Narayana Murthy founded Infosys with wife Sudha’s savings

Talk of her “achievements” and she dismisses them with an impatient wave of her hand. For Sudha, her heart is in her work, her hometown, women and society. Excerpts of an interview with this exceptional woman.

Question:What would you say is your contribution to Infosys?
Answer: I was working as an engineer in Tatas at the time and it was a very good job, when Narayana came up with the proposal of starting our own company. He needed some seed money and there was none. But my mother had told me that a woman should always save some money without telling her husband and I had Rs 10,000 saved secretly. It was this money that started Infosys.

Narayana also told me that there would be absolutely no returns for the next three years. I knew immediately what it meant. It meant that I would have to look after the family, support his family, save a lot and cut corners. I said yes. In fact, I replied to him in poetry, which says that essentially, in sorrow, in happiness, in poverty, in wealth, in sickness and health, I will be at your side.

For three years in Bombay, we lived in a small one-room house, no servants, no luxuries and lots of hard work. I had complete faith in him, his abilities and his vision, which was to put India there, on top, along with all the other great nations of the world. But I told him I would be the safety net, which is put below even the most expert trapeze artists.

Even now, when we go from achievement to achievement, he always says “Thank you, my net.”

Q:Did you not feel that you had to give up your own ambitions and comfort for this?
A:I am from Hubli, North Karnataka. And like all people here, I have been brought up to believe in hard work, less expectations. We have made the “Kayakave Kailasa” a part of our lives. I did not find it particularly harrowing experience and all the money we have got now has hardly made a difference to our lives, except that now we buy a lot of books. As for the other things, we don’t have a servant even now. Both of us do all the housework like washing clothes, vessels, cooking and Narayana washes the toilets himself everyday. We have a small two-bedroom house, which we clean ourselves. In fact, our household expenses are Rs 5,000 every month.

It is my hometown and the culture here has taught me that money is not the important thing in life and hard work, peace of mind and family are the priorities. We are a simple, open-minded people. We say what we feel honestly and take what comes in life without complaints. Whenever Narayana thanks me and attributes the success of Infosys to me, which he does at every opportunity, I silently thank my hometown and the culture of North Karnataka; to which goes the success of our company.

Q:What about your work now?
A:I am still working more than full time. I was the Head of Department for Computer Science for some time and even now, I teach MBA and graduate classes on a voluntary basis. But my main passion is the Infosys Foundation, of which I am the president.

It is not a charity organisation that merely gives away money. We ensure the money helps empower people. I go personally to the villages, prepare projects, implement it and follow it up. I run the Foundation like the Infosys company is run, with the same methodical scientific basis and with the same vision. Money has never been a criterion either for Narayana or me.

He wanted to build a great company, which would put India on the world map of IT, business and I am spending the money on projects, which will make life fair for everyone. I have been concentrating on Karnataka and Orissa in the last three years and feel that the projects, which we have initiated here, have taken root nicely. I keep travelling all the year round and have already covered 800 villages and stayed there. I will be concentrating on Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for the next three years. I definitely don’t believe in cheque book charity.

Q:How does writing fit in into the schedule ?
A:Why not? My right brain is also completely developed. I don’t call myself a literary person or anything. I write when the urge to write becomes strong. I have written 8 novels and a book on Internet for children. I write only in Kannada, but my books have been translated into Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. I write about my feelings, my grief is expressed in my novels. I see the society and particularly the situation of women and feel strongly about it. Again, the atmosphere of my hometown has a lot to do with my writing. It is a highly cultural atmosphere, where so many are involved in literary and cultural activities like writing novels, poetry, and classical Hindustani music. How could I fail to be influenced by all this?

I had a wonderful experience once, when I was invited to a wedding of a couple whom I did not know. I thought it was one of my students and went and even then, failed to recognise any of the people there. Finally, I asked them why they had invited me. The groom told me that he had read my novel in which a woman who has leucoderma gets married. He said he was influenced by the novel to get married to the bride, who also had the disease. It brought me more joy than anything ever has in my life.

I write about one novel per year. And I keep it in a cupboard for six months. Then I take it out, read it once again and send it to the publishers. There is a danger that I might have written something in a very emotional state and I don’t want something to be published which would have some harmful influence on readers.

Novelists have great power to influence. That is why I take care never towrite silly romantic novels which might lead young people astray. I try to write something inspirational, which will build the confidence of women particularly.

Q.Very few women are into IT, why is this?
A:Information technology is a very demanding field with deadlines and high levels of stress. Women have a lot of priorities like home and family and it gets difficult for women to keep up to the pressures of work. But women are getting into the field now and it is very encouraging. But the time factor in IT is simply killing. Projects have to be completed within a span of two months or even less, they have to keep themselves constantly updated. A woman cannot take a year or two off to have a child. She will be obsolete by the time she comes back into the field. It is not the same in other professions. Priorities are definitely different for a woman.