Here’s why Akshata Murthy told father Narayana Murthy to hire a private plane, ‘take first flight back to Bangalore…’

Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy and MP wife Sudha Murty, who appeared on Netflix's The Great Indian Kapil Show on November 9, both shared anecdotes of their life as a couple and humouros instances with each other.

Sharing an incident where daughter Akshata Murthy asked him to return on the first flight back to Bangalore because he forgot the couple's 25th wedding anniversary, Murthy explained what happened.

Akshata is now married to former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The UK-based couple were in Bengaluru on November 5 visiting the Sri Raghavendra Swami Mutt along with Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty, according to an ANI report.

The 25th Wedding Anniversary Story

Recalling the incident, Murthy said that he forgot his 25th wedding anniversary with Sudha Murty, despite her trying to jog his memory by asking "is anything special today" in a lighthearted conversation with host Kapil Sharma, he added that he headed to office but got a reminder from his daughter.

“One day, I woke up and Sudha asked me, ‘Is anything special today?’ I said, ‘No, nothing.’ So, I decided to head to the office. But as I was getting in the car, she asked again, ‘Think of anything special today?’ Again, I said no. It felt like just another day,” he said.

Murthy added that their daughter Akshata was studying in the United States at the time and called him in the evening when he was on his way to Mumbai. “She asked me, ‘What are you doing?’ I told her I was heading to catch a flight. She replied, ‘Cancel the flight right now, take the first flight back to Bangalore tomorrow morning, and wish your wife a happy anniversary! I don’t care if you have a speech at 3 pm. If you need to hire a private plane, hire it, but come back and wish her!”

Responding to Murthy's narration of the incident Sudha Murty added that she was not as upset as her daughter. “It was our 25th wedding anniversary so it doesn’t happen every year. So I thought, let me give him a cue but it did not work… For five-ten minutes I felt bad because I’m also human. But my daughter was very upset, she went ‘In America this never happens!’, but I went ‘India main it happens though’, who can remember these things??”

‘Terrible Cook’ Tales

Murty was also free about being a “terrible cook” and appreciated Narayana Murthy's outlook on her meals, joking, “Look at his weight; it’s thanks to my cooking! I always tell wives not to cook great food if they want their husbands to lose weight. I’m not an expert in cooking, so I don’t take risks. I know he’s not a foodie, and that’s an advantage for me.”

Sudha Murty shared an instance when she forgot to add salt to a dish but received no complaints from her husband, “He said, ‘You took time to cook, so I won’t complain'. Boys should learn to cook to help their wives in the future.”