A prolific writer, engineer, professor and philanthropist, Sudha Murthy is a force of nature. Smashing glass ceilings at a time when there were very few women leading the way—she was the first female engineer to be hired by TELCO, India’s largest auto manufacturer—her story is an exemplary account of a formidable trailblazer, who braved the road less travelled. Reader’s Digest spoke to the award-winning author and social worker about her writing, life and its lessons.
You’ve got a pretty diverse repertoire. You’ve written short stories, travelogues, non-fiction, even books on computer science. How did you decide to start writing for children?
I started writing children’s books because I felt that there is a dearth of stories for kids in India. In the olden days, when children wanted to read English language books, they had to resort to Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel—all western classics with princes and princesses—or Enid Blyton. With more and more Indian parents opting to put their children in English-medium schools, I thought children require stories based on the Indian way of life. We cannot truly relate to Enid Blyton in India, because we don’t grow up the way her characters do. Big, joint families, festivals and other staples of Indian life are missing from those stories. So I thought I must write Indian stories for children in English.
You started your writing career in Kannada …
I studied in a Kannada-medium school till the 10th standard, and learnt everything including physics, chemistry in it. I started writing in English only at age 50 and because T. J. S. George, who was a senior editor at the Indian Express, encouraged me to do so.
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