She recently won Padma Bhushan for social work. But there's an interesting story behind how it all started.
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00:00I never gave any money to children. Pocket money, no.
00:03So Akshata is my guru. I was sleeping, she woke me up.
00:31Akshata was 16, 15 or 16. She used to read on her own.
00:36Because my both kids saw my work with the poor people, they were aware of that.
00:42So Akshata on her own used to go to a blind school and read for a blind child.
00:48His name was Anand Sharma and he was bright.
00:51So one day I was head of the department of computer science in the university
00:55and she came and told me,
00:56Amma, Anand Sharma wants to go to St. Stephen's.
00:59He got admission in St. Stephen's, Delhi.
01:02And he is not very economically well off.
01:05And I really want to, I want he should be sponsored.
01:10I was in a hurry to set up the question paper of the university.
01:13So I told Akshata, you can sponsor.
01:16She said, Amma, you don't even give any money to me.
01:19I never gave any money to children.
01:21Pocket money, no.
01:22Or do you want to give me the list? Let's go and buy.
01:24Why do you require pocket money?
01:26So she told me, I don't even have money.
01:28And you said to sponsor.
01:30And I was very busy.
01:33So I just absent-mindedly said, oh, let's see or something.
01:36She said, Amma, now you're 45 years old.
01:40What's your aim in life?
01:42And if you can't do philanthropy, then don't expect anyone to do philanthropy.
01:47Then she was very upset with me.
01:49Then I got into my car, went to the university,
01:51sent the paper, and as soon as the meeting was delayed, I sat there.
01:55Then I went on what she taught.
01:57Until then, my mind was busy.
01:59Yes, for the first 25 years, I worked for myself.
02:03I did very well academically.
02:05I got a first track.
02:06I got a gold medal in engineering.
02:08Next 20 years, I worked for Infosys without expecting anything.
02:11Started from scratch.
02:13Now Infosys is on its own.
02:15And I don't have to do anything academically to prove anything.
02:18What's my aim in life?
02:21I thought it for three days.
02:23And then I came to the conclusion, I had to do philanthropy.
02:26And then I resigned my job.
02:28I took up only a part-time job.
02:30Then I started a foundation in 1990.
02:32So, Akshata is my guru.
02:34I was sleeping, she woke me up.
02:36Just because you have an NGO, you won't succeed.
02:39You should have passion for that.
02:41That means you should love people.
02:43You should love poor people.
02:45Okay?
02:46And you should have a genuine interest in doing that.
02:48The word philanthropy is love your fellow human being.
02:53If you are passionate about your work,
02:55you know when to start funding and when to withdraw funding.
02:59You should know how many people it will affect.
03:02And if you are sure that it reaches the right people,
03:05then you will be successful as an NGO.