# Once There Was a Girl (Vattathul)

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2015/07/20/once-there-was-a-girl-vattathul/
- Published: 2015-07-20T23:38:33+00:00
- Author: admin

5/5 - (1 vote)

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**Author:** R. Vatsala (Translated from Tamil by K. Srilata and R. Vatsala)
 **Pages:**
320 **Year of Publication:** 2012 **Price:** Rs 400 **ISBN:** 978-93-5045-027-7 (
9789350450277)

_**About the Author**_
 A poet and fiction writer, Vatsala started writing at the
age of 48. She retired from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1999.
Her short stories have won the Illakia Chintani award, the Agni-Subhamangala award
and the Rajeswari Balasubramaniam prize. Vatsala’s poems have been translated into
English and appear in anthologies like _The Rapids of a Great River: The Penguin
Book of Tamil Poetry_ (2009).

_**About the Book**_
 The winner of the Tiruppur Tamil Sangam award for Best Novel,
2008, this book examines the way women are perceived in a socio-cultural framework
that is inherently patriarchal. Spanning the entire twentieth century from pre to
post-independence India, _**Once There Was a Girl**_ is a poignantly narrated tale
about Rani alias Janaki, a young Brahmin girl with spunk, attitude and native intelligence.
Married off to Raghuraman, a childless widower from a conservative Thanjavur Brahmin
family, Rani has to negotiate and survive the complex familial politics that threaten
to engulf her life. If Janaki’s wings are clipped by the patriarchal culture of 
the mid-twentieth century, it is not without consequence. Her daughter Prema, who
lives through a painful divorce, has to bear the brunt of Janaki’s limited way of
imagining women’s lives. And, yet, Janaki endears herself to us.

A feminist bildungsroman, _**Once There Was a Girl**_ is rich in period-detail. 
Both linguistically and culturally, the novel affords us a unique insight into the
mindscapes of women who lived through times so different from our own. The presentation
of cultural issues in this novel would appeal to present-day India at large and 
contemporary Tamil society in particular.