HYDERABAD:Although Sudha Murthy has a packed schedule as the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, writing is something that comes naturally to her. “I don’t even try a lot. The stories just come to my head, like a movie frame. I see everything that is going to be written,” she says.
Sudha Murthy’s new book, 'Here, There and Everywhere' was launched on Friday and includes a among other things, a collection of some of her favourite stories, unusual experiences while working for the Infosys Foundation and two new stories.
Hailing from Shiggaon, North Karnataka, Sudha has read most of the Kannada authors of her generation including Triveni, Shivaram Karanth and S L Bhyarappa. She is also an admirer of English language authors such as Pearl S Buck and works such as Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex and some of Shakespeare’s plays. Sudha started writing very late but feels she has come into her own. “I started writing when I was 50 and I have gone on my own path”,says Sudha
Talking about women in publishing, Sudha believes that gender does not matter if the stories are good. She does however agree that women did have limited experiences for a very long time due to various inhibitions. Sudha highlighted how women from her grandmother’s side wrote poetry but never went to school. “I think experiences are important in writing. As one’s experience widens, the literature they create will be more beautiful. Once I planned on going to Iran,” she recalls, “and I did go and see the place. Now I can write about it. It’s very different from what one can write by only imagining Iran in their heads.”
About developing characters in a novel, she goes back to her movie frame reference and talks about the time when she met a Marathi director who felt the same way as she did. “The only difference is she directs and I write”, says Sudha.
In her days as a columnist for newspapers, she says she learnt the discipline of sticking to a particular word count. In her first experience at the Indian Express, she had to produce a column every Wednesday. “The then editor of the paper would remind me of my 1000 word column and tell me that I had to write it every week. If I was on a vacation, he would asked me to produce three columns before I left," she says. When she started writing for The Week magazine, Sudha has to stick to 500 words. "I could stick to that word limit and eliminate all the extra words from my pieces.” She has also written columns for many other newspapers as well about her experiences at the Infosys Foundation.
Sudha believes that if one is good at doing something, they should not waste their lives doing something else. “I agree, writing, dance, music and other arts don’t bring in a lot of money. The financial aspect is important. But if something like that brings you satisfaction, then you should do it. I’ve met several engineers who have become RJs, TV anchors, Kathak dancers”, she says, “The mind is a powerful thing. If you want to do things at once, you can do that as well.”