Summary of Sudha Murthy's “How I taught My Grandmother to Read”

Introduction

In "How I Taught My Grandmother to Read", Sudha Murthy recounts her experience of teaching her illiterate grandmother how to read. Sudha Murthy was a teacher in Computer Science. But she became teacher to her granddaughter at the age of twelve itself.

Setting

            Sudha Murthy’s grandparents lived in a village in North Karnataka. Due to the shortage of transport facility, newspaper, magazine and posts reach the people late.

Triveni’s Kashi Yatre

            Krishtakka is author’s grandmother. She is wise and dedicated in taking care of her family members.  She listened to the episodes of Triveni’s novel Kahi Yatre published as series in the weekly magazine ‘Karmaveera’ as her granddaughter read. It was the story of an old lady’s earnest desire to worship Lord Vishweshwara in Kashi. But finally, the old lady sacrificed all her savings for the marriage of a young, poor girl, who falls in love but there was no money for her wedding so she gave her all her savings. The grandmother never went to school but she could repeat the entire text. She even shared the stories to her friends.

Story of the grandmother

            Once Sudha went to her cousin’s wedding and returned after a week. She found her grandmother in tears. She had never seen the old lady cry even in the most difficult circumstances. She had never seen the old lady cry even in the most difficult circumstances. The grandmother said that she had lost her mother when she was just a young girl. Her father married again. There was nobody to look after and guide her. In those days nobody cared to give education to girls. So, she was married very young and had children. Later she took care of her grandchildren.

Grandmother’s yearning for reading

            Grandmother used to regret for not getting education. So, she made her children to study well. Then, in the absence of Sudha Murthy, grandmother regretted that she could not read Kashi Yatre. For the first time, she felt so much dependent and helpless despites having money. She wanted to be independent. She asked her granddaughter to teach her Kanada Alphabets. She was determined to learn it by Dusserha. At her age of sixty-two she learnt how to read, rewrite and recite.

            On the day of Saraswati Puja, grandmother gifted her granddaughter material for a frock and touched her teacher’s feet. The author also gifted her the novel Kashi Yatre. The first wonderful student of the author read it.