Wise and Otherwise. Review on Wise and Otherwise - Sudha Murthy

One normally associates a successful technocrat / business executive to write on matters connected with their chosen field of specialisation. Books written by Mark McCormack, Lee Iacocca and others are good examples of such books. But it is very unusual that a person who helped shaping one of the most outstanding corporate houses writes about on commonplace issues.

Sudha Murty's Wise and Otherwise is the book on common day to day issues. The book is essentially a collection of her musings on the experiences the writer had published in the columns of The New Sunday Express and other dailies. It chronicles her observation of human nature, and the behaviour of a cross section of people she has come across during the silent yet outstanding social of that Infosys Foundation she helped established. The book portrays a wide variety of people - from high society to hoi poloi, simple tribals to charlatans, anonymous donors to publicity hungry and credit grabbing politicians. The opening story is about a daily labourer's son who secures a State Rank in the High School Exams. He is on the verge of giving up his studies, since he cannot afford it. He is given a monthly stipend of 300 rupees to maintain himself. He accepts the help, but scrupulously returns the unspent money to his benefactor. Another story is about the headman of a penurious tribal village, with primitive facilities in the village school. But the elders and children are not lacking in their thirst for knowledge. Given a gift of books, uniforms and umbrellas, the village headman accepts it. But only on condition that she accepts a return gift - may be it is only a bottle of home-brewed fruit juice. Honesty, pride and self respect is not the monopoly of the urban and the well heeled.

A glaring contrast is the story of a man who introduces his own father as a destitute found on the roads, obtains a place in the Old Age Home with her help, and forgets about him. He returns on the death of the old man whose bag he wants to claim and reveals only then that the old man is his father! The bag contains a passbook showing a balance of over a lakh of rupees. There is also a story of a charlatan who barges into the office of Infosys Foundation, and mistakes Sudha for one of the lowly staff members. His aim is to palm off a few substandard books written by him for the libraries assisted by the Foundation. He claims to have known Sudha from childhood and gives a fictional account of how he helped her husband in his career. Imagine his face when he is told that he is talking to the lady herself! There are 51 anecdotal stories altogether giving interesting insights into different facets of life dowry deaths and forced prostitution, changes in personality with passage of time, a beggar who unknowingly transforms a pessimist to an optimist, nostalgic memories about childhood and simple pleasures of life, changing values and mores. The anecdote portrays whole range of human emotions - compassion and greed, jealousy and celebration of others' success, human dignity as well as degradation, charity as well as exploitation. What is striking about the book is that it talks about good and bad. But one cannot fail to notice that there is more about good than bad. Even while writing about things bad and unsavoury, the author is not judgmental or pontificating.

The narrative is refreshingly matter of fact. A friend of mine was commenting that the book does not have literary merit. Rather than a literary masterpiece, give me a Sudha Murty book any day. It makes you think, it makes you introspect, and probably act! Like the person who wrote the book, the language may be simple, but the message is effective. If you want to get an essence of the spirit of India and Indian-ness, Sudha Murty's latest book, ''Wise and otherwise'' has to come under the ''must read'' category.