An Open Letter to Sudha Murthy (Translation)

The original Kannada version of this letter by Ravi Belagere, dated 5th Sept 2005, can be found here: Sudha Madam, do something to flood affected people...

Given below is my own unofficial translation. The Kannada version is in down-to-Earth everyday colloquial language of Bangalore. I have tried to retain the same mood in my translation also.

The author seems to be quite displeased with Bangalore's IT industry. He is merely using the incident of the floods in North Karnataka as an excuse to express his deeper angst against the industry. I admit that it is quite despicable if the IT industries of Bangalore did not rise up to help the affected people in North Karnataka, even after being aware of it. However, the general rant against the IT industry in Bangalore exhibits a dangerously narrow focus, a lack of deeper understanding of the issues involved and an absence of honest accountability. It also, of course, shows a politician in the making!

The irony is that the same IT power this author seems to so despise, has given him the tools (the computer) and the power (the Internet) to publish his belligerent and arrogant rant, giving him more exposure than he would have otherwise deserved or gotten.

The translation follows.

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To Sudha Murthy, the eldest daughter of Infosys

Excerpt: Sudha-akka (akka = older sister), you were the ones to bring home the bundle from the first labor of liberalization. Is it enough for the society to have engineers alone? We need farmers, teachers, mechanics, auto-drivers, barbers, cobblers, potters, laborers, everyone. If the farmer suffering from the attack of the floods gives up his plow today, will you eat dollars tomorrow? Will you eat computers? Please help out the farmer, and reduce your sins...

by Ravi Belagere

Greetings to Madam Sudha Murthy.

Recently, if Deputy Chief Minister M. P. Prakash had not given that kind of a statement, there would have been no need to write this kind of a letter to you. "I called all the IT company folks and spoke to them, Ravi. The entire North Karnataka is devastated by the attack of the floods. They have been beaten and washed away. There is no water to drink. Cows and calves are dead. Houses have collapsed. At this time, being richer than anybody else, you IT companies should lend a hand. Adopt a few villages. Build houses. During times like these, the affected people get 10-20 thousand rupees to help them rebuild their houses. We will give those funds also to you. Add your funds to those funds and build houses for the homeless. The government requested this of all the principal companies. As a Deputy Chief Minister, I personally requested. Having said, 'We will come back on this issue', they got up and left, and none of them have called us. They have not contributed a single rupee," said M. P. Prakash.

There was pain in his voice.

Sudha Madam, I believe you will understand why I have left out all the other companies and am writing this letter only to you. You are Kannadigas. An elder daughter of our land, our house. You read and write. You will understand the difficulties of the women in Belgaum who have lost their homes and belongings. One reason is that, you will spread the message of this letter in English to others in Infosys, and similar IT-BT organizations. The second reason is that, being a Bangalorean, a Kannadiga myself, I have the right to write such a letter to you. I am explaining in advance that the intention of this letter is not to hurt you.

You probably don't know. The people of North Karnataka lost their houses by the attack of the floods. But by the attack of our IT companies today, we are not able to find houses in Bangalore. Houses which were available for Rs 3000 rent, have Rs. 15000 - 18000 rent today! Leasing houses has been stopped for many seasons by now. Having brought the culture of service apartments, your IT industry has pushed the rent to Rs. 1500 per room per day. If there is any nursery school in Indiranagar with a donation of less than Rs. 30000, can you show it to me? Observe how high the price of beer in pubs is. Real Estate stands on a ladder, even higher than the sky. Just 7 years ago, I had bought a site for Rs. 400 per sq ft. It costs Rs. 3800 today. From where did you come and why did you come to our Bangalore?

After you have come, out of the 100 streets which were constructed in Bangalore, 75% are in your IT industrial areas. Just as every river flows towards the ocean, every fly-over of Bangalore stands facing your offices. When we think of building a good school in Bangalore which demands no donation, with good lady teachers - we don't find lady teachers at all. Reason: even if you find girls who talk just one-and-three-fourth sentence English, your call centers kidnap them.

The lady teacher who was supposed to teach thousands of students, works day and night, getting verbally abused by some big-headed client in America, any way he chooses (to abuse). The reason is just this. Our schools give a salary of 5-6 thousand. Call centers pay 8 thousand. The boys of our IT companies, the ones who returned from 1-2 months stay in America, talk like smart-asses- "You too pay higher. Teachers will stay with you." If we have to give high salaries, as usual, we have to break the heads of our students' parents. How costly have you made our sites, houses, schools, hotels? Where did you come from and why did you come madam?

