Gopichand - Sahitya Akademi Award Winner

Tripuraneni Gopichand (1910-62) won the Sahitya Akademi Award 1963 for his last novel, Pandita Parameswara Sastri Veelunama. Novelist, short story writer, editor, essayist, playwright and also a film director, his works are remarkable for an interplay of values, ideas and 'isms' -materialism, hedonism, existentialism, spiritualism, realism and humanism -to mention some. This novel, Merupula Marakalu - published a year before his death -became instantly popular and raised a major controversy.

D.S. Rao, Ph.D, is a literary critic, editor, author, translator and teacher of English literature. After serving Sahitya Akademi from 1956 to 1991, he retired as Editor, Indian Literature. His writings appeared in leading newspapers and journals. In 2003, his English translation of Gopichand's Asamardhuni Jivayatra has been hailed as 'a milestone' by M. Sivaramakrishna. In 2005, his Five Decades has been called 'a brilliant historical study' by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India.

In this racy, titillating and controversial novel, Gopichand takes a fresh look at the perennial man-woman relationship and tells the story of an attractive, educated, young woman. Usha Rani marries Ramanujam and dreams of spending a wonderful time with him. But soon she comes to know that he suffers from nightmares and does not want the two of them even to sleep in the same room! She is hardly satisfied with her marital sex and takes lovers. She convinces herself that her affairs have only made her a better wife to her husband.

Her third lover, Kamalakaram, shows up the double standards in society, one for man, another for woman and says, 'Modern woman is changing but man is not.The conflict is turning serious between wife and husband. Man is not lover. Lover is not husband. As man he insists there should be some regulations in society. As lover he rejects them. As lover, he says that there is nothing wrong in loving a woman who excites him, even if she happens to be someone-else's wife. As husband he opposes this view.'

Sexual nonconformist that she is, Usha Rani realizes that her husband will only have troubles on her account and resolves not to make a mess of his life.