The old man was brought to Sudha Murthy's office by a middle-aged man who claimed the old man had no family and needed shelter. Sudha Murthy arranged for the old man to stay at an old age home. When the old man fell sick, Sudha Murthy visited him in the hospital and was later contacted by the man who said he was the old man's son. It was revealed that the middle-aged man and old man were actually father and son, and they had lied about being destitute in order to get the father into an old age home without spending their own money. Upon the old man's death, Sudha Murthy discovered the old man had left his savings to his

1. Wise and Otherwise :
Story 7:
In India, the Worst of Both Worlds
Gokhale Education Society’s
S.M.R.K. B.K. A.K. Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Nasik-5.
Ms. Geetanjali Gitay
Assistant Professor
Dept. of English
CC English (LL)
S.Y.B.Com. Sem III
Unit 4

2. Story 7. In India, the Worst of Both Worlds

3. • Sudha Murthy
• An Old Man
• A Middle Aged Person
Summary
• It is Monday, the first working day of the week and an extremely busy day in the offices. All
mails and papers have to be processed and meetings held. Long list of appointments
inevitably fill up the diaries. In between appointments, unexpected callers invariably turn up.
Secretaries sweat it out on Monday mornings.
•Sudha Murthy recalls one such Monday. She had been busy in checking and replying to her mail
when her secretary tells her that there were two visitors who had come to visit her without an
appointment. Her secretary tells her than one of them is a very old man who looks very pale and
the other is a middle- aged person. They had something urgent to share.
• They come to meet Sudha Murthy. The old man seemed more than seventy years old. He was
looking weak, tired and worried. He carried a worn out bag and was in a pitiable condition.
The middle- aged man looked somewhat worried.
Characters

4. • The old man says nothing. The middle aged man tells that he saw that old man near a bus stop. It
seems he does not have anybody and needs shelter.
• Sudha Murthy asked what he wanted her to do.
• He said that he wanted Sudha Murthy to help the old man. She asks the old man whether he has
somebody. He says , he doesn’t have anybody or any family.
• Sudha Murthy makes arrangements for that old man in an old age home. The middle aged man
leaves him there. Sudha Murthy soon gets lost in the world of her work.
• One day she gets a call that the old man is very sick and that he had been admitted in a hospital.
Sudha Murthy goes to see the old man at the hospital that evening. He was really unwell. He
gives a number. Sudha Murthy calls on that number and a man comes to visit. She thinks she had
seen that man somewhere.
• The old man dies. The visitor asks for that old man’s bag. Sudha Murthy makes him identify
himself before opening the bag. He tells her that he is that old man’s son. He is the one who had
brought him to Sudha Murthy’s office.
Summary (cntd)

5. • Sudha Murthy asked him why had he lied. He told her that there were problems at his home and
his wife never liked his father, the old man. And then they came to know about Sudha Murthy’s
foundation and they thought that their problem could be solved without money. The house in
which he lived was owned by his wife.
• When the bag was opens they found some sets of old clothes, some medicines and a passbook.
The old man had a balance of about a lakh of rupees for which the nominee was his son.
Sudha Murthy was disturbed to get to know this. The son who was heartless enough to pass
his father as a destitute first and now had come to claim his father’s money.
• Though the son had not wanted to look after him and had made him lie to her, the old man
had left his money to the son. He never thought of giving that money to the old age home.
•Sudha Murthy tells that in Western countries, old people give away there money to the old age
homes. They do not bequeath their money to the children. But in India, we have the worst of
both worlds, children neglect their aged parents, and parents routinely leave their property to
their children. Sudha Murthy tells him that it had been very shameful of them to have cooked
up that drama to save a few thousand rupees.They were setting a bad example. Because of people
like them , it would be hard for her to believe and offer help to genuinely destitute people in futur
Summary (cntd)

6. Text Content Source :
1 .Wise and Otherwise, Murthy Sudha, Penguine India, New Delhi, Reprint(2006).