ಜಾತ್ರೆ

Vaidehi (real name Janaki Srinivasa Murthy), born in 1945, in Kundapura, Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka is a well-known Kannada fiction writer and poet, renowned for her espousal of the cause of women. Her writings, generally described as post-modernist, depict the plight of women in an indignant and rebellious tone. In fact, it is told that her creative self blossomed as a result of her encounters with patriarchy, in search of her personal freedom. For instance, daring to sit on a chair was, for her, one of the heroic feats she accomplished in her childhood, in defiance of the social injunction that girls should not sit on chairs in presence of the male members of the family, let alone male members from outside. She longed for the freedom that she was denied on account of being a woman, but enjoyed in full measure by her brothers. Her short stories and novels lament the discrimination and unequal treatment meted out to women in society. She successfully takes up cudgels on their behalf, using her pen as an effective weapon for social transformation. Vaidehi has received many prestigious literary awards, such as the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi award, the M.K. Indira award, and the Katha award. Many of her works have been translated into English and many Indian languages.