At Pune restaurants, Narayana Murthy sang love songs to Sudha

The Infosys co-founder and his writer-wife launch Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's book on their romance.

Bengaluru: Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy was unusually candid at the launch of An Uncommon Love n Bengaluru the past weekend. In the book, author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni traces the love story of Murthy and his wife, philanthropist-author Sudha Murty.

He recalled their courtship days, when he was “carefree” and “not as serious”. They were working in Pune at the time and his proclivity for breaking into song at restaurants led waiters to label them “gaane wale jodi” (the singing couple).

The song Abhi na jao chhod kar (Don’t leave now) was his favourite. Sometimes, they were asked to leave as they would stay glued to their table for hours.

In Pune, Murthy worked at Tata Administrative Services, and Sudha at Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company as its first woman engineer. They would meet at a bus stop, then have a banana milkshake and orange juice, and share a spring roll later. After movie nights, Murthy would throw pebbles at the windows of Sudha’s hostel to distract the warden and sneak her back in after she missed her curfew. “Hormones were kicking,” said a poker-faced Narayana as the audience cracked up.

The couple met through Sudha’s colleague and Murthy’s flatmate, Prasanna. A voracious reader, Sudha was intrigued by the titles Prasanna was reading. They included the likes of How to be an Alien and How to Tango. These were written by Hungarian-born British humorist George Mikes. “Meekesh,” Murthy interrupted, correcting Sudha’s pronunciation. “He is a quality control man,” Sudha quipped.

It turned out, the books were Murthy’s collection, not Prasanna’s. Sudha was expecting Murthy to be like actor Rajesh Khanna when she visited his flat. He turned out to be petite and bespectacled, like a college boy. Murthy lent her a few more books and the two hit it off.

Prison break

The duo had more in common than their love for books and academic pursuits. They had run-ins with the police, too.

Murthy once hitchhiked his way from Paris to his home in Mysuru for 11 months. In a border town of Serbia and Bulgaria, he was incarcerated in a room with “a hole in the corner for a toilet, for 70 odd hours, without food and water”. This, after he told a couple on a train that he could not buy food because he had Italian currency on him. He was let off only because he was originally “from a friendly country”.

Sudha was nabbed by undercover cops in a New York subway while she was backpacking in the US. In her tee-jeans-short hair look, she matched “the description of an Italian drug dealer”. The only unusual thing the cops found in her bag was a half empty box of curd rice, she shared.

Family support

The couple had to endure tough times when Murthy set out to start Infosys. Although qualified, Sudha could not join because Murthy did not want it to become a family business, something he regrets. It doesn’t bother Sudha now. She is content she is helping the underprivileged with Infosys Foundation. Sudha’s only regret is that she did not learn swimming.

Murthy thanked Sudha for her selfless support and Sudha thanked her children — Akshata and Rohan — for being understanding. Akshata could not play Cinderella in school as they could not afford the princess costume. Over a call from the US, Rohan innocently blurted to Murthy something Sudha wanted to avoid. “Amma asked me not to talk about (my) dislocation of shoulder,” said Sudha recalling the conversation.

When Sudha decided to take up engineering in 1950s, people in her hometown Hubballi were sceptical about her marriage prospects. “They did not know that across Tungabhadra, there was Narayana Murthy,” she said.

An Uncommon Love, Juggernaut Books, Rs 799, available online.