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Articles: My Thoughts | -By Sudha Murthy
- Ms. Pushpa Pushpakumari
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One day I had to show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman,
who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of
Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in.
That was the first time I saw 'appro JRD'. Appro means 'our' in
Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay
House called him. I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard
episode. SM introduced me nicely, 'Jeh (that's what his close
associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too
a postgraduate. She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop
floor.' JRD looked at me. I was praying he would not ask me any
questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it).
Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he remarked.'It is nice that girls
are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your
name?''When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir,' I replied.
'Now I am Sudha Murthy.' He smiled and kindly smile and started a
discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room.After
that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group Chairman and
I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I
was in awe of him.
One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after
office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not
know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard.
Looking back, I realise JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been
a small incident for him, but not so for me.
'Young lady, why are you here?' he asked. 'Office time is over.' I
said,
'Sir, I'm waiting for my husband to come and pick me up.'
JRD said, 'It is getting dark and there's no one in the corridor.
I'll wait with you till your husband comes.' I was quite used to
waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me
extremely uncomfortable.I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I
looked at him.
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