Biography
Janaki Srinivasa Murthy, popularly known by her penname Vaidehi, is an Indian feminist writer and well-known writer of modern Kannada language fiction. Vaidehi is one of the most successful women writers in the language and a recipient of prestigious national and state-level literary awards. She has won the Sahitya Akademi Award for her collection of short stories, Krauncha Pakshigalu in 2009. Born: 12 February 1945 Birth place: Kundapur, Udupi, Karnataka, British India Nationality: Indian Occupation: Writer Spouse: K.L. Srinivasa Murthy Children: 2 Early life: Vaidehi was born on 12 February 1945 to A. V. N. Hebbar (father) and Mahalakshmi (mother) in Kundapura taluk of Udupi district, Karnataka. She grew up in a large traditional Brahmin family. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Commerce from the Bhandarkar College in Kundapura. Her father is a lawyer and her mother was a homemaker. At home, a dialect of Kannada called Kundapur Kannada is spoken and she uses this dialect in her works as well. Vaidehi became her pen-name under unusual circumstances. Early in her writing career, she had sent a story to the Kannada weekly magazine Sudha for publication but later requested the publisher not to go ahead with the print as the story was non-fictional and included a real-life story. However, the editor went ahead with the publication by changing the author's name to 'Vaidehi'. This name stuck in her later writings as well as she gained popularity.