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NEW DELHI: When it comes to children getting an “insightful response” to her books, Sudha Murthy says she would choose young readers in Bengaluru and other Indian cities over her London-based granddaughters, who might not feel much connected to it.
Murthy said his granddaughters, who are both teenagers, find his books “too simple” and are more interested in reading English classics. He has recently published a book called “Grandpa’s Bag of Stories”, a sequel to “Grandparents Bag of Stories” and “Grandma’s Bag of Stories”.
“I don’t meet them as often as I meet other kids. And they don’t relate to the Indian situation as much, whereas my children in India can relate to it much more. So I think the kids who grew up in India give me a much more practical response than my grandchildren,” the philanthropist, MP and author told PTI.
Murthy’s daughter Akshata is married to former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The couple has two daughters, Anushka and Krishna.
For Murthy, who turns 74 this month, writing is happiness. And with 300 titles to her credit, including 46 books and translations into 23 Indian languages, she clearly finds fulfillment.
In her latest work, the usually silent character called ‘Ajja’, inspired by her husband and industrialist N.R. Narayana Murthy, is transformed into a lively storyteller.
Adept at writing across genres, including novels and travelogues, Murthy’s real skill lies in engaging young readers with creative stories, for which he has a “simple” process.
“I think like a child and become like a child while writing stories. So what a child likes in a story: humour, good things, and no sad endings. As an adult I must give some moral in every story, without telling them it is a moral.
“If you tell them it is a moral story, they will skip the page, they will think it is one of the moral science classes… The process should be simple, not repetitive, not too many details, not too much interaction. And, finally, I should enjoy it,” Murthy told PTI.
Born in a middle-class family in Hubli, Karnataka in 1950, Murthy, an engineer and teacher, founded the IT giant Infosys along with her husband.
The philanthropist and former chairperson of Infosys Foundation was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the President on the eve of International Women’s Day in March this year.
He began his writing career in 1980 with a Kannada travelogue “Atlantikadacheinda”, and was in his 50s when his first English book “Wise and Otherwise” was published in 2000.
His literary work has been recognised through several awards, including the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2023, the RK Narayan Award for Literature in 2006, and the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award in 2020.
However, the feedback from the children, whom she consults after writing her initial draft, matters the most to her.
She said, “If I ask adults, they say, ‘Mrs Murthy, Narayana Murthy’s wife, writer’. So they are hesitant to tell me the truth. Children are not like that, they are not biased. They just read and tell me where I am wrong, where I am right and where I need to improve. I correct it if necessary.”
Murthy is an avid reader who doesn’t sleep until she has read at least 150-200 pages. She said she doesn’t commit to writing every day – unlike many writers. In fact, she said it’s been six months since she put pen to paper.
His argument is: “Creation is organic, wait and let it grow on its own.”
She said, “I can never do ‘I will write 200 lines every day’. The stories will remain in my mind and until they are completely perfect… I cannot see the whole story in front of me like a film, I will not write it frame by frame even if it takes me a year or two to write it.”
Detailing her writing process, the author said she usually dictates the story and doesn’t type it herself because her “CPU is faster than other devices.”
“When I have stories ready in my head, they happen so fast that I can’t sit at the computer and type. I tell someone, ‘I’ll keep talking, you keep typing’. Because if I keep typing I’ll slow down and my thoughts will speed up.
“After two-three months, I will take them out and do the repair work,” she said.
The first book in her best-selling children’s book series ‘The Gopi Diaries’, “Coming Home”, was written in less than four hours.
Discussing his new role as a Rajya Sabha MP, Murthy said he was committed to 100 per cent attendance and had diligently taken classes as part of the crash course for new MPs.
She said, “I consider this an opportunity to serve the country. I consider myself very lucky that I have got such an opportunity at the age of 74. How many people will get this opportunity? How many people will listen to them? I have both things, at least I feel that people are listening to me and I have got a big platform to give my suggestions.”
When asked if she would want someone in her family to take advantage of the writing gene and take up writing as a career, Murthy always cracked a joke, “Nothing is inherited in genes except diseases.”
“Diabetes is hereditary, blood pressure is hereditary. Writing is not hereditary. My grandchildren, of course they see me writing, and the younger one was telling me she wants to be a writer. But they are 11-12 years old, so I don’t take them seriously.
He said, “If they want to write, if it makes them happy, let them do it… My happiness is my happiness, my marathon is my marathon. Their life is different.”
“Grandpa’s Bag of Stories” is dedicated to little Ekaagra Murthy, the only child of his son Rohan Murthy.
“Grandpa’s Bag of Stories” published by Penguin Random House India is a collection of entertaining, captivating and fictitious stories woven by new-age storyteller ‘Ajja’ amidst the snow-capped mountains and picturesque backdrop of Mayavati in Uttarakhand.
This article is generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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