Sudha Murthy is a social worker
and a writer. I read her book, ‘The day I stopped drinking milk’. This book is
about her life experiences. There is a proverb, ‘A wise man learns from the
mistakes of others, the fool has to learn from his own’.
What I learned from this book is that
the world has become a place of personal gain and selfishness. Sudha Murthy recounts
two of her experiences in which she helped two youngsters complete their
education by providing monetary aid. After these two people completed their
education and became successful they do not acknowledge her help. When
they meet her after a few years by chance, they pretend not to recognize her.
After I read these two stories,
it really made me question philanthropy. Sometimes we help others thinking they
are in need but if they are not, then they end up thinking, ‘Well he/she is too
rich that is why that person helped us. He/she has nothing to lose’. There is
no gratitude from the beneficiary and such kind of ungrateful attitude hurts
the philanthropist. In the end, every human being craves for recognition and
appreciation.
I also liked her story in which
she questions the overseer of a temple, as to why she cannot perform shradha
for her father. The overseer does not have any explanation for that question
but simply tells that this ritual was performed by males since generations so
it has to be done that way. In this regard she tells a story about how we
foolishly follow our traditions without knowing the reason behind the traditions.
A person did puja everyday in the
morning. He owned a cat. The cat used to disturb him at his puja time so he
tells his son to tie the cat and feed it milk at his puja time, so that it will
not disturb him. Every time the man did the puja, his son used to tie the cat
and pour milk in the cat’s bowl. After a few years, the father dies and the son
continues the puja along with the cat ritual. One day the cat dies. The next day the
son gets a new cat, ties it up, pours milk to it and only then does the puja. He never knew the reason behind tying up the cat while performing the puja.
Eventually Sudha Murthy succeeds in performing the shradha with the help of a priest and a few other women follow her example and perform shradha for their beloved.
In this book, Sudha Murthy writes
her experiences in the form of short stories, in no particular order. The book
is written in a very simple language with no frills. Few of the stories were
interesting but most of them were written in a report format. It would
have been more captivating if there were a little bit more showing &
telling. She fails to paint a picture of
her memories to the reader and we are not part of her world. There is also very
less dialogue, reading through most of the stories was more like reading a text
book. I feel that she is much better at writing magical stories for children rather than her life experiences.
