THE LOSS OF TWO INNOCENT MOTHERS' SELF-IDENTITY IN THE NAME OF STEREOTYPE AND PATRIARCHY IN SUDHA MURTY'S THE MOTHER I NEVER KNEW

Sudha Kulkarni Murthy was born in the year 1950 in Shiggaon in Karnataka. She is a teacher of Kannada, Marathi, and English in an Indian engineering institute. Also, she is a prolific writer of English and Kannada. She is the chairperson of Infosys Foundation. Her husband N.R. Narayana Murthy is the founder of Infosys. Murthy is best known for her social works. Several of her books were written by her were Novels, Technical books, travelogues, a collection of short stories, non-fiction, and children’s books. All her books were translated into major Indian languages. She has received so many awards like R.K. Narayan Award for Literature and the Padma Shri in 2006. Her notable works are How I taught my Grandmother to read, Mahasweta, dollar bahu, and The Mother I Never Knew. The present paper focused on Sudha Murty’s The Mother I never knew. It contains two novellas. One is ‘Venkatesh’ in which the main character Venkatesh discovers about his stepmother, who is abandoned by his father long before because of his mother’s order. Later, son Venkatesh uncovers the story of the past. He decided to help his stepmother. Quote 93-94. Next, is ‘Mukesh’ in which the character Mukesh discovers that he was an adopted son. Then he loves to know his biological mother and went in search of her. Finally met and spoke to her. The above two novellas delineate about the two of the sons, who are in search of their mothers that they never knew before and had. Murty’s novels were mostly grounded on the sufferings of woman and their empowerment. In the present paper, she gives importance to the male as well as female characters. It is focused here that the characters seek for their individuals’ self-identity