How I Taught My Grandmother To Read And Other Stories- a book review

How I Taught My Grandmother To Read And Other Stories

Title : How I Taught My Grandmother To Read And Other Stories
Author: Sudha Murty
Pages: 133
Published by: Puffin Books (Penguin India) 2004
Price: Rs. 150/-

Excerpt: “Sir, I am leaving TELCO.”
“Where are you going?”
“Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys. So I have to shift to Pune.”
“Oh! What will you do when you are successful?”
“Sir, I do not know whether we will be successful or not.”
“Never start with diffidence. Always start with confidence. When you are successful, you must give back to society. Society gives us so much, we must return it. I wish you all the best.”
Then JRD continued walking up the stairs.”
Why would a 62-year-old choose her 12-year-old grand daughter as her teacher and offer her ‘guru-dakshina’? What would a knowledge-hungry child do if she had wings? Why did Grandmother always cook the inferior red rice at night, when there was plenty of fine white rice in the granary? What do you do when your daughter questions your value-system?
‘How I Taught my Grandmother to Read’ answers these questions and raises many more in the reader’s mind. The book is a collection of twenty five heart-warming stories from the life of the author, Sudha Murty. They describe little incidents that influenced her life in a big way. Her early years in a small Karnataka village, in her grandparents’ home, provide the best ‘stories’, for both author and reader. Some describe how her role as teacher made a difference in the lives of many students. Through her eyes we can get glimpses of the simplicity and vision of great men like Abdul Kalam and J.R.D.Tata.
The narration is simple, homely and humorous. The stories themselves are both enjoyable and inspiring. The humble beginnings of Infosys, and the story of its founder, N.R.Narayana Murthy fill the reader with hope. If you thought ‘non-fiction’ meant dullness and boredom, try this book! Best read for children above 12 years.
Sudha Murty, an M.Tech in Computer Science, is a teacher. As Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, she directs a lot of philanthropic work all over India. She is a well-known writer in Kannada. Her English work, ‘Wise and Otherwise’, has been translated into thirteen Indian languages. ‘How I Taught my Grandmother to Read..’ is her first book for children.