Rajya Sabha MP and engineer-turned-philanthropist Sudha Murty has revealed in an interview that she has not bought a saree in 30 years. The reason: a trip to Kashi (Varanasi). Sudha Murty, wife of Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy, has often been in the news for her simplicity despite her immense wealth.
In an interview with The Voice of Fashion, Sudha Murty has shared: “It is said that when you go to Kashi, you should give up something you like very much. I used to love shopping, so my promise to the Ganga was that I would give up shopping for this lifetime.”
Ms Murty, 73, said in the interview that her commitment to this promise is deeply rooted in her upbringing as her parents and grandparents lived frugal lives with minimal possessions.
“When my mother passed away six years ago, it took us just half an hour to give away the things in her cupboard because she had just 8-10 sarees in it. When my grandma passed away 32 years ago, she had just four sarees. They travelled light on this earth, and since that has been part of my upbringing, I found it easier to adopt a simpler life with fewer possessions,” she said.
For over two decades, Ms Murty has been wearing sarees gifted to her by her sisters, close friends, and occasionally, the NGOs she works with. Among her most cherished possessions, she said, are two hand-embroidered sarees given to her by a group of women whose lives she helped transform through her work with the Infosys Foundation.
While her sisters initially gifted her a couple of sarees each year, Ms Murty eventually found the growing collection cumbersome to handle. “I told them enough of this gifting. I have too much already,” she said.
“I’ve been wearing sarees for fifty years now and I always make sure that I air them out after wearing, iron them, and keep them away. I don’t wear my sarees so low that they sweep the floor, so they don’t get dirty and have longer lives,” she added.
The Infosys Foundation chairman, in her maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha earlier this week, pitched for a government-sponsored vaccination program to combat cervical cancer. Ms Murty also called for the recognition of 57 domestic tourist sites as World Heritage Sites.
Ms Murty, author of several books, mostly for children, was nominated to Rajya Sabha on International Women’s Day this year.
