Abonded by the mother at 4, married at 12 to cruel and aged man, a mother herself 13… this more or less the same story of the thousands of female domestic workers in India. Baby Halder has the same story.
The exceptional thing is that she opted to pen down her story. This effort made her a emerging literary star of India. Her book ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ has become a commercial success as well as got critical remarks from the literary society.
Prabodh Kumar, a retired anthropology professor discovered herwriting skill and encouraged her to write about her life. The resulting book, ‘A Life Less Ordinary,’ is both a critical and commercial success.
The New York Times has published an article on her story and about her book. ‘A Life Less Ordinary,’ is the new publishing sensation in India, is the result of her night writing sessions, written after housework duties were completed.
The New York Times has compared his writing with ‘Angela’s Ashes’. It says further that Ms. Halder’s story of a bleak upbringing in northeastern India in the 1970’s has a similarity with Frank McCourt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning account of his depressed boyhood in Ireland.
Ms. Halder, now 32, writes in the servants’ quarters after completing her domestic works and the children asleep.
Delhi’s literary elite hailed his work as a groundbreaking effort. ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ has also found readers among women who have shared Ms. Halder’s difficulties.
