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over his business to his son. He is now
sixty-five years old and ten years back

he returned to his village.’

‘How does he spend his time?’

I could understand the old lady not
wanting to move out of her home
but I was unable to understand
how a busy successful person
like Aithappa could retire to this
godforsaken sleepy village.

‘When he became rich, my son
asked me, “Amma, I have earned so much wealth. I want to know what you want.
I remember you sold all your jewellery for my fees in college, you had only one meal so
that I could have two. Now I want to buy lots of jewellery for you”.

‘What did you answer?’
What would you
‘I told my son that in life, the real jewellery is education. The do for your parents
Let’s connect
school teacher for whom I worked when I was young used to tell when you grow up?
everything will perish over a period of time—flowers, beauty,
food. No person looks beautiful forever. But education brings
confidence to your face and that is the real beauty. I have crossed the age to wear jewellery.
If you respect my wishes, build as many free schools as possible in as many villages in
South Canara. My son understood my feelings. He himself shifted to this village and has,

till today, built ten such schools. He remains very busy managing these schools.’

Now I understood the reason behind the high literacy rate of
the area. Women like Kuttamma had not studied but they had godforsaken: lacking any
understood the importance of good education. They had insisted value or attraction
their children go to school. It is certainly true that if one man perish: rot or decay
studies, only one person is educated whereas if one lady studies, the

entire family is educated.
—Sudha Murty

About the Author
Sudha Murty (b 1950) is an MTech in Computer Science. A prolific writer in Kannada, she has written seven novels, four
technical books, three travelogues and two collections of short stories. Her previous English book Wise and Otherwise has been
translated into thirteen Indian languages. How I Taught My Grandmother to Read and Other Stories is her first book for children.

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