Wise and Otherwise

Sudha Murty is the founder of the CSR wing of Infosys – the
Infosys Foundation – one of the few home-grown companies of
India in the IT sector. Sudha is a prolific writer and a teacher. She
draws these stories from her vast chest of experiences acquired
over her lifetime of service to the people. There are 51 of them, all
short and each one unique in its own right.
I found there to be an awful lot of stories written about
women – both good and bad. It is perhaps my tenacity of the
negative that I write hence. Often – and stereotypically so – the
women lot draw a bad name when it comes to worldly and
interpersonal things. In some of these stories (at least 2), it is
interesting to note how a husband gets to lay blame on his
‘controlling wife’ who did not like her in-laws. Today, with the rise of
this notion of ‘feminism’

, the acts of injustice on a woman are flung
across billboards and make hot debate agendas. But it is often
noted, as in this book too, that women are more disapproving of
other women – a mother-in-law uses her influence on her son and
they torture his wife for dowry, a wife uses her influence to get rid of
the ailing father. All that the husband gets to do is hang his head in
shame and (with a weak spine) obey. Whose fault is it? I think it is a
collective fault. Of course, there are many stories of the legendary

fragile male ego, they are bigger blunders over trifling matters.
There is grace in upholding the values imbibed by the cultures of
the place. I don’t think any place would advocate any of these things
we read about. What culture suggests estranging one’s parents
when they most need you? Or torturing someone for the sake of
material greed? But let us not strip the yarn from the weave!