Sudha Murthy's - How I taught my Grandmother to read

Genre : Short Stories
Rating : 3.5/5

This book is the collection of short stories about the influence of people around Sudha Murthy that have taught her something or the other to be successful, happy and content in the life.
How I taught... is one of the stories in the collection where Sudha Murthy describes her grandmother's determination to learn to read in the old age.

The book covers around 32 stories with each story having a moral. Few are snippets from the lives of J. R. D Tata, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Narayan Murthy. In many occasions, to explain the moral, author compares two incidents – one good and other bad. Except for few, others are cliché.

The backcover says book is about people in Sudha Murthy’s life but almost in every story I felt it was more about Sudha Murthy, her philanthropy, her opinions, her style, her foundation, her kids, her observation, her influence on her students, her teachings, her benevolence, her simplicity, her intelligence et al. The way the author observes people around and opines about them made me little uncomfortable. With all due respect, I felt stories slightly reeked of hatred for rich people especially those who are not openhanded. Throughout the book author tries to keep a low profile but at times I felt, in doing that she is blowing her own trumpet.

Sudha Murthy has excellent style of narrating stories. She did a great job in explaining the moral. As an author she is good. I do not deny the fact that she has helped lot of needy people by going out of her way. And I sincerely admire her munificence but I would have really enjoyed these stories of her generosity, had they been penned by some third person and not by herself.