Early life Vaidehi was born on 12 February 1945 to A. V. N. Hebbar (father) and Mahalakshmi (mother) in
Kundapura taluk of
Udupi district, Karnataka. She grew up in a large traditional
Brahmin family. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Commerce from the Bhandarkar College in Kundapura. Her father is a lawyer and her mother was a homemaker. At home, a dialect of Kannada called
Kundapur Kannada Vaidehi became her pen-name under unusual circumstances. Early in her writing career, she had sent a story to the Kannada weekly magazine
Sudha for publication but later requested the publisher not to go ahead with the print as the story was non-fictional and included a real-life story. However, the editor went ahead with the publication by changing the author's name to 'Vaidehi'. This name stuck in her later writings as well as she gained popularity.
Married life Vaidehi married K. L. Srinivasa Murthy at the age of 23. The couple has two daughters, Nayana Kashyap and Pallavi Rao. After marriage Vaidehi moved to Shivamogga. The family later moved to
Udupi and then to
Manipal, where they currently live. Vaidehi's daughter
Nayana Kashyap is a translator, Kannada writer and English teacher. She has translated some of the Vaidehi's works into English including five novels. ==Works==