'AND THAT IS WHY I AM VERY SUCCESSFUL'

Crediting her family for her success, Padma Bhushan awardee and Member of Parliament Sudha Murty who took to the stage on Women's Day to reflect on her journey, shared empowering insights

- ANJALI RAM

At 17 and a half, I told my father, who was a doctor, that I wanted to do engineering, at a time when it was unheard of for a woman to get into engineering," said Sudha Murty, recalling the moment that kick-started her career and set her on the path of being a woman who has donned many hats—engineer, writer, philanthropist, and now, an MP. Murty, who recently released her book The Circle of Life, and whose Kannada biography Saadhaneya Shikhara was released on Sunday, continued, sharing the obstacles that lay in her way, hailing from a community where women were conditioned to excel in domestic roles and not beyond that. "A few people said, 'If you do engineering, no boy from northern Karnataka will marry you'...everybody gave their own piece of advice."