'The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk' is a collection of 23 stories/essays written by Sudha Murthy. Most of the stories revolve around her experiences at Infosys Foundation. All the stories are heart warming, down to earth, and convey a good message.
There is this strange story about a woman who lives in an unlocked hut in a dry village. She takes care of making hot water for old men who bathe with stones. Sudha Murthy offers to give soap and towels for the people to bathe well. But the woman refuses the gifts and says that she must lock her house to protect the soaps. And that she does not want to provide something just for a short duration. This story tells us that every strata of givers have their own principles/choice, and the lure of money or gifts does not alter their service or mindset.
Sudha Murthy does not drink tea or coffee and so offers to drink milk at a poor home. When she overhears a conversation, she realizes that you need little milk to make tea and the woman of the house wanted to preserve milk to feed her baby. Sudha realizes that different people have different needs and our individual interests cannot always be met. So, from that day, Sudha stopped drinking milk
There are many more stories - one is about a friend with verbal diarrhea, other is about a gossipy colleague, another is about building ponds, and yet another is about ungrateful and cunning people. As usual, author Sudha Murthy weaves magic with words and subtle humour. She says that the experiences she gained cannot be read from a book or from the internet. That's why they say that 'experience is the best teacher'.
The book with 212 pages costs Rs.199. Go for it. Read the book excerpts here.
