Sudha Murthy Was The Only Female Student In A Batch of 599 Men In Engineering In Her Time. We Love Everything This Woman Stands For!

Sudha Murthy Was The Only Female Student In A Batch of 599 Men In Engineering In Her Time. We Love Everything This Woman Stands For!

As kids, whenever we would be asked who our idols were, the people we actively looked up to and wanted to be when we grew up, I would always end up taking names of characters like that of the superwoman or wonder woman, not knowing that growing up, I would actually meet several women who’d be fabulous in their own sense, without a cape and all. One such woman who has become an inspiration for many because she has not just played but won against all odds. We are talking about Sudha Murthy – the well-known author, Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, a philanthropist and an engineering teacher who recently made an appearance at the show Kaun Banega Crorepati season 11 and won our respect with her story.

Also Read : Babita Tade, The First Woman To Become A Crorepati On This Season’s KBC, Credits Supportive Parents And Husband For Her Win

Gracing the show for the ‘Karamveer Special’ episode and finale of the 11th season of KBC, Sudha Murthy was undoubtedly a delight and an inspiration for everyone watching. Opening up about a lot of things in her life, starting from her own struggles during the start of her career and studies, Sudha shared facts about just how apparent and deep-rooted the prejudice against women had been, when it came to them wanting to study further in her times.

The only woman among 599 students in her engineering college, Sudha talked about how taking that only female seat in the college did not come easy to her. She spoke about how she had always wanted to pursue engineering, but her family wouldn’t approve of it, by saying how if she becomes an engineer, no one would marry her. Because during that time, for a woman to hold a qualification higher than an average man wasn’t considered exemplary but insulting and not a wife-like quality to possess.

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Sudha continued by sharing how she did not feel deterred by any of those consequences and went on to slam the stereotypes to become the only woman in a batch of 599 male students. There, she said she was put on a strict list of rules by her principal that required her to not talk to any boy, wear a saree everyday and even avoid using the college canteen. Today if someone were to ask us to even abide by any one of these rules, our woke feminist self would probably chew and spit them out, but back then things were different and Sudha handled it as tastefully as she could.

She said how she did not mind wearing a saree and knowing that the canteen food wasn’t all that great, keeping up with the rules it didn’t feel like she was missing out on a lot. She also shared how she never spoke to boys but when she topped her class, it was them who came and talked to her. And that is the kind of happy endings that honestly we look up to now.

But none of this came easy to her, especially when the state of affairs for women was worse than it is now. And that’s saying something because it is pretty abysmal now. She opened up about how in her course, there was no toilet for women and no matter how sexist it was, she had to make do with it then. But upon becoming the chairman of the Infosys Foundation, providing clean and basic sanitation to women by constructing 16,000 toilets for women was the first thing she did. Now if that is not using power, knowledge and opportunity in the correct way, we don’t know what is.

Sudha did not just smash the patriarchal systems that govern women and their lives, but also took a stand so strong, that she let her caliber and determination speak for herself and how. No wonder the woman today stands as one of the most accomplished people and with her story, inspires many more women around who need that push to break the stereotypes and go after what they want.

Also Read : Sonakshi Sinha Got Trolled For Not Knowing An Answer On KBC But She Was Such A Sport About It

Sadhika Sehgal

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