Sudha Murthy's 'pongala' offering goes viral for its simplicity

Murthy remained unidentified by the crowd of women in a temple owing to her simplicity and absence of any VIP paraphernalia

Even as thousands of women turned up for the famed Pongala festival of the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, it is the picture of one woman that is now going viral on social media.

Known educator, author, philanthropist, recipient of the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards and Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murthy turned up for the event and offered pongala (sweet dish made using rice, coconut and jaggery) to the deity by sitting among thousands of women.

Despite her high profile, being the wife of IT giant Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and mother-in-law of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Murthy remained unidentified by the crowd of women near her owing to her simplicity and absence of any VIP paraphernalia.

The picture of Sudha Murthy sitting on the bare floor near the temple and preparing the offering under the scorching sun went viral, along with some lighthearted memes.

In one such popular meme, a laywoman who sat near Murthy to offer pongala asks her what her husband does and Murthy replies that he runs a firm. The woman makes further enquires about her family and asks what her son-in-law is doing in the UK. "He is into politics," Sudha replies in the meme. The woman then replies that her son-in-law is also into politics and is now a panchayat member.

There are also memes that flay that even as Murthy herself holds a very high profile, the social media memes are projecting her husband and son-in-law's profile.

Among the few who identified Murthy include popular Malayalam actress Chippy Renjith. She shared a picture with Murthy on her social media page. "It is not every day that we meet such a wonderful person who has excelled in various fields of life," she said in the post.

Murthy told a section of media that it was for the first time that she was turning up for the Attukal Pongala festival, which is considered as the largest gathering of women for a temple festival.