Sessions
ರಾಜಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿ ಎನ್ ರಾವ್ ರವರ ನವ್ಯ ಲೋಕ: A Modernist in Our Midst
Rajalakshmi N Rao with Chandan Gowda
Bio
Rajalakshmi N Rao is a distinctive modernist voice in Indian literature, who wrote powerful short fiction in both Kannada and English. Born into a literary family—she is the granddaughter of the eminent Kannada writer BM Srikantaiah— she published her first English story, “The Rain”, in The Illustrated Weekly of India (1954) at the age of nineteen, followed by a stream of English stories in Deccan Herald and Kannada stories in Prajavani and other Kannada publications. In 1956, she brought out her only Kannada short story collection, Sangama, which was recently reprinted along with her previously uncollected Kannada and English short fiction as Sangama – Pastorale. Her work is marked by intense prose, psychological depth, and a modernist sensibility, exploring themes of emotional intimacy, existential struggle, and self-realisation.