Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 26: The ballroom at Taj Lands End glistened in celebratory gloss. Flash photography punctuated every minute. Awards changed hands. Microphones travelled from podiums to panels. And somewhere along the ornate curve of the stage, a man stood quietly, neither soaking in the applause nor shrinking from it.
The award, presented by Sonu Sood and Union Minister Narayan Rane, was a moment of quiet pride for Murthy. It wasn’t just a personal milestone, it was a recognition of years spent holding space for others, often without a spotlight. He received it with grace and heartfelt gratitude, acknowledging that while his work often unfolds away from public view, moments like this serve as a gentle reminder that presence, depth, and quiet impact still matter.
A Ceremony Without Continuation
The award, presented to Murthy by actor Sonu Sood and Union Minister Narayan Rane, cited his contributions in “transformational leadership coaching through storytelling.” But what if storytelling isn’t the point? What if the real story is that someone like Murthy doesn’t want to be told?
He is the founder of One in the Universe, a name that sounds like branding but functions like a metaphor. He does not teach storytelling to scale careers. He does not teach leadership to boost visibility. If anything, he questions both gently but firmly.
In a society where every achievement is curated into digital footprints, Murthy’s refusal to perform his recognition feels almost disruptive. Not in defiance, but in discipline.
The Strange Currency of Recognition
The award itself is no small feat. The Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Memorial Awards are not ceremonial fluff. They’ve been known to spotlight individuals whose work has national consequences, especially in education, public leadership, and social transformation.
But the problem with recognition is that it demands aftermath. Publicity. Proof of gratitude. Proof of relevance.
Murthy offers none.
There’s a strange tension in his presence: he shows up in spaces that celebrate influence, only to quietly dismantle it from within. It’s like handing someone a megaphone and watching them set it down, choosing to whisper instead.
What Happens After the Applause?
The deeper question is not what Murthy said at the event but what he did after. While other recipients posted stage moments, news clippings, or award ceremony reels, Murthy went back to his rhythm: slow sessions, story circles, internal dialogues. The applause didn’t echo. It stopped. And that silence became a mirror.
In India’s increasingly commercialized coaching and personal development space, this behavior is rare. Most coaches commodify their credibility. Murthy doesn’t. He doesn’t watermark his videos or market “frameworks.” There’s no “Murthy Method.” There’s no paid certification. There’s only space. To reflect. To sit. To ask. And perhaps to leave without an answer.
Recognition Without Branding
How do you explain a person who accepts a national honor and refuses to turn it into leverage?
This isn’t humility as performance. Its orientation. Murthy’s work appears to move away from traditional models of growth, away from virality, personal branding, and institutional expansion. It instead moves toward impermanence. Toward intimacy. Toward micro-experiences that often leave no digital trail, but alter internal terrain.
What Murthy seems to protect is not reputation, it’s relevance on his own terms.
A Cultural Rethink in Real Time
India’s current leadership climate is saturated with performance. Every workshop is a funnel. Every talk is a teaser for the next. But in the shadow of this, there is a quiet demand emerging for unbranded intimacy. For people who don’t speak to audiences, but sit with them. Murthy, perhaps unknowingly, is offering that.
His recognition at a national forum forces a subtle cultural rethink: can someone be awarded for work that resists display?
The Legacy of No Legacy
Some legacies are not meant to be passed down. They are meant to dissolve into habits, into pauses, into ways of thinking that change people slowly and without ceremony.
Kuruva Venkataramana Murthy’s work may never trend, and he seems perfectly content with that. But in small rooms, in quiet sessions, and now ironically in national ceremonies, his presence is being felt.
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