Akshata Murty considered Narayana Murty to be her 'bonus dad'. Here's what it means

Sudha Murty, Sunanda Kulkarni (Sudha Murty's sister), and Akshata Murty. (File photo)

When Narayana Murthy first spoke about having 70-hour weeks, he said it to inspire young professionals, but as he and his wife Sudha Murty clarified later, he was also speaking from experience. The Infosys co-founder spent a major chunk of his life building the company even if it meant sacrificing his time with family -- a point that has been touched upon in a recent book ‘An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy’ by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, published by Juggernaut Books.

During Narayana Murthy's time spent away from family, his children Akshata and Rohan Murty dearly missed him. An excerpt published by the Times of India stated how  "the quiet Akshata", who missed Murthy silently, once said that her grandfather was her "real dad" while her father was a "bonus dad", someone appeared at infrequent moments and tried to make up for his absence with fun activities. But it was not enough.

Akshata and Rohan Murty would go on for weeks without getting to hear their father's voice especially when Narayana Murthy was working in the US at a time when phone calls were prohibitively expensive at Rs 32 a minute. It caused a rift between the children and the father, the edited excerpt published by the Times of India stated.

One day Rohan Murty decided to confront his father. "Who do you love more -- me and Akshata, or Infosys?" he asked him. Taken aback, Narayana Murthy said, "Of course, I love you both the most." He could, however, see that neither Rohan nor Akshata Murty was convinced, the book claimed.

As for the Infosys co-founder himself, his journey in building the company was not just hard but lonely -- surrounded by much younger and inexperienced colleagues for whom he also felt a great burden of responsibility, the book stated. It added that Narayana Murthy would often dream of floating in space -- a possible subconscious expression of that feeling of intense isolation that made him feel lonely and withdrawn in his own life and marriage.

Read more: Murty vs Murthy: Sudha Murty on why her surname is spelt different from husband's