives have changed. Still, the four of us are there for each other when things get rough and when happiness abounds.

  My brother has been living in a different country for the past forty years, and we meet only annually. But we remain strongly connected and he continues to occupy a very special place in my heart. He is caring but not very expressive and lives in his bubble of science and astrophysics, along with stars, brown dwarfs, black holes and other entities. The only gift that I can really and truly give him is this book: a dear and precious part of me.

  1

  A Tale of Many Tales

  Every person’s life is a unique story. Usually, the story becomes famous only after a person receives recognition in ways that matter to the world. If you peep into what lies deep inside, it is the changes he or she has gone through—subtle changes that the world may never understand.

  Most people undertake an arduous journey full of highs and lows that helps them modify and create new perspectives, thus forming a better understanding of the world and realizing the fact that real passion is much more beautiful than the pinnacle of their accomplishments. Ironically, life appears to be barren and aimless to some achievers even after they reach a big goal.

  Recently, I received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Crossword Books at Mumbai’s Royal Opera House. The categories were unravelled on stage one by one: fiction, non-fiction and children’s, among others. The jury members gave insights into their strategies and opinions, and my mind went back to the beginning of my literary journey.

  I am not a student of literature; I did not pursue a degree in the subject. But literature has always fascinated me. I belong to a family of teachers where books are treasured and I was inclined towards books at a very young age.

  I grew up in a village where the medium of communication was the local language—Kannada. Mine was a Kannada-medium school. Sometimes, a makeshift theatre under a tent would showcase Kannada movies. There were barely any radio stations either. After we finally did get a radio at home, it was monitored closely by the older members of the family who limited its use to Kannada programmes only. But as kids, we all have our ways. When the elders weren’t at home, I would listen to Radio Ceylon and one of its popular shows called Binaca Geetmala. I even recall Sri Lanka’s national anthem, Namo Namo Mata, which often played on that station. Other than that, there was no trace of English in my childhood but there was plenty of time to figure out my creative outlets.

  My family frequently went for small day trips: temple visits, wedding-related events, picnics or a visit to a historical site.

  As soon as we would return home and settle for the evening, my mother would insist, ‘Now sit and write about your day. You may not remember tomorrow what you have seen today, and writing is a wonderful exercise for your tiny fingers and young minds.’

  I almost always resisted her instructions. Sitting in one place after