Diverse Individuals

On a journey, Pune-to-Mumbai I completed reading my newly bought book- ‘The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk’. It’s a fresh release, another collection of experiences by Sudha Murthy. It’s her memoir, about everything but herself. ‘Wise and Otherwise’, ‘How I Taught My Grandmother To Read’-I was introduced to Sudha Murthy’s writings by my parent, long ago. I was still a child, and till I picked up the books, I had little idea who Sudha Murthy was. I assumed that she was just another writer. In reality she is something of a great woman, wife to the Infosys genius Narayan Murthy, philanthropist, among India’s first woman computer engineers and the wisest of Indian women, a model of forwardness, independence and intelligence.

Front Cover - The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk

There’s another Indian woman whose I writing I am keen on reading. Model, socialite, columnist, writer and a mother, Shobha Dé. She can be termed as one of the most high-profile writers in India. Her life has been highly dramatic and also somewhat controversial. Though hailing from a middle-class family (something she doesn’t fail to boast of in her works) she has been a little looked-down upon by women of the same class. Her walking out of a marriage, and then walking into another has never went down well with the likes of my mother. Introduced to me with her book ‘Speedpost’ (a collection of letters to her kids), she was further discovered through her columns and then her autobiography.

Front cover- Selective Memory (Autobiography)

Both these woman can be compared and can be found to be similar yet completely different. To begin with, both of them hail from Maharashtrian families. Shobha Dé was born Shobha Rajadhyaksha while Sudha Murthy’s maiden name is Sudha Kulkarni. Though both had non-maharashtrian wedlocks, I have immense love for Marathi people like them who have made it large. Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Madhuri Dixit, Asha Bhonsale, Madhur Bhandarkar or the recent achievers Ajay-Atul, Shalmali Kholgade, Ajinkya Rahane all are recipients of such love and respect, more because they are Marathi, less because of their achievements.

It is not rather fair to make comparisons between the two. Both have completely different lifestyles. Both have achieved completely different kinds of success. But as a human I am judgmental and complicated as well, so I do tend to compare. Shobha Dé  I find a little self-involved; Sudha Murthy on the other hand appears completely detached to her own self. Personally, I prefer self-involved. 

We can clearly see these qualities in their writing. Shobha Dé heavily writes about herself while Murthy writes about everyone but herself. We can see how attached Dé is to her kids (there are six of them) while we barely see a mention of Murthy’s children, probably once or twice in reference to somebody else. Shobha Dé's writing is far better in terms of language and vocabulary. But in terms of matter?

Shobha Dé at an event*

There is a lot to learn from Murthy’s stories. They speak of honesty, truthfulness, and gratefulness. Shobha Dé writes spicy, juicy. Murthy is a woman who has taken very correct decisions in life, Dé is somebody who has taken right decisions, but her own…

Sudha Murthy*

Sudha Murthy’s penning has given me lessons in selflessness.  What I have read in Shobha Dé articles is that it is okay to be a little selfish. 
Both the women are highly learned, well-read, quite well-off and charitable as well. But it’s the life they have chosen, the decisions they have made and the thinking they have adapted that has made them so different. 
And it is this difference that I respect so much.

*No Copyright Infringement Intended.