Title: The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk
Author: Sudha Murthy
Genre:
Anthologies, Non-Fiction
Publication:
Penguin Books
Source:
Kindle Edition
Pages: 223
Rating: 4/5
Extraordinary
stories about ordinary people’s lives
The work of
Sudha Murthy always fascinated me, the way he weaved characters while writing
fiction. Past days I got a chance to read her nonfiction anthology. Basically
It is a collection of her life-stories, she visited almost whole world, either
it is small village or the foreign countries. She grabbed few lessons from the person she
met, the place she visited and shared with us in a form of book.
Literally
first story “Bombay to Bangalore” of that book is amazingly surprising. Book is
all about How one’s life can changed with your little help.
It is the
book you should gift your kids. In fact it should be involved in school syllabus.
The lesson she was trying to bestow upon us, that is what today’s generation
needed. In this techie world where child lost the feeling of innocence,
compassion and love… each story of this book making us understand that no
matter how much we succeed we need to be loved at last.
As title
suggests Sudha Ji described an incident while she was travelling to a village
and somehow she stuck in the middle, there was a house where milk seemed a kind
of luxury. It is strange to know that
people still yearn for the basic things, needed for living.
“Understand
that life is a short journey. In that short journey, if you can show compassion
to others, show it now”
Like this
there are many stories she collected from all over the India, the story of
simple, mango people who contributed our society in their own way. That simply
shows that Intention matters. Like a milk-maid arranged a pond for her village
while British people ruling over India.
On the other
hand Author shared a story of a person who forgot the meaning of gratitude. One
story tells about the group “Helping The Dead” It was quite amazing to read
such people who often remain anonymous but helping the world, without any
expectations. Real humanity saviour!
The last
story reveals few life lessons, most basic still Important for living.
- Lessons-
- Children tell the truth and are the real judges of one’s talent.
- You cannot substitute many things in life with money.
- Money changes a person completely. Very few people can withstand the lure of money and they are difficult to find.
- If we keep collecting material things, it becomes a burden to the next generation. It is better that we reduce our cache while we are alive
- Be patient and to recognize people’s intentions.
- I must always stand up for myself and follow my heart, even if other people do not always agree with me or like it.
About Author
Other books by Sudha Murthy - Grandma's Bag Of Stories, The
Bird With Golden Wings : Stories Of Wit And Magic, Gently Falls the Bakula,
Dollar Bahu, and The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk: Life Stories from Here and
There.
Sudha Murthy was born in 1950 in Karnataka.
With a BE in Electrical Engineering and an ME in Computer Science, she was a
gold medalist at both the graduate and postgraduate levels. She was the first
woman engineer to be employed by TELCO. She married Narayana Murthy, who is one
of the founders if the IT company Infosys. Sudha Murthy was one of the initial
investors in the company. She is now the Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation.
She has been awarded the Padma Shri, and also been given honorary doctorate
degrees.
