Conferred with Padma Bhushan, she is one of India's richest women, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love a good discount like all of us! Here are 3 special life lessons straight from the wisdom bank of the author-philanthropist Sudha Murty…Brut chatted with her before her interaction at the Jaipur Literature Festival .
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00:00Yes, I may have a lot of money, but that money I can use it for something else also, no?
00:04It is not that just because you have money you can't ask discount, no.
00:08I used to wash the vessels at home.
00:10I will never buy anything.
00:12Since 25 years I stopped buying sarees, 27 years back, actually.
00:20Everywhere I ask discount.
00:21What's wrong in that?
00:22I have a small purse where I have two telephones, mask and bindi and a kerchief.
00:28That's all I carry.
00:30I have no money in that.
00:31Okay, when I go to a bookshop, I buy books and I tell them, send me the, you know I ask,
00:35I'm an author, give me author's discount, send me the bill to my office and tomorrow
00:40I'll pay.
00:41It's my right.
00:42Everywhere I ask discount.
00:43What's wrong in that?
00:44Except I don't ask discount when I do, I do that once in a while.
00:49When I go to villages on my work, etc., I say to the vendors, vegetable vendors, and
00:55I talk to them, how is the weather, what are the rates, how much they get, how many money
00:59they have, have they been following family planning after two children, have they been
01:04operated, have they taken vaccination, the children have vaccination, what kind of water
01:09they drink, all those things I talk, then I buy vegetables and diet.
01:12Whatever rate they say, suppose they say, oh it costs 80 rupees some three or four bygones
01:17or something, huge bygones, I'll give 100 rupees.
01:20I will never take change.
01:23I never ever bargain with street vendors, flower vendors, or vegetable vendors, never
01:30ever.
01:31In that, we give 20 rupees more.
01:33But when I go to a bookstore, I'm an author and every author has the privilege of author's
01:40discount.
01:41And it's a good discount, so I ask for it.
01:44As an author, it is my privilege.
01:47The same money, I'll buy some more books.
01:51Asking a discount is not a shame.
01:54What is your upgraded lifestyle?
01:56Actually, I've upgraded my lifestyle a lot.
01:59I have lots of books, look at the back, look at my shelf.
02:02I've upgraded.
02:03Initially, I was not able to afford to buy books.
02:07Now today, I can buy any book, any number of copies.
02:10That I see upgraded, upgrading life.
02:13Today, I've upgraded my life.
02:15I can travel any part of India and the world to learn more at any moment of time.
02:20I want to go and see an excavation.
02:23If I want to hire an excellent guide, I can hire.
02:27I've upgraded my life.
02:29But what is your upgrade and what is my upgrade?
02:31Both are different.
02:33For me, upgrading is what I like, I want to upgrade.
02:36And my liking is for the search of knowledge.
02:39And I've upgraded a lot.
02:41I have fantastic friends in each field with whom I can talk.
02:47I'm not very fond of politics.
02:50Economics, history, archaeology.
02:52So many people, I have upgraded my life.
02:56But most people upgrade me by wearing a better saree.
03:00It was never my fascination.
03:02Since 25 years, I stopped buying sarees.
03:0527 years back, actually.
03:071995 or 1996, I stopped buying sarees.
03:11So what sarees I have since 40-50 years, they are still with me.
03:15I take care of them.
03:16Older sarees.
03:17And then my sister and all, they wear sarees.
03:19They use the sarees, they give it to me.
03:21In a moderate, middle class way.
03:24My grandfather was a high school teacher.
03:26History teacher.
03:28My mother was a school teacher.
03:30My father was a college professor and a doctor.
03:34So, we always grew up with books, not with money.
03:38We didn't have extraordinary money.
03:40We had enough money to survive.
03:45Books were much more important to us than anything else.
03:47It was a simple childhood with no complications.
03:51Every small thing was a joy.
03:53A good rain was a joy.
03:55Any guest coming home was a joy.
03:57Any festival was a joy.
03:59Everything was a joy.
04:01Because our expectations were low in life.
04:04And our parents' expectations were not high at all.
04:07Saying that, oh, my child should get into IIT.
04:09Get a first rank.
04:11Go abroad and make a lot of money.
04:14And none of us, we also had.
04:16And because of less expectations,
04:18less tensions,
04:20we could do very well academically.
04:22My children were not brought up in a rural area.
04:24They were in Bangalore.
04:26Their friends were different.
04:28Their schooling was different.
04:30And they never grew up with lots of cousins like that
04:32because everybody had a smaller family
04:34and they were drifted away.
04:36Though I will tell children that one should be simple,
04:38the press will write every day about our money.
04:40Rohan has so much money, Akshata has so much money.
04:42And it was the hardest part of my life
04:44was to bring up children
04:46in a very moderate way
04:48with wealth around.
04:50So the best thing I thought was
04:52I will continue to live
04:54in a moderate middle class way
04:56and take children to my work,
04:58my social work,
05:00so that
05:02they should see
05:04how other people live.
05:06And I used to tell my grandchildren,
05:08look at them.
05:11As smart as you are,
05:13they are born
05:15on the other side of the line
05:17and it may be hard
05:19for them to study well.
05:21So it's your duty
05:23to help them.
05:25So I think
05:27I succeeded by and large
05:29to bring up children
05:31to give them that kind of values
05:33and I lived like that
05:35because children do not require
05:37anyone else as a role model.
05:39Their parents are their role model.
05:41I used to wash the vessels at home.
05:43I will never buy anything
05:45and I said I will not buy a TV
05:47until you finish your health class.
05:49I said fair enough.
05:51I will also not see.
05:53So I made the way
05:55as simple as possible
05:57to live so that children
05:59should pick those things.