She is a popular social media influencer. Though she is settled in the US now, Dr Rupa Murthy mostly writes about Indian politics. Taking us through the experience of being a social media influencer based in the US, Murthy says that the social media experience is the same. Since her follower base is mostly in India and her family is connected to Indian politics, she sticks to writing about Indian politics. “But my dad has been encouraging me to start writing about American politics, too. I keenly follow American politics, because politics is in my blood,” she says.

Like every other social media influencer, Murthy is trolled, too. In fact, Murthy has also received rape and death threats for some of her posts on Indian politics and a case that she filed after being harassed online two years ago is still in court. Talking about the difference between being a social media influencer in the US as compared to India, she says that if she writes on American politics and undergoes similar harassment on social media, the action taken by the law enforcement in the US will be much quicker.

Born in Shimoga, Karnataka, Murthy comes from a family of politicians. Her maternal grandfather was a criminal lawyer and a politician and she vividly remembers meeting politicians, including the CMs of Karnataka. She would tag along with her grandfather, when he would visit the Parliament or meet with the CMs at their homes. Murthy’s great paternal grandfather was what was called Member of Representative Assembly (MRA), akin to present-day MLA. This was when there were no states per se and the king was the chief. He was also one of the advisors to the king.

Murthy visits India quite often, as she has her parents and a large extended family here. Another reason for visiting India every year is that she wants her son to be familiar with his ancestry and roots. Both her maternal and paternal side own temples in Karnataka, so she makes it a point to visit the temples, too.

As far as her education goes, her initial schooling was in Mysore and Mangalore. Then she went to college at BITS Pilani, Rajasthan. Thereafter, she went to the Ohio State University in the US, where she earned a doctoral degree and ended up in healthcare.