Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murthy is due to make an appearance on the popular Hindi quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati on Friday. Sony TV on its official social media handles released a snippet from the episode, and the video has now gone viral.
In the teaser, host Amitabh Bachchan asks Sudha Murthy about her decision to study engineering. “You were the first woman engineer in Hubli, and it is known that you had to face a lot of insult and opposition. Is this true?” he asks.
“In 1968, I decided to go for engineering,” Sudha says, in Hindi. “My grandmother said you cannot do this, then nobody will marry into our community. A lot of people had opinions to give, but I decided I will go. There were 599 boys, I was the only girl,” she tells a surprised Amitabh Bachchan.
She goes on to say that the principal of the college told her that she will get the admission because she had secured the marks. However, he had three conditions, she says. “One, that you should wear only sarees. Second, you cannot go to the canteen, and third, you cannot talk to boys.”
"I agreed to the first condition, I said, okay I will wear sarees,” she says. “Second, the canteen was so bad, I wouldn't have gone anyway," eliciting laughter from Amitabh as well as the audience.
“About the third condition of not talking to boys in college, for one year, I did not talk to them. Then when I secured first rank, in the second year, they only came to me to talk,” she says, to laughter and a round of applause.
In her book, Three thousand stitches, Sudha has written extensively about her time at B.V.B. College of Engineering and Technology in Hubbali district of Karnataka. She wrote,"The principal at the time was B.C. Khanapure, who happened to know my father. They both met at a barber shop one day and the principal expressed his genuine anguish at what he perceived to be an awkward situation. He told my father, ‘Doctor Sahib, I know that your daughter is very intelligent and that she has been given admission only because of merit, but I’m afraid we have some problems. She will be the only girl in college. It is going to be difficult for her. First, we don’t have a ladies’ toilet on campus. We don’t have a ladies’ room for her to relax either. Second, our boys are young with raging hormones and I am sure that they will trouble her. They may not do anything in front of the staff but they will definitely do something later. They may not cooperate with her or help her because they are not used to talking to girls. As a father of four daughters, I am concerned about yours too. Can you tell her to change her mind for her own sake?’ When her father insisted, the principal agreed and put forward the conditions.
On the KBC show, Sudha narrates that during her engineering course, the most difficult thing for her was that there was no toilet. “That is when I realised the importance of toilets,” she says, adding that as part of Infosys Foundation, they have built over 16,000 toilets. She also speaks about her journey as the Chairman of the foundation, about her work with the devadasi community and in the education sector. Watch the teaser below:
She fought against all social stereotypes. Meet our #KBCKaramveer #SudhaMurthy this Friday at 9 PM and know how she reformed thousands of underprivileged lives. @SrBachchan pic.twitter.com/NtvJEQ1yM3
— Sony TV (@SonyTV) November 25, 2019
The episode, titled ‘Karamveer Special’ will air on Friday at 9 pm on Sony TV.