WISE AND OTHERWISE
(A SALUTE TO LIFE)
-SUDHA MURTHY
Wise and otherwise (A Salute to life) is a book written by Sudha Murthy, wife of N.R. Narayana Murthy.She is a well known social worker, author and a humanitarian. She is also the chairperson of Infosys. Wise and otherwise is one of her famous works which consists of 51 short stories altogether giving intresting insights about the real India and which are her real life experiences, gathered while traveling across the country.Each story is of three to four pages and makes us introspect about things which come across our daily life and the way in which we see things.
One of the stories revolves around a man who leaves his father in an old age home. In this story the man introduces his own father as a destitute found on the roads, obtains a place in the Old Age Home, 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. Such stories clearly portrays the present scenario and the reason why, old age homes are day by day increasing in our country. Another story is of a charlatan who barges into the office of Infosys Foundation, and mistakes Sudha for one of the lower level staff member. 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! Such stories makes us rethink about people and their attitude. Most of the stories says about the real situations of people in different parts of our country like dowry deaths and forced prostitution, changes in personality with passage of time, nostalgic memories about childhood and simple pleasures of life, changing values and morals.
There are stories that just act as a witness to society, like the discussions between two marriage brokers regarding the impact of the IT sector’s growth has had on their business, a beggar who moves into an area distroyed by an earthquake to take advantage of the aid provided to victims. Most of the stories emphasizes the importance of Moral values and about people’s behavior in different circumstances. 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.The most intresting fact about the book is that it talks about both good and bad. But one cannot fail to notice that there is more about good than bad as each story with a negative plot ends making us thing about the changes we need to adopt from such stories and creates a positive note to the reader.And one of the most important point which i have noticed about her stories is that whenever we read one, we feel as if we are surrounded by people whom we have already met at some point of our life. This helps us understand more about the real meaning which she tries to portray through her books.
The language is quite simple and easily understood by everyone. Rather than a literary masterpiece, give me a Sudha Murty book any day,i would be happy as it makes me think, it makes me introspect, and probably act! The language may be simple, but the message is effective. Sudha murthy is my all time favourite writer and an inspiration to be a good human rather than simply mugging up all what text books and the educational system provides our generation with.
Chanchal A. Nair
2nd Bcom Tax (A)
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