Padma Bhushan Sudha Murthy Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and best-selling author
Padma Vibhushan N R Narayana Murthy Founder & Chairman Emeritus of Infosys, Board member of United Nations Foundation & Ford Foundation
The story of their love is as old as the hills – boy meets girl, they find a beautiful friendship that quickly turns into love. But in this one, there’s a twist. When he popped the inevitable question, she said ‘no’. Sudha and N R Narayana Murthy couldn’t be further from one’s initial impression of a ‘power couple’. Despite being worth an estimated USD 4.5 billion, you won’t see diamonds and private jets. Instead, you’ll see simplicity and humility, traits that have stuck on since the duo met one sultry day in 1974.
Both were born in small towns far from each other in Karnataka but it was in Pune that a movie-like meet-cute happened. Sudha Murthy at the time had already broken the glass ceiling as the first woman to study engineering in her village and as the first woman engineer at TELCO. A colleague and friend would lend her books belonging to one N R Narayana Murthy, of whom she built an image of a strapping, intelligent young man. Instead she found Murthy – who had just returned to India from Europe and was working for Systems Research Institute – a short, bespectacled, ‘seedha’ chap during their first meeting at a lunch among friends.
Fortunately, this was simply a front for his larger-than-life personality. The duo connected quickly over movies, Hindustani classical music and books, interests they share to this day. Over the three years they dated – a rare occurrence for couples at the time – they were meticulous about finances, keeping notes and spending thriftily, another trait that continues albeit in a slightly more generous manner.
In September ’77, N R Narayana Murthy decided it was time to embark on a new journey. In a rickshaw one day, he asked his best friend to marry him. Sudha – Kulkarni at the time – immediately said ‘no’ to the man who was to set up India’s most famous software empire.
But as always, love prevailed. On February 10, 1978, they were married, but not in a way one would imagine of one of corporate India’s leading power couples. Sharing details with a Hindi film blog, Sudha Murthy recalled, “We married with only our two families present at the ceremonies in N R Narayana’s house in Bangalore as he wanted to tie the knot with me before leaving for the US. I got my first silk saree. The wedding expenses came to just N800, with him and I bearing N400 each.”
In five years, the Murthys will celebrate 50 years of married life, one filled with a variety of personal and professional accomplishments. Together, they have raised two beautiful children, Akshata and Rohan, keeping them on the straight and narrow despite the burgeoning wealth that flowed as a result of N R Narayana Murthy’s passion and hard work.
Over the decades, they spent much time apart working diligently towards their own personal goals. N R Narayana Murthy served as founder CEO of Infosys from 1981 to 2002, as chairman from 2002 to 2011, and from then on as chairman emeritus. Along the way, he’s been called the ‘father of the Indian IT sector’ by Time magazine and listed among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time by Fortune magazine. The Indian government honoured him with a Padma Shri in 2000, followed by a Padma Vibhushan in 2008, the same year in which France conferred its Legion of Honour on him. This is just a snippet of the long list of awards he has received for his work.
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