📚 Sudha Murty

The Girl Who Wrote to J.R.D. Tata

Sudha Kulkarni was born on 19 August 1950 in Shiggaon, Karnataka, in a family of teachers and doctors. Topping her engineering class (often the only girl in the room), she spotted a TELCO job advertisement that said 'Lady candidates need not apply.' Furious, she wrote a postcard to J.R.D. Tata himself protesting the injustice. She was called for an interview — and became TELCO's first woman engineer on the shop floor.

The ₹10,000 That Built Infosys

When her husband N.R. Narayana Murthy dreamed of starting a software company, Sudha lent him her savings — ₹10,000 — and supported the family while Infosys took root. That loan seeded one of India's greatest companies. She chose to stay away from its daily business, saying one entrepreneur in the family was enough — and built her own legacy instead.

The Giver

As chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, Sudha Murty built over 2,300 libraries in rural schools, thousands of toilets, hospitals, flood-relief homes, and scholarship programmes. She travels simply, famously owns few possessions, and tells of being judged at a London airport for her plain salwar-kameez in a 'cattle class' queue — a story she turned into a lesson on dignity. She has written over 30 books — children's stories, novels, and travelogues in Kannada and English — that make kindness feel like an adventure. In 2023 she was nominated to the Rajya Sabha; her son-in-law, Rishi Sunak, became UK Prime Minister — she remained, as ever, gloriously unimpressed by titles.

What We Can Learn

• Speak up against unfairness — one postcard opened a locked door.
• Generosity is a career: give time, books, and dignity, not just money.
• Simplicity is not lack of success; it is mastery over it.