‘People thought there’s something wrong with my brain’: Sudha Murty recalls the time she enrolled for engineering degree

When Sudha Murty, educator, author, philanthropist, and now Rajya Sabha MP, made up her mind to pursue a degree in engineering, it was a thing unheard of for a woman. An amused Murty recalled that some even thought there was something wrong with her. At best, many tried to talk her out of it, because women with engineering degrees were unlikely to find a prospective husband. 

In the Sparx podcast with Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra and Cult, Sudha Murty said that when she applied for engineering at the young age of 17 and a half years, it was unheard of in her town. She said that women were “extremely good at cooking but not adventurous”. “They were very traditional people. People thought there’s something wrong with my brain. How can a girl do engineering – everybody had their own reasoning,” she recalled. 

Murty completed her BEng in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from BVB College of Engineering and Technology (now KLE Technological University) and her MEng in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Science.

“My grandmother said you should not do engineering because nobody will marry you in our community, in our area. My mother said you should become a mathematics professor so that you can manage your house as well as your career. Everybody had a different idea,” she said, adding that even her college wondered how a woman would complete a degree in engineering. 

In those days there was an idea that a girl would immediately fall in love with a boy, she said. “The kind of atmosphere suggested that a girl would go to college only to fall in love. Or a girl will go to a college ultimately to get a good boy,” said Murty. 

The author recalled that there were no toilets for women in her college. She said that they never imagined a woman to pursue and complete engineering and hence never thought of putting up toilets. “I was the only girl in my university in my class. They did not build toilets. I said it does not matter. I will not drink water from 7am-12pm. Then I would walk back home, use the restroom, have lunch and then would be in the lab from 2pm to 5pm.” 

Murty said that she stood first in the university. She said that this world belongs to someone who aspires to get what they want and she aspired to get exactly that. “I also understood something at a very young age – maybe 19 or 20 – which later became my mantra and I realised was a great philosophy – ‘You want to do anything in life? You are all alone, and you must do it all alone. If you want to do bad in life, you are responsible. You have bad habits, you are responsible. Good things? You are responsible.’  And later on in life I realised it is the essence of Bhagavad Gita. You are your best friend and your worst enemy,” she said. 

In her four years of pursuing the engineering degree, Murty said she did not take any leaves. “I never took one day off in four years because I didn’t want to ask for notes from anybody. Then I thought if I don’t put 100 per cent, nobody would put any per cent in me. I have to work very hard. So the great philosophy in life is that if I want something, I should work for it. I should not depend on anyone,” she told Bansal. 

Even though there were many naysayers initially, Murty said her father supported her unconditionally. “My father said come what may, I will support you as long as you are legally and ethically right,” said Murty. 

Sudha Murty eventually became the first female engineer to be hired at Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO). In a job posting, they had specifically discouraged women from applying, which pushed her to apply for the same. She would eventually found the Infosys Foundation in 1996. Sudha Murty is married to Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy.