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10 Gender Bias

Warm Up

● Do you have brothers and sisters?

● Do you all go to the same school?
● Does your brother or sister help at home? What are the chores he or she does?

● Does your mother go to work?

● Do you think your mother should work or only take care of the home? Why?

Reading skills

Sudha Murthy is an Indian author, philanthropist, and

former chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. She has
authored numerous books that inspire and educate readers.

Her stories deal with the lives of common people and social
issues.

She is renowned for her noble work of providing computers
and library facilities to all government schools of Karnataka.
As the chairperson of Infosys Foundation, she has successfully initiated various projects

related to poverty alleviation, education and health.

This essay is an extract from the collection of stories, “How I taught my grandmother to
read” by Sudha Murthy.

It was long time ago. I was a young girl, bright, bold and idealistic. I was in the final year of
my master’s course in computer science at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, then
known as the Tata Institute. Life was full of fun and joy. I did not know what helplessness or

injustice meant.

It was the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and gulmohars were blooming at the
IIS campus. I was the only girl in the post graduate department, and was staying in the
ladies’ hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments in science. I was

looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been
offered scholarship from universities in the United States. I had not thought of taking up a
job in India.

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