To find her place in the world, Prema must not only leave her abusive husband and bring up her daughter on her own, she must also fight oppression at the workplace and form strong friendships with other women. Her struggles begin at birth, right from the unequal treatment she receives at home visa-vis her older brother, the casual attitude of her family towards her education because she is a girl, and the various challenges she faces at school, college and later as a working woman. This is equally a tale of hope, offering us new ways of being a woman and of re-thinking the self. It is a sharp critique of gender politics as it plays out both in the private, familial sphere as well as in the public sphere. Prema gives voice not just to her own story but also, by extension, to the stories of thousands of women of her generation, women who grew up in the heady years immediately following the formation of an independent Indian nation state. Embedded in the novel is the idea of freedom, both personal and political.Born in 1943, Vatsala grew up in Bombay and Rajkot and worked in IIT Madras. Her books include two poetry collections Suyam (Sneha, 2000) and Naan Yenn Kavingar Aaga Villai? (Ahuthi and Panikudam, 2018), two novels Vattathul (Uyirmai, 2006) and Kannukkul Satru Payaniththu (Bharathi Puthakalayam, 2016) as well as a collection of short stories Chinna Chinna Izhai (Bharathi Puthakalayam, 2018). Vatsala won the Tiruppur Tamil Sangam award in 2006 for her novel Vattathul. Her short stories have won the Illakia Chintanai award, the Agni-Subhamangala award and the Rajeswari Balasubramaniam award. Her poems in English translation have appeared in The Rapids of a Great River: The Penguin Book of Tamil Poetry (Viking/Penguin, 2009) as well as in Interior Decoration: Poems by 54 Women from 10 Languages (Women Unlimited, 2010).
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