Sudha Murty, who has always been ahead of her times, recently spoke about her experience of pursuing the engineering degree and how she broke the stereotype and overcame challenges.
In a podcast with the founder of Myntra and Cult, Mukesh Bansal, Murty recalled that at 17 years when she applied for engineering, it was unheard of in her town.
Recalling those days, Murty said there were no toilets for women in her college likely because they never imagined a woman to pursue and complete engineering and so never thought of putting up toilets.
“I was the only girl in my university in my class. They did not build toilets. I said it does not matter. I will not drink water from 7am-12pm. Then I would walk back home, use the restroom, have lunch and then would be in the lab from 2pm to 5pm," she said.
Before enrolling in college, she had other challenges at hand in her community and family. Her grandmother dissuaded her from pursuing engineering, with some even thinking that there was something wrong with her brain. She said that women were “extremely good at cooking but not adventurous."
“They were very traditional people. People thought there’s something wrong with my brain. How can a girl do engineering. Everybody had their own reasoning,” she recalled.
Murty, who dons several hats including that of an educator, author, philanthropist, and now Rajya Sabha MP, said that many at the time tried to talk her out of it, because women with engineering degrees were unlikely to find a good husband.
She went on to become the first female engineer to be hired at Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) in Pune, which is where she would meet her future husband Narayan Murty ― co-founder of Infosys ― whom she married in 1978 while still working at TELCO.
“My grandmother said you should not do engineering because nobody will marry you in our community, in our area. My mother said you should become a mathematics professor so that you can manage your house as well as your career. Everybody had a different idea,” she said.
Even her college didn't believe how a woman would complete a degree in engineering, Murty recalled.
She completed her BEng degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BVB College of Engineering and Technology (now KLE Technological University) and her MEng in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Science.
Murty said she believes that the world belongs to someone who aspires to get what they want and so she did exactly that.
“I also understood something at a very young age ― maybe 19 or 20 ― which later became my mantra and I realized was a great philosophy – ‘You want to do anything in life? You are all alone, and you must do it all alone. If you want to do bad in life, you are responsible. You have bad habits, you are responsible. Good things? You are responsible.’ And later on in life I realized it is the essence of Bhagavad Gita. You are your best friend and your worst enemy,” she said.
She further said that in her four years of pursuing the engineering degree, she did not take any leaves. “I never took one day off in four years because I didn't want to ask for notes from anybody. Then I thought if I don’t put 100 per cent, nobody would put any per cent in me. I have to work very hard. So, the great philosophy in life is that if I want something, I should work for it. I should not depend on anyone,” she said.
Despite her challenges, Murty said her father supported her. “My father said come what may, I will support you as long as you are legally and ethically right,” she said.
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