Sudha Murty
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40 free Sudha Murty trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Sudha Murty, whose surname is often spelled Murthy, has lived several lives in one. She trained as an engineer when almost no girls in India did, helped launch one of the country's best-known technology companies, ran its charitable foundation for a quarter of a century, and wrote dozens of bestselling books along the way. This quiz collects the fun facts people search for: the protest that won her a job, the promise she made on a pilgrimage, her record as a cinema fanatic, her novels and children's tales, her awards and her seat in Parliament. Each answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn the anecdote behind the fact. It suits readers who grew up on her books, students preparing a school project or assembly quiz, and anyone curious about the person behind the headlines. Questions run from easy to tricky.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How did Sudha Murty send JRD Tata her complaint about a TELCO job advert that barred women?
On a postcard
On a postcard, addressed to the chairman himself, she protested the men-only notice; she was called for an interview and became the company's first woman engineer.
Q 02Which British prime minister is the son-in-law of author Sudha Murty?
Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak married Akshata Murty in 2009, five years after the two met at Stanford University.
Q 03After a 1990s pilgrimage to Varanasi, what did Sudha Murty vow never to buy for herself again?
New saris
New saris were the pleasure she gave up at the Ganges, where pilgrims are told to renounce something they love; she has since worn only gifted ones.
Q 04What did Sudha Murty famously do with the 10,000 rupees she had set aside for emergencies?
Funded her husband's firm
Funded her husband's firm: the 10,000 rupees became the founding capital of Infosys in 1981, and she kept back just 250 for herself.
Q 05Which address on Sudha Murty's arrival form did a UK immigration officer refuse to believe?
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street was the truth: she was visiting Akshata at the prime minister's official residence, a story she later told on television.
Q 06As the only girl at her engineering college, which campus spot was Sudha Murty told to avoid?
The canteen
The canteen was off limits under one of three conditions the college set; another was that she must not chat with the boys in her class.
Q 07Why is Sudha Murty's surname spelled one letter differently from her husband Narayana Murthy's?
She says his is wrong
She says his is wrong: to her, Murty without the h is the correct spelling, and she made sure their two children use it too.
Q 08What year-long dare from friends did Sudha Murty complete as a young engineer at TELCO?
Watch a film every day
Watch a film every day she did, 365 in 365 days, until every cinema gateman knew her and her friends conceded that nobody could beat her.
Q 09Which facility, missing from her all-male college, did Sudha Murty later build by the thousand?
Toilets
Toilets for women did not exist on her campus, so she trained herself to get through the day; her foundation later built more than 14,000 in rural areas.
Q 10What part did Sudha Murty play in her cameos in the films Prarthane and Uppu Huli Khara?
A judge
A judge, both times: in Uppu Huli Khara she had about two minutes on screen, and afterwards said acting is far harder than watching films.
Q 11Sudha Murty was born in 1950 in the small town of Shiggaon, in which southern Indian state?
Karnataka
Karnataka now includes Shiggaon, though the town lay in Bombay State when she was born; Kannada, her family's language, is the language of many of her books.
Q 12Sudha Murty's foundation work has set up more than 60,000 of which facility across her home state?
Libraries
Libraries were set up through the Infosys Foundation, which backed a drive to give every government school in her home state books and computers.
Q 13Who narrates Sudha Murty's children's series The Gopi Diaries, which opens with Coming Home?
The family dog
Q 21In which city did Sudha Murty join TELCO as an engineer before postings in Mumbai and Jamshedpur?
Pune
Pune is where she was working when she married Narayana Murthy, whose new company Infosys also started out in the city.
Q 22Where did Sudha Murty earn her master's in computer science, as the only woman on the course?
IISc Bangalore
IISc Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Science, is where a job advert on the notice board provoked her famous protest to the head of the Tata group.
Q 23In Sudha Murty's novel Mahashweta, which skin condition leads Anupama's in-laws to cast her out?
Leukoderma
Leukoderma, which leaves white patches on the skin, appears while her husband is abroad; Anupama rebuilds her life in Bombay and later refuses to take him back.
The family dog tells it himself: the books follow Gopi from the day he arrives at his new home and show his human family through his eyes.
Q 14On which symbolic day in 2024 did India's President nominate Sudha Murty to Parliament?
Women's Day
Women's Day, 8 March, was the date; the prime minister announced it publicly and called her seat a testament to the strength of India's women.
Q 15Whose late-night challenge about helping the poor led Sudha Murty to start the Infosys Foundation?
Her teenage daughter
Her teenage daughter Akshata, then 16, woke her to say that if a well-read, well-travelled person like her would not help the poor, nobody would.
Q 16How did Sudha Murty's grandmother thank her, aged 12, for teaching the older woman to read?
Touched her feet
Touched her feet, a gesture elders never make to children; her grandmother said she was honouring a teacher, not a granddaughter.
Q 17Which house of India's Parliament did Sudha Murty join in 2024 as a nominee of the President?
Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha, the upper house, keeps twelve seats for people the President picks for their contributions to art, literature, science and social service.
Q 18Which Sudha Murty novel was adapted into a Zee TV serial in 2001?
Dollar Bahu
Dollar Bahu contrasts a daughter-in-law in the United States with one at home; filming of the serial's American scenes began just as the September 11 attacks happened.
Q 19Sudha Murty's Three Thousand Stitches takes its main story from her work with which group of women?
Devadasis
Devadasis, women dedicated to temples and pushed into sex work, are the group she set out to help earn their own living and shed the stigma attached to them.
Q 20Which civilian honour did the Government of India give Sudha Murty in 2023 for her social work?
Padma Bhushan
Padma Bhushan is India's third-highest civilian award; she had received the Padma Shri, one rung below, in 2006.
Q 24In her first speech in Parliament, Sudha Murty urged a vaccination drive against which disease?
Cervical cancer
Cervical cancer vaccination was one request in that speech; another was World Heritage recognition for 57 Indian tourist sites.
Q 25What was the profession of Sudha Murty's father, who backed her wish to study engineering?
Doctor
Doctor Kulkarni admitted he knew little about engineering and would have preferred medicine for her, but said the decision was hers and he would support it.
Q 26While raising two children, Sudha Murty spent years working in which profession before turning to philanthropy?
College professor
College professor was her day job before philanthropy took over: she taught for years, including at Christ University.
Q 27In The Magic of the Lost Temple, what does Sudha Murty's city girl Nooni find deep in a forest?
A stepwell
A stepwell, long thought to be only a legend, turns up in the middle of the forest while Nooni is visiting her family's village.
Q 28Sudha Murty's The Serpent's Revenge retells little-known tales for children from which ancient work?
The Mahabharata
The Mahabharata supplies the tales, drawn from before, during and after the Kurukshetra war, that most retellings leave out.
Q 29In which town, the setting of her first novel Gently Falls the Bakula, did Sudha Murty grow up?
Hubli
Hubli is where she and her three siblings went to local schools, and where she became the first girl at the town's engineering college.
Q 30Which subject did Sudha Murty's grandfather, her first teacher, urge on her instead of engineering?
History
History was his own subject, and he told her she could become a great scholar; her mother argued for mathematics and her father for medicine.