How I taught my grandmother to read and other stories

Drafted on 9th Jan 2009

Sudha Murty shares her real life experiences as a teacher, a social worker, a mother and a wife. The book is a collection of short stories she records. When her grandmother requests her to teach how to read since she was very much fascinated by a weekly column in a magazine.

The author also writes the various incidents when people donate, they give away all their stuff which are not in a usable condition or unwanted.
Whenever you want to give something to somebody, give the best in you, never the second best. That is the best I have learned in life. God is not there in temple, mosque or church. He is with the people. If you serve them with whatever you have, you have served God.

Donate with kind words,
Donate with happiness,
Donate only to the needy,
Donate without expectation because it is not a gift. It is duty.
Donate with your wife's consent.
Donate to the other people without making your dependents helpless.
Donate without caring for caste, creed and religion.
Donate so that the receiver prospers.

What we preach, we should practice.
She also shares few of her personal incidents as how she reacted when her husband decides to start a company of his own and the money she saved was useful. The letter written to Tatas that their company did not want to employ women in a technical field.

Each incident is a valuable lesson. The book has been written in a simple, free flow language and with utmost honesty. :)

My Rating: 3.5/5

© Manasa. All rights reserved.




13 comments

  1. thanks for the review of this book. I was planning to buy it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. you are tagged :-)
    btw, are you going to Hampi for the festival?

    ReplyDelete
  3. oh i love sudha murthy's writing style any day.. she is a phenomenal writer!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love her books..what you have quoted here are gems.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh God, no more Sudha Murthy for me puhleeze... I have grown sick of her infinite writings on how she started Infosys along with Murthy...

    ReplyDelete
  6. sounds like a special book. will have to check it out. love the quote here - very thought provoking as just today I was going through old clothes deciding what to give away.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi,
    my name is uzma & iam an studying in grade 9, sharjah , uae ... i have this lesson in my english text book .. but because of some reason the school is not able o provide the text books .. n so i dnt have any notes regarding tis lesson ... i will appreciate it if u would please help me by giving me some questions as well as answers related to the chapter "How i taught my grandmother to read " /... n please make it fast as i have to learn it as well !!.. thank-you for ur cooperation ..

    ReplyDelete
  8. i wanted pic on / of this bk i have gt only 1 plzzz add some pics

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi,
    My name is Preetam and I read in class 9. I have read this story. Some parts of the story are full with emotion and remaining are funny. This story is very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  10. @Shachi
    I agree with you. she should not mention the word infosys in her future books.

    ReplyDelete

Comments will appear after approval.