Are you also a woman, a mother, or a soon-to-be mother and trying hard to stay motivated no matter what? Then, this story might uplift your motivation. This story is about a woman named Sudha Murthy who achieved it all despite every hurdle in her path. Let’s dive into her life story and learn about an incident that will give you a good life lesson.
Sudha Murthy is an Indian educator, author, philanthropist, and mother. She was born on 20th August 1951. She has achieved multiple things in her life. She was a former chairperson of the non-profit charitable organization Infosys Foundation. In 2024, Murthy was nominated as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, on 8 March 2024 for her contribution to social work and education.
She was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India, for her incredible contribution to social work and education in 2006. She is a kind-hearted woman who excels in social work. In the year 2023, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan, which is the third-highest civilian award in India.
She has founded several orphanages and has participated in rural development activities. She was a firm supporter of the movement to provide all Karnataka schools with computer and library facilities. She has established the Murthy Classical Library of India at Harvard University. Murthy has made a great contribution to English and Kannada literature.
A novel originally authored by her in Kannada and later translated into English as Dollar Bahu, was adapted as a televised dramatic series. Multi-talented, Sudha Murthy has also acted in two films. These two films include Pitruroon, a Marathi film by Nitish Bhardwaj, and another Kannada film named Prathana.
Sudha Murthy began her professional career in computer science and engineering. She is a member of the public health care initiatives of the Gate Foundation. Dollar Bahu was a Kannada novel authored by her, which was later adapted as a television drama series by Zee TV in 2001. She is a jack of all trades.
Despite her several achievements, the story about her becoming “the first woman to work with Tata Steel” is the most interesting one. Sudha Murthy, the chairperson of Infosys Foundation, was the first female engineer to work at Telco, now known as Tata Motors. That is where she met JRD Tata, a pioneer of the Indian industry and the chairman of Tata Group.
Sudha Murthy experienced discrimination against women from a young age. She was discouraged from studying engineering in college as people during that time considered it a men’s subject to study, but she disregarded it and was the only female student among 600 students in her engineering college. It was intimidating, but she went through it with grace.
She wanted to work as an engineer at a telco also known as Tata Motors, but she got very upset when she got to know about the gender bias at the famous telco company. The eligibility criteria of the company stated engineers required and “male only”. After finding out that she didn’t have a place at that office, she decided to create it.
With a lot of enthusiasm, she wrote a letter to the chairman of the company, Ratan Tata, expressing her views on his gender-biased eligibility criteria. She stated how she believes that gender doesn’t really matter, all that matters are skill and knowledge. Almost 10 days later she was called for an interview and was also hired.
That’s how she became the first woman engineer in the Tata company and marked the start of her career. After a while, she decided to exit from the Tata company, and she became a mother to her son. She decided to join hands with her husband and built Infosys into a bigger foundation. Her husband started the company with the initial funding of Rs.10,000 saved by his wife Sudha Murthy.
After becoming the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, she was asked multiple times at multiple places to just be a mother and not bother with anything else. However, while being a loving mother, she doesn’t put her ambitions and self-love on hold and continues to follow her career goals.
One day, her daughter asked her if people like her mother don’t help the underprivileged and poor, and who will? Her daughter’s words inspired her to work more toward the development of society. Her prior boss’s words also rang in her ears. She remembered how Ratan Tata advised her to give back to society once she became rich.
In one of her interviews, she said, “I was sleeping, but my daughter woke me up.” She took girls from the villages and asked them to learn and work for her company instead of in her or other people’s homes. Her social work changed the lives of a lot of kids and young adults. She became the mother of not only her two children but other orphans as well.
The story of Sudha Murthy is an inspiration for all the mothers out there. Being a mother is a magical experience but that should not encourage you to lose your individuality. Sudha Murthy has proven that you can be a mother, and everything else or whatever you want to be. To all the mothers out there, be kind to yourself and always be yourself.
