This story about a stranger helping a young Sudha Murty is not true
A post about how a woman helped a young Sudha Murty, author and former chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, is being shared on social media with the claim that it is a true story.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 5 Aug 2022 8:00 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A post about how a woman helped a young Sudha Murty, author and former chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, is being shared on social media with the claim that it is a true story. It claims that the woman, Usha Bhattacharya, who was a college lecturer, helped the young runaway girl (Sudha Murty) and bought her a train ticket from Bombay to Bangalore, and then took her to an NGO so she could be cared for.
Click here to view the post.
Fact Check
The claim is false.
NewsMeter conducted a Google keyword search and found the same story on the popular blog The Speaking Tree which is a Times of India publication.
The story mentioned in the viral post is an excerpt from Sudha Murty's short story titled "Bombay to Bangalore." It is written entirely in the first person with third-person references to the young runaway girl.
The viral post says the runaway girl was named Chitra who later grew up to become Sudha Murty. But the story published on the blog does not mention this and it also has a slightly different ending.
Further, we found the same story on another blog. According to the post, "Sudha Murty, author and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, is renowned for her ability to collect fascinating anecdotes from ordinary people's lives and weave them into original fables and anecdotes." The article is a longer version of the story from the book "The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk."
We also found reviews of the short story on Goodreads. According to one of the comments, Sudha Murthy helped a girl on a train from Bombay to Bengaluru by paying for her ticket. The rest of the story, according to the comment, is about how Chitra grows up and does well in her life and never forgets Sudha Murthy.
In a video, Sudha Murty reminisces about her childhood. She thanks her parents and teachers for their support and describes her childhood in Karnataka. She also talks about her engineering education in Karnataka where she was the only female in her class. She does not mention her stint in Bombay or relocating to Delhi. This demonstrates that the story in the viral post is not autobiographical.
A short story by Sudha Murty is being shared as a real incident from her life.
