Sudha Murthy is a prolific Kannada writer who has also written books in English. This story recalls how as a child, she taught her 62-year-old grandmother to read Kannada. Her grandmother was illiterate but determined to learn so she could read her favorite story serial independently. The granddaughter diligently taught her grandmother, who worked very hard as a dedicated student. By the deadline of Dussera, her grandmother could read a novel on her own. She gifted and thanked her granddaughter, now seeing her as a teacher rather than a family member. The granddaughter was proud of helping her grandmother gain literacy and independence.

2. Sudha Murthy was born in 1950 in shiggaon in North
Karnataka. A prolific writer in Kannada , she has
written seven novels , four technical books , three
travelogues and two collections of short stories. Her
previous English books “Wise and Otherwise” has
been translated into thirteen Indian languages . Her
stories deal with common lives and human values
such as charity , kindness and self - realization. As a
sensitive writer , she writes about the suffering of the
people. The main characters in all her books are highly
educated , non-compromising , highly principled
women.

3. How I Taught My Grandmother to Read is a
fictional narrative or a short story written by
famous Indian prolific fiction author Sudha Murthy.
This story was published in the book How I Taught
My Grandmother to Read and Other Stories in the year
2004 by Penguin Books India. Later on this story was
included in the Class 9 English Communicative
CBSE Syllabus. This story narrates the incident
where the author recalls that how she had taught her
illiterate grandmother to read.

4. The grandmother in the story was sixty-two years old when
the narrator taught her the Kannada alphabet. She was
illiterate and got married at an early age , and , then bore
children. However , as and when she regretted not being
sent to school , she made sure that her children and
grandchildren studied well. She had never visited to Kashi
and thus , was very interested in knowing about the story of
the novel Kashi Yatre which was published in segments in
the Karamveera , the weekly magazine. She was a strong-
willed and determined lady who worked very hard and
practiced very sincerely in order to learn Kannada.

5. practiced very sincerely in order to learn Kannada.
Within a promised time span , she could read and write
very well. She touched the of her teacher , her
granddaughter , as a mark of respect and gifted her a
gift of frock material. This shows that she knew her
scriptures well which says that a teacher should be
respected , irrespective of the gender and age. This
shows that she was humble, grateful and cultured.

6. The granddaughter was caring , innocent
and a responsible child. It was her caring
attitude that made her read out her
illiterate grandmother next episode of her favorite serial every
week diligently. Her innocence gets highlighted when she first
makes fun of her grandmother ‘s resolution of getting literate
at the age of eighty two years. She was a very good and
dedicated teacher who fulfilled a task of teaching her
grandmother the Kannada alphabet at such an old age .She is
responsible and she takes her grandmother’s decision as a
challenge and works hard along with her to teach her the
Kannada language. She was humble enough to accept her
grandmother gift .

7. The story begins as the author recalls her childhood days. She
used to stay in a village in North Karnataka with her
grandparents. The village was a remote place, so the morning
paper was got in the afternoon and the weekly magazine
came one day late.
At that time, Triveni was a very popular writer in the
Kannada language and all the village people would wait
eagerly for the weekly magazine Karmaveera, where one of
her novels Kashi Yatre was appearing as a serial. It was the
story of an old lady and her ardent desire to go to Kashi or
Varanasi, where she wished to worship Lord Vishweshwara
to attain the ultimate punya. But finally, the old lady sacrifices

8. all her savings for the marriage of a young orphan girl, who
falls in love but there was no money for her wedding.
Impressed by the plot of Kashi Yatre, the author's
grandmother Krishtakka would listen to the story as her
granddaughter (the author) read the episodes to her. She was
so touched with the story that later, she could repeat the
entire text by heart. She never went to school and so, she
couldn't read it by herself. Afterwards, she used to join her
friends at the temple courtyard and would discuss the latest
episodes with them.
After enjoying a wedding ceremony for a week with her
cousins, when the author returned home, she found her
grandmother in tears. When the author asked her that why
she was crying, she narrated her life-story to the author and

9. expressed her grief about getting married very early and not
going to school. She explained that when the author was
away, Karmaveera came as usual. But she couldn't even read
a single letter and felt very embarrassed, helpless and
dependent. After this, she made a firm determination that
she would learn to read the Kannada alphabet from the next
day onwards and keep Saraswati Puja day during Dussera
as the deadline. That day she should be able to read a novel
by herself.
As a result, the next day onwards the author started her
tuition and found her grandmother to be a very intelligent
and hardworking student who did amazing amounts of
homework and who could read, repeat, write and recite.

10. When the Dussera festival came as usual, the writer secretly
bought Kashi Yatre which had been published as a novel by
that time. The author got a gift of frock material from her
grandmother. Then suddenly her grandmother bent down
and touched her feet. The author found this as extremely
bizarre since elders never touch the feet of youngsters and
thought that her grandmother had broken the rules of the
tradition. But in response to that, her grandmother replied
that she was touching the feet of a teacher, not her 12-year-
old granddaughter and in the customs it was clearly stated
that a teacher should be respected, irrespective of gender
and age. She explained that her granddaughter was a very
caring and loving teacher who taught her so well that she
could read any novel confidently in a short period of time.

11. Thus, the author helped her grandmother to become
independent.
The story ends as the author gave the gift to her
grandmother and her grandmother was able to read the title
Kashi Yatre by Triveni And the publisher's name aloud all
by herself.
The author was happy as she knew that her student has
passed with flying colours.