Is It Wise Or Otherwise?

Fountainhead Books held a booksale in our office canteen. Its been a very long time having spent time with my favourite buddy ‘books’ ofcourse. I found myself searching through the piles of books on the tables in search of the books I want to read [Not that I always read all the books I buy ;)].

A small book caught my eye, which I had heard from many people but saw for the first time. Immediately I purchased the book, lucky enough to find it personally signed by Mrs. Sudha Murty.[ For the people guessing: Yes. You are right. Wife of Mr. Narayan Murty, chairman and chief-mentor of Infosys]. I had recieved a couple of mails subject showing as excerpts from the book ‘Wise Or Otherwise’. Sudha Murty’s encounter with J.R.D. Tata [remembered as postcard incident] and the start of Infosys. I had loved both the excerpts from the book and promptly bought the book.

A very unique book, Sudha Murty gets the credit of putting the simplicity of India perfectly in her masterpiece. Her encounters range from school teachers to tribal cheifs, from flight co-passengers to corrupt officials has she put together in this book.  It also highlights the problems faced by Indian women in the society. The encounters especially the plight of Indian women makes me embarassed as an Indian and a man. You may find a few encounters really amusing like the one where Sudha Murty travels in the late hour in Sweden and the fruit vendor raising the prices in seconds while selling fruits to a comman man and a ‘Software Engineer’. While most of the stories hold your attention, some may bore you. But, it the boredom doesn’t stay for long as the stories are 3 to 4 pages each. This book has the heart at the right place and strikes an emotional chord in the heart of the reader.

Inspite of everything being right about the book, the book does not motivate you for anything. It is more of an travelogue or more of a ‘my dear diary’ book. It absolutely cannot be termed as ‘unputtdownable’ even though I finished it in 4 hours without putting it down once. A few encounters seem to be related to classmates or friends are do not interest the readers. I was disappointed not to find the two stories I recieved in the mail claiming to be excerpts from this book.

This book is an emotional treasure well written and share the experiences of the co-founder of Infosys and a great social institution in herself. Read it atleast once to experience, the snippets of real life in India. Its 3.5 out 5 star for Sudha Murty’s wise work and not so otherwise.