The Old Man & His God by Sudha Murty

‘People often ask me how it is that so many interesting things happen only to me. To them I reply that in life’s journey we all meet strange people and undergo many experiences that touch us and sometimes even change us. If you have a sensitive mind and record your observations regularly, you will see your life too is a vast storehouse of stories.’

As she goes about her work with the villagers, slumdwellers and the common men and women of India Sudha Murty, writer, social worker and teacher, listens to them and records what they have to say. Their accounts of the struggles and hardships which they have at times overcome, and at other times been overwhelmed by, are put together in this book. A blind old man in a little Shiva temple offers the author shelter and peace in the midst of a storm and emerges as the most generous, unselfish soul she has ever met. A little stone bench under a banyan tree in a village in Karnataka is the perfect place for travellers to rest and forget their burdens for a while as they chat with the man sitting there patiently listening to them, a better counsellor than one can find anywhere in the city.

There are stories about people’s generosity—and selfishness—in times of natural disasters like the tsunami; women struggling to speak out in a world that refuses to listen to them and tales of young professionals trying to find their feet as they climb up the corporate ladder.

Told simply and directly from the heart, The Old Man and His God is a collection of snapshots of the varied facets of human nature and a mirror to the souls of the people of India.