“I never thought I would be a writer one day,” says Gayathry Murthy, who was invited to Italy as the cultural ambassador to participate in the International Conference organised by Primo Grin Zane Cavor. Indian literature is the focal point of the conference termed as ‘The feel of India’. She has been asked to speak on the occasion, and she has plans to speak on Kannada literature and about women writers who have broken shackles.

Her novel, ‘Hambala’, which has been translated to Italian by Jaya Murthy a resident of Italy for the past 24 years, has won the hearts of Italians.

The theme of the novel is ‘longing’. The novel revolves round the lives of three people- Malathy a young widow, her young son Giri, and Manohar the manager of the bank where Malathy works.

The story unfolds with the intense longing of Giri for the love of a father which he is deprived of.. Manohar who is ditched by his lover, is a women hater. But his attitudes change after meeting Malathy and he marries her. Giri tries to find the spontaneous love of a father in Manohar, but is utterly disappointed as he gets just sympathy from him. The story unveils in a simple and effective manner, and the translation has taken the writer across the ocean to be rightly honoured there.

Born to a teacher K Ramaswamy and armed with an M.Sc in Physics, she began her career as a teacher and was a Reader in Physics in a prestigious college in Bangalore. Her love for the Kannada language was intense and deep.

On an impulse, she wrote a short story on science for children. It got published in a prestigious magazine. She followed this up with a series of short stories and some of them were even serialised on television. She pursued her work as a lecturer in a prestigious college in Bangalore and came out with her next work - Hambala. She has written over 25 short stories, which have been published in various Kannada magazines. Her book, ‘ Neeru’, was presented at a competition of works for Neo-Literature hosted by the Adult Education Dept, Govt of Karnataka.  Nishabdadolagana Shabda - a science book on sound for High School and college students, Deepagalu - a book in Kannada on different types of lamps and their principles of working, Jnana Vignana Kosha - a science encyclopedia for children are some of her contributions.