Infosys cofounder Narayana Murthy once slept on box in storeroom, reveals book | Details here
Narayana Murthy sleep on a large box in a windowless storeroom surrounded by cartons during a visit to the United States for work in the initial days. However, the client's own home had four bedrooms, the book “An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy" published by Juggernaut Books revealed. Indian-American author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has come out with a biography covering the early days of Sudha Murty's and Narayana Murthy's lives that is replete with many such nuggets about the iconic couple.
It is a story of Murthys' early years from their courtship to Infosys' founding years, and from their marriage to parenthood, PTI reported. The US client has been identified as Donn Liles, who headed the New York-based company Data Basics Corporation. He was a temperamental client and was especially unpleasant to Murthy at times.
“He would often delay payments when he could, and Murthy would then be the target of his ire because he would hold his ground, refusing to budge on timely payment for services. Or Donn would not provide timely authorization for Murthy and his Infosys colleagues to book hotels when they had to visit him in Manhattan," the book read. "Once when Murthy visited the US for client work, Donn made him sleep on a large box in the storeroom, surrounded by cartons, though his home had four bedrooms.
Additionally, Murthy had to manage Donn's many last-minute demands for resources," it says. He put up with Donn's behavior for the sake of his fledgling company, but the box incident truly shocked Murthy. "My mother used to say that a guest was like God, and the way you treated your guests revealed what kind of person you really were," he told his wife Sudha.
Read more on livemint.com
