Sothu Geddavalu She Who Lost and Won - New World Literature Series : 106 (An Old and Rare Book)

Triveni's Sothu Geddavalu is the story of Bharati, who is the daughter of a poor family. But because of her extraordinary beauty she is able to marry Ananda, who is an engineer and the only son of rich parents. A few months after the marriage Anand's employers depute him for higher training in England. Bharati, who is left behind with her old parents'-in-law is seduced by Chandu, her mother-in law's younger brother. Eighteen year-old Bharati succumbs to Chandu under the relentless pressure of her own unfulfilled sexual needs. She then tries to save herself from the difficult situation prompted by her love and loyalty towards her absent husband. When her parents'-in-law discover the affair between Bharati and Chandu they condemn Bharati and ask her to leave the house. But Bharati sticks to her resolution of facing the situation and begging Anand's forgiveness before she takes any other decision.

Published in 1957, She Who Lost and Won is an unusual story about an extraordinarily loyal and remorseful young woman who is ultimately the hapless victim of a male-dominated system wherein her winning or losing is equally meaningless. This novel has been translated into English for the first time.

C. Vimala Rao was educated at the Universities of Pennsylvania. Wisconsin, and Harvard. She retired as Professor of English, Lucknow University. She is the author of two collections of poems and one collection of short stories. She has also translated Triveni's Sharapanjara/ Cage of Arrows and Doorada Bettal Distant Hill into English.

Triveni, which is the pen-name of Anasuya Shankar, was born on February 1, 1928 and died on July 29, 1963. Her death occurred 10 days after her only child, a daughter, was born after two miscarriages. In the course of her short life of 35 years, Triveni wrote 20 novels and 3 collections of short stories. Her Twenty first novel was unfinished at the time of her death.

Triveni, born in Mysore-where she lived all her life-belonged to an upper caste, middle class, educated, urban family. This is the setting for all her novels also.

As a young, educated woman, who had completed her graduation with courses in Psychology, Sociology, and Political Science, she wrote her fictional works in Kannada and won immediate popularity.

Triveni's first novel, Hoovu-Hannu (Flower-Fruit), was published in 1954 and her last novel, Sharapanjara (Cage of Arrows), was first serialised in a popular Kannada weekly and later brought out posthumously as a novel in 1964. Sharapanjara soon won the prestigious Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award and later was also made into a successful film. Other regional awards for fiction also came her way. Four other novels, namely, Belli Moda, Kankana, Hannele Chiguridaga and Mukti were also eventually made into successful films.

**Contents and Sample Pages**