Akshata Murty: chancellor’s wife and richer than the Queen
Just months after Akshata Murty was born in April 1980, she was sent to live with her paternal grandparents after her parents moved hundreds of miles away to Mumbai for work.
“Your mother and I were young then and struggling to find our feet in our careers,” her father wrote in a letter to Akshata, which was published in Legacy; Letters from eminent parents to their daughter. “Two months after your birth in Hubli [a city near Goa], we brought you to Mumbai, but discovered quickly enough that it was a difficult task to nurture a child and manage careers side by side. So, we decided that you would spend the initial years of your life with your grandparents in Hubli.”
Her father, NR Narayana Murthy, a young computer programmer who would go on to launch IT services company Infosys and become a billionaire, said leaving Akshata behind was one of the hardest decisions he had had to make. “Every weekend, I would take the plane to Belgaum [a nearby airport] and then hire a car to Hubli. It was very expensive, but I couldn’t do without seeing you.”
Her mother, Sudha Murty, a computer scientist and engineer, was the first female engineer to work for India’s then largest carmaker, part of the Tata conglomerate, and is now a philanthropist working to improve public healthcare.
When Akshata did join her parents, and later her brother, Rohan, in Mumbai, life might not have been as relaxed as it was with her grandparents in Hubli. Sudha “decided early on that there would be no TV in our home so that there would be time for things like studying, reading, discussions, and meeting friends”, according to the book.
Every evening, 8pm to 10pm was dedicated to “pursuits that brought the family together in a productive environment”. For Akshata
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