Sudha Murthy, the activist, is not a strange phenomenon to imagine. From being the first ever woman engineer to becoming the Chairperson of Infosys Foundation, she has indeed come a long way. In the interim period, she also made an author of herself, writing numerous books in Kannada and English. As an activist, she has always been observant and sensitive to the hardships faced by certain sections of society, be it in the field of education, employment, or healthcare.
The major States where the Infosys Foundation is actively involved in include Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The Foundation invests its funds proportionally in providing education for those who can’t afford it, into medicine and healthcare, rehabilitation, infrastructural development as well as bringing back traditional art forms that are on the verge of oblivion.
Every author begins as a reader, and a reader loves nothing more than a library full of books and knowledge ready to be imbibed. Sudha Murthy expressed her love for libraries by making several of them available to as many people as possible. One of her accomplishments is successfully setting up a library for every school.
In Karnataka alone, she set up more than 6,500 school libraries. The library contains books in the vernacular language and covers important topics – safety on the road, staying healthy, etc. This has been a huge victory towards the literacy of young minds.
After all this, you might imagine Sudha Murthy working out of a glass encased office that stands out and towers over all the other buildings in the vicinity. But, that would be utter fiction. In reality, Sudha Murthy’s workspace reflects her personality – modest and functional.
At the end of the day, she goes back to being a companionable wife and loving mother, and above all, just another human being.
