
Author and philanthropist Sudha Murty, who appeared on The Kapil Sharma Show, recounted how an immigration officer refused to believe her residential address when she wrote in the form '10 Downing Street'.
10 Downing Street is the official residence and office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom where her son-in-law and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and daughter Akshata Murty reside currently.
“Once when I had gone, they asked me my residential address. ‘Where are you staying in London?’ My elder sister was with me and I thought should I write '10 Downing Street'. My son also lives there (in UK), but I didn’t remember his complete address. But I finally wrote 10 Downing Street,” Murty recalled on the popular show.
Murty said that the immigration officer looked at her and asked, "Are you joking?!" To which she responded, "Nahi, sachchi bolti hu (No, I am telling you the truth). No one believes that I, a 72-year-old, simple lady, can be the mother-in-law of the Prime Minister."
The Infosys Foundation chairperson also recalled an incident where two business class passengers brushed her aside because of her apparel.
Murty recalled being referred to as “Cattle Class” simply because she had chosen to wear a salwar-kameez. In her experience, wearing salwar kameez or sarees had her labelled as “didi” or “behenji”.
“What do these economy class people know of Business Class?” Murty recalls hearing.
The Padma Bhushan winner immediately confronted the person on their statement, asking them, “What is cattle class?”
Sudha criticised the mentality that class was derived from the money a person possesses.
“Class is not defined this way that if you have money, you have class’,” Murty said, criticising the sentiment.
On the episode, she was joined by producer Guneet Monga, who recently won an Oscar for her film 'The Elephant Whisperers' and actor Raveena Tandon, who was awarded the fourth highest civilian award, Padma Shri.
Murty, on the other hand, was recently conferred the Padma Bhushan at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.