HOW I TAUGHT MY GRANDMOTHER TO READ AND OTHER STORIES | SUDHA MURTY | BOOK REVIEW

HOW I TAUGHT MY GRANDMOTHER TO READ and other stories

Author: Sudha Murty

Publisher: Penguin Books

Age Range: 11+

Short Summary: 

Like most of Sudha Murty’s books, this one is a compilation of multiple stories. However, this book contains her personal experiences..The books contains more than 20 stories and since I cant go into detail of every story (because that would take days to read) I am just going to summarize one of them.

The story, “My biggest mistake”, begins with an incident that takes place in Sudha Murty’s class (she worked as a professor as well) which ultimately leads her to tell the students about an incident that happened to her when she was working at a computer software firm. She talks about how she was very sensitive about what people said about women. Once her boss made a comment about how the Tandon Disc Drive, a 15kg disc drive used before the arrival of floppy, was very heavy and “could only be carried by men”. The comment upset Sudha Murty and inorder to prove him wrong she decided to carry it. She carried the disc all the way to the boss’s cabin and despite the disc being extremely heavy, she didnt show it on her face. 

  

Upon seeing her carry the disc, he boss was surprised and he asked “How did you manage to bring this?”. She thought she did it, she proved him wrong. And thats when disaster struck; in her happiness she let go of the disc, it fell to the ground and broke into pieces. There was a huge noise and everyone in the office looked at her. The disc contained all the vital data of the company and it was wiped out in a minute. 

              

She felt terrible. The entire company was going to suffer because of her. She was so numb, she couldnt even cry. She went to her desk, thought for a while and then wrote down her resignation. But things turned out different that what she had expected.

To find out what really happened, read Sudha Murty’s How I taught my grandmother to read and other stories

~Avani Endait