The INFOSYS Couple

Narayanan Murthy on his wife Sudha

My wife is a happy person with the ability to see the positive in a situation. Her cheerful disposition helps her make friends easily. She is one of the finest managers have seen, meticulous about completing every task on time with quality and within budget.

Sudha was the only female student in her Engineering class at Hubli, a conservative town in North Karnataka. She was a first ranker in all ten semesters in her Engineering degree, winning gold medals in every examination. Besides being a fine engineer, she is a great writer too.

She has sacrificed so much for me and the children giving up her job as manager in Bombay in 1981 to move to Pune. Without that sacrifice, I am not sure if I would have been able to found Infosys along with my six colleagues.

Her positive way of looking at things, being happy in every situation and her ability to relate to the poor are the things that I admire most her. When you meet an interesting person like her it is very easy to fall in love. That is what happened to me.

Sudha has always been there for Infosys in the time of success, failure or a crisis. Currently, she is one of the trustees of the Infosys Foundation putting in at least six hours a day of work and often several days of outstation travel to poor areas of India.

Unlike Sudha who has been a great partner and supporter to me, I have been unable to assist her in any way in her activities. Her achievements are purely her own. Being the better of the two of us, she probably will not even need any support. She is a wonderful partner, always willing to encourage and support me. Her children think she is a great friend and an understanding mother. She is a fun woman to be with.

When I returned from France in the mid-'70s, convinced that the only way you can remove poverty is by creating more and more wealth legally and ethically, I discussed with her how I wanted to conduct an experiment in creating wealth. By nature she is the more sacrificing of the two. Thus, my desire to conduct this experiment and her active encouragement were why I let her sacrifice so much for me.

She is a great influence on me in being a better manager and a better human being. She is modern yet retains the Indian values. She combines the best of right and left lobes. She has shown how you can relate to the rich and the poor. She is an invaluable partner to me.

Narayan Murty

(CEO - INFOSYS, Bangalore)

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