| Tenneti Hemalata | |
|---|---|
| Born | Janaki Rama Krishnaveni Hemalata November 15, 1935 Vijayawada, India |
| Died | 1997 |
| Pen name | Lata |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Ethnicity | Telugu |
| Spouse(s) | Tenneti Atchyutaramayya |
Tenneti Hemalata, (November 15, 1935–1997), better known as Lata, is a Telugu writer from Andhra Pradesh, India. She is best known for writing about prostitution in India, from the perspective of the prostitutes, and her books created heated discussion in literary circles in the late 70s and 80s.
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Lata was born to Nibhanupudi Visalakshi and Narayana Rao on November 15, 1935 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. Her full given name was Janaki Rama Krishnaveni Hemalata. She had formal schooling up to fifth standard, and later studied Sanskrit, Telugu and English classics at home. She was married at the age of nine to Tenneti Atchyutaramayya, who was seven years her senior, and suffered from an incurable medical condition. Her father died at the age of 32, when her mother was pregnant with another child.
In 1955, Lata started her career as an announcer for the All India Radio station in Vijayawada. She participated in radio plays and later acted in, and wrote dialogue for, movies. Her first radio play was silaa hrudayam ("Stone Heart"), broadcast on Deccan Radio in 1952. She was also an admirer of the musician Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna, and wrote a lyrics for some of his tunes.
With her husband's condition, and having experienced two difficult deliveries by caesarian section (one son in 1956 and the second in 1963), as well as suffering financial problems, Lata later said that she had been confronted with profound questions about life and death (antharanga chitram) from early in her life. She died in 1997 at the age of 65.
In her novel, Gaali Padagalu, Neeti Budagalu (Kites and Water Bubbles), Lata depicted the cruelty that prostitutes has suffered at the hands of men and the diseases they had contracted.[1] Despite considerable criticism for the book's content, she later discussed the same issue again in greater detail in another novel, Raktapankam.
Some of her other works, the semi-autobiographical fictions Mohana Vamsi, Mohanavamsi, and Antharanga Chitram, offer details about her life. In the 1980s, she wrote the book Ramayana Vishavruksha Khandana as a rebuttal to Muppala Ranganayakamma's Ramayana Visha Vruksham, itself a response to Srimad Ramayana Kalpavruksham by Viswanatha Satyanarayana.
In total, Lata stated that, “I have written 100 novels, 700 radio plays, 100 short stories, ten stage dramas, five volumes of literary essays, two volumes of literary criticism, and one volume of Lata Vyasaalu, as well as 25 charitra kandani chitra kathalu poems.”
English translatation of Gaali Padagalu - Neeti Budagalu by Nidadavolu Malathi