Devdasis first greeted me with hostility, says Sudha Murthy

Chairperson of Infosys Sudha Murthy today said that when she first approached a group of devdasis in Karnataka around 20 years back with a view to transform their lives, she had faced resistance from them.
Murthy, known for her work among the devdasis of Karnataka, shared her experiences while delivering the inaugural lecture of D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas organised by Goa government here today.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar inaugurated the festival.
Murthy, who regaled the audience with her interesting anecdotes, said, "I was a girl with bobbed hair wearing jeans, who went to devadasis to educate them about AIDS. But, I was greeted with chappals (slippers). I went there again, but this time, they threw tomatoes on me," Murthy said.

Murthy went there again, wearing a saree and accompanied by her father, who was a doctor, and offered scholarships to children of devdasis.
Since then, the 65-year-old social worker has been working to eradicate the practice of devdasis. Two years back, around 3,000 of such women took to various business after procuring loan from a bank set up for devdasis.

"I went to attend that function. I was choked to tears. I could not utter even a couple of words," she said.
Murthy, known for her insightful books, including "Wise and Otherwise", remembered her initial days of struggle after her marriage, when Infosys was a new entity.

"I left my fifty-day old child for five years with my mother so that I can work. I am a daughter of middle class doctor, who is now a rich man's wife," she said.
Murthy's foundation is a force behind constructing 13,000 toilets.
She recalled how being the only woman student in her engineering college at Hubli in Karnataka, she had to walk home to use the rest room.
"I understood how it is without a toilet. With Infosys Foundation we constructed 13,000 toilets," she said.