Where N R Narayana Murthy learnt about the 3Rs & to relish ragi mudde

CHIKKABALLAPUR: The World Kannada Meet, which opens in Belgaum, has much to credit Shiddlaghatta town, the birthplace of its star guest and Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy. A quiet celebration and pride engulf the calm environs here.
Murthy’s Kannada roots are placed in the Agrahara street of this town where he was born on August 20, 1946. His mother came from Nadupinayakanahalli in the taluk.When Murthy was born, his father was a teacher at the government high school in Chintamani. Shiddlaghatta is more than his native land. It’s here that he was introduced to the Kannada alphabet at N R Ullurpet government primary school where he studied for three months. “He shifted to Srinivasapur where his father was headmaster of the government high school,” says N R Gururaja Rao, his maternal cousin. He did his schooling in Kannada medium. Later, Murthy did his pre-university education in Madhugiri and went to Mysore for his engineering degree. Then he moved to Pune for a job with a private company, married Sudha Murty and the rest is well-known, says Rao, adding Murthy was fondly called Papanna.
Murthy’s early grounding in Kannada has helped him familiarize himself with many popular Kannada literary works. In fact, he is best equipped to deliver the inaugural speech in Kannada, says Murthy’s cousin. Even today, Murthy visits Shiddlaghatta at least twice a year, but often comes unannounced thanks to the security cordon around him, says Rao. When he’s in town, he loves a meal of ragi mudde (finger millet balls). “‘Hey, cook some mudde for me, I’m coming,’ he will say on the phone in the morning before setting out from Bangalore. At times, he will cook it for himself,” he says.