Infosys: A Love Story

AN INSPIRING BIOGRAPHY THAT CHARTS THE EARLY YEARS OF THE MURTHYS' RELATIONSHIP-AND OF INFOSYS

- Prasanto K. Roy

AN UNCOMMON LOVE: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni JUGGERNAUT

Anyone who's worked with the Indian tech industry likely has personal stories about the Murthys, as I do. From meeting the man in Infosys's tiny office in Bangalore's Koramangala in the 1990s to being given a guided tour of their spanking new Bangalore campus by Narayana Murthy, to his taking notes when I spoke at a media workshop on what editors look for in news. A common thread: he was a listener, never missed details, and was polite and humble to a fault. The humility of the First Couple of Indian Tech may be a social media meme nowbut there's truth there.

Indo-American fiction author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's book, An Uncommon Love, tells the early life stories of Sudha and Narayana Murthy, of the opposition their marriage faced, and the making of a storied global tech firm. Divakaruni explains how hesitant she was about writing this. But Murthy had read one of her books, and was keen to have her write their story.

Sudha Kulkarni was TELCO's first female engineer. On a day in 1974, her colleague and fellow booklover Prasanna urged her to come home to meet his flatmate. That friend had more books than she had even heard of, and an intrigued Sudha overcame her hesitation about visiting a male colleague's home. "You lit up the room when you walked into our flat," that flatmate, Murthy, would tell her later.

Murthy asked her out to dinner the next day. Sudha picked Poona Coffee House, made it clear that she would pay for herself, and insisted that Prasanna accompany them.