Baby Halder was abandoned by her mother at the age of 4. Her father was abusive and alcoholic. She went to school intermittently and dropped off after the sixth standard. At the age of 12, she was married to an abusive man who was twice her age. Within a year at the age of 13, she became a Mother. Her married life was always difficult and struggling. It was tough for her to live with her husband and finally, she left her husband at the age of 25 with three kids. In 1999 she reached Delhi for the livelihood with her kids and it was a turning point of her life.
She started working as a maid in Gurgaon at Mr Prabodh Kumar’s house, a retired professor and grandson of renowned writer Munshi Premchand. Mr Kumar discovered Baby’s interest in books and he encouraged her to continue reading the leading authors of India. After a few months, Mr Kumar gave her a pen and asked her to depict her story on the paper in her mother tongue Bengali. Baby told in an interview:
I was nervous when i held the pen. I had not written anything since school. But when I started writing, it turned out to be cathartic.
Prabodh Kumar was very impressed and helped Baby Halder to publish her first book “Aalo Aandhari” in 2005. In 2006 it was published in English, titled “A life less ordinary: a memoir”.She has already published 3 books so far that have been translated into 24 languages.
Baby Haldar is also often invited to speak at various literary festivals. Today she is 43 and still works as domestic help for Prabodh Kumar, her mentor and father figure. Even after receiving the credit of two best-selling books, she quoted-
I am a domestic help, not a writer
The more difficult life gets, the more challenging your attitude should be. Keep defending, the right moment is just around the corner for your punch to win through, just stand still. That’s exactly what Baby did!
A DOER!
