Three Thousand Stitches By Sudha Murty | Book Review

Reading a book penned by Smt. Sudha Murty is always an interesting experience. She writes about incidents that happened in her life, people she met and mostly shares her knowledge in a way that the reader can be inspired by it and eventually contribute in making the society even better. Her stories reflect the real people and that makes it easy for the readers to connect with them.

Today we are going to talk about Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives by Smt. Sudha Murty. A while ago we found this book available at a very attractive rate as a part of a book deal. How can we miss purchasing it? Fortunately, from our team, I got a chance to read it, and here are my views and reviews about the same.

Book Cover:

A book cover cannot change the quality of the content of the book. It is, however, responsible for the first impression of the book. And thus, it can influence a large number of book purchase decisions for sure.

This book is a short story collection. The cover page of this book is expected to reflect some of the elements from those stories. As you can see the cover page shows “stitches” on various cloths and shows some ornaments on it. It represents the theme (stories exploring various themes weaved together) of the book and is attractive as well. I found the cover page moderately good.

The book contains 11 stories, each explored as a separate chapter.

• Three Thousand Stitches
• How To Beat The Boys
• Food For Thought
• Three Handfuls Of Water
• Cattle Class
• A Life Unwritten
• No Place Like Home
• A Powerful Ambassador
• Rasleela And The Swimming Pool
• A Day In Infosys Foundation
• I Can’t, We Can

Each of these stories explores real-life incidents. And they are written in an interesting manner. Actually, reading such stories let us explore the realities of the society. Such stories make us aware of the positive and negative aspects of the society and inspire us to make it better. I would highly recommend reading this book to all the readers.

As the stories are short, talking about each of them in detail will surely include spoiler and I want to avoid them as much as possible.

In this book, you will find quotes from various well-known people. Eg:

A language is but a vehicle. It’s the person inside who’s weaving the story that’s more important. You are a storyteller. So just get on with your story and the language will fall into place.

This gem of advice is really helpful to everyone who wants to write anything. Of course, you need basic skills, but the soul of your writing is the story you want to tell. If that is strong and interesting, the end product will reflect it.

The author also mentions about her primary education in her mother-tongue. It is interesting to share that when I am writing this, the Govt. Of India’s new “Education Bill” announced today, talks about having primary education (up to Std. 5) in the mother-tongue of the student only. It actually helps in making the thought-process well-structured.

On the same track, I will urge everyone to read the story “How To Beat The Boys”, where the author shares her personal experience of studying in engineering. In those days, various fields are considered as “males only”. And, engineering was one of them. Being the only female student in her branch, she had to suffer a lot, but, that didn’t affect her adversely. It made her a stronger woman. This teaches us a lesson. Running away from the problem is escapism but if the problems and adversities make to a bitter person, it will harm the society on the whole. You can still remain positive despite living a tough life. And, the author proudly says that she has more male friends then the females and some of them belong to her college! It gives me immense joy when I read it. Such stories explore the real “feminism” and “gender unbias”. It is not about wearing revealing clothes, drinking alcohol and keeping abusive words at the tip of the tongue. You can wear a sari and follow your culture while being an empowered woman, by all means. The author says in the book (in a different context, but shows her character):

I don’t want to alter my appearance for their sake. I don’t believe in such superficial changes.

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The author also talks about her experience when she worked on making the lives better for some devadasis. She got to learn a lesson:

Well, if you want to change them, then you have to change yourself first. Change your attitude.

Both the advice are contradicting? Well, rightly balancing the approach as per the circumstances and situation is the art of living 🙂

The book also contains some parenting lessons as well:

My parents had never thrust their choices or beliefs on me or any of my siblings, whether it was about education, profession or marriage. They always gave their advice and helped us if we wanted, but I made all the choices.

At the same time, you will also find a story revealing the author’s love for movies! Yes, she love watching movies. And, then she talks about how movies also connect people from various caste, creed and countries! So, if you are looking for something related to entertainment for reading, you will get your due in this book :).

Some of the lessons from the book will help you in almost all the aspects of the life. For example:

The first introduction should always be positive and bring real hope to the beneficiary.

College is not just a building made up of walls, benches and desks. It is much more intangible than that. The right education should make you a confident person…

It is difficult to get knowledgeable people to spend time explaining their subject matter to others…

Class does not mean possession of a huge amount of money … There are plenty of wrong ways to earn money in this world. You may be rich enough to buy comfort and luxuries, but the same money doesn’t define class or give you the ability to purchase it. … The concept that you automatically gain class by acquiring money is an outdated thought process.

Confidence doesn’t mean that everything will go our way. it simply gives us the ability to accept failures that we will inevitably meet on our path end move forward with hope.

Actually, all of the pages in the book are quotable 🙂

The author is good at word playing, and she seems loving it. How otherwise someone can come with such interesting, simple yet informative lines about something serious.

If we consider drug addition be one of three brothers, then it is the worst of them all. Alcohol comes next, while smoking is the youngest of the tree. The elder brother is usually accompanied by the two younger ones, while the middle brother almost always appears with the youngest.

These quotes must have given you an idea about the quality and type of writing you can expect form the book. More importantly, the stories are worth reading.

The book is written in plain day-to-day language, and that makes it easy for the readers to connect with it. For me, it is a positive attribute of the book.

Summary:

I loved reading this book. Simple yet impactful.

ThinkerViews Rating:

At least 8.5 out of 10.

• Buy – Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives By Sudha Murty -Paperback
• Buy – Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives By Sudha Murty -Kindle EBook
• Buy – Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives By Sudha Murty -Paperback
• Buy – Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives By Sudha Murty -Kindle EBook

Over To You:

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