Day before yesterday M. P. Prakash was saying: "our IT people were urging, 'Build a fast, direct road from the IT park in Whitefield to Hosur road, to be able to travel in a few minutes. Give 139 crores for that. Release it today itself'." What do you have to lose? If there is a mild rain, the areas of poor Bangaloreans like our Tyagarajanagara, Sampangiramanagara, Shastrinagara, drown away. Our Mayor Narayana Swami does not have a single paisa in his pocket to build rain water drainage for those (areas). But let water enter two houses in Bommanahalli? The sons of Saraswati (goddess of learning) for your IT industry, the Times of India, gives out a special report that day. The reason is that, Bommanahalli is the cradle of your IT industry. The rest of Bangalore is just a (begging) bowl for you.

Accept without hesitation. You have not done anything to Bangalore till now. Someone (probably your people) was recently making a speech that, "Bangalore has a place on the map of the world because of Narayanamurthy." A proud Kannadiga like me who was standing there responded, "Yo! Before Narayanamurthy did that, did Bangalore have a place on the map of the moon? Sit down, I say." But I am not saying that your husband Narayanamurthy has not done anything. But he has done everything good to America. He has done it very professionally. If we look to see if he has done anything for Bangalore, we find that he has diverted all the facilities which were supposed to be available for the entire Bangalore, to your IT parks, and once again done the great job of delighting your American clients.

But madam, before this, when Tata-Birla-Kirloskar and others built their factories in small small towns, they would also build a park, a road, a temple and such for those towns. You are ulta! You swallowed our park, road, lake, temple and made your IT park beautiful. Why the heck did you come?

You know talks such as, thousands of our boys have jobs because of you, they have visited and returned from foreign countries because of you? There is no talk more meaningless than that! You selected our boys from our college campuses, sent them to America and made them work as low rate coolies. Did you do that as a favor to us? Instead of that, if you had constructed an Infosys engineering college in every district, given free seats to smart boys from poor homes without charging a naya paisa, made them into engineers and sent them to America... madam, you husband-wife would have ridden in this year's Dasara ambaari (elephant procession), instead of the gods.

After using every facility of this state, and realizing that to be insufficient, your IT industry blackmailed the government declaring that, "We will go away to neighboring Hyderabad." You were the ones to bring home the bundle from the first labor of liberalization. Is it enough for the society to have engineers alone? We need farmers, teachers, mechanics, auto-drivers, barbers, cobblers, potters, laborers, everyone. If the farmer suffering from the attack of the floods gives up his plow today, will you eat dollars tomorrow? Will you eat computers?

Neither M. P. Prakash nor this state's most unfortunate citizen are asking you for alms. You are being warned that you have sucked the essence of this land, and so repay your debts. You are of one type (onthara). You are like the British, who are among us and of our own color, madam! If your insensitivity, your anti-town policies, blackmails continue like this, the days may come when we will have to start a movement to say, "You go to America". Before that I am giving you a signal. To Bangalore, Tamilians came, Malayalis came, Telugus came - oohoom! It did not feel so heavy when anybody came. When you came, you IT people? You became a burden to the whole Earth.

Understand your responsibility a little. Come to the help of your neighbors. When the tsunami waves struck somewhere, we are the big-hearted poor Kannadigas, who made truckloads of chapatis and took them from here. You are staying here. You are also eating chapatis: ours. At least build houses. Construct roads. Get a pair of bullocks to the poor farmer. Get clothes to school children. It is not just the government which is sitting, believing your, "We will come back to you on this issue." The devastated farmer sits looking at you with hopeful eyes.

Read this in English to your IT people and tell them, "This guy is some boor. He has written like this," Sudha-akka. I am like your younger brother. Don't be offended. You are our house daughter. Did you not do anything even after I said all this? That is okay. When you come this way, come to our house, take kunkuma (sindoor) and go: to America.

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PS: There is also a follow-up article by the same author (again in Kannada): Nobody here is bitten by a (mad) dog to destroy the town and rebuild it (for visiting businessmen, industrialists). I suppose you can guess that this article is even more belligerent towards the IT industry!

Update on Sept 23, 2005: My translation of the follow-up article is available now.