(January 26, 2007, Business Standard)

When A Life Less Ordinary (Zubaan Books/ Penguin) first came out, its author, domestic worker
Baby Halder, was unprepared for the kind of attention and acclaim that her biography drew. Baby
Halder had lived a difficult life in rural Murshidabad. Her father was often missing; her mother
walked out on the family when Baby was seven. Married when she was just 12 to an abusive
husband, she had the first of her three children at the age of 13. She escaped to Delhi when she
was older and worked in several households as a domestic worker before she found employment
with the professor she reveres and calls 'Tatush', who encouraged Baby to write.
Several months after A Life Less Ordinary debuted, Baby has been relentlessly interviewed and
has seen her book become a bestseller in India and elsewhere. At the Jaipur Festival, she held
her own as she was mobbed by autograph-seekers and congratulated by other writers and
celebrities, from Salman Rushdie to Deepti Naval. In a brief conversation, the writer who still
works as a household help in Gurgaon spoke about her life, her second book and the challenges
she faces.
How has writing A Life Less Ordinary changed your life?
If I hadn't, would I be sitting here now being interviewed? After the book came out, what changed
most was that I met extraordinary people. Community leaders, writers like Taslima Nasreen, they
helped me, talked to me. Otherwise who has time for people like me? If I hadn't learned to write, I
would have been like all other women. Silent.
You wrote first in Bengali, but now you're more comfortable in Hindi, and you mentioned that you
want to learn English Did language make a difference to you in your life as a writer?
I grew up in Murshidabad, and the first language I learnedHindi came laterwas Bengali. I'm
seventh class pass. I loved school; I was good at my\nstudies and good in play. I remember the
first poem I learnedby Rabi Thakur (Rabindranath Tagore)I still know it by heart. My father
never paid much attention to buying books. It was my teachers who gave me books. In Delhi's
homes, I often see children who hate going to school. But me, when school would shut, I would
sit at home and cry. What I got from school was love, the love of friends and teachers, and the
love of books.
Later, in Tatush's houseI call my professor (Professor Prabodh Kumar, the grandson of
Premchand) Tatush because he's married to a Polish lady, and "Tatush" means "uncle" in Polish
I used to dust the books and look at the Bengali books in particular. When he saw my interest,
he told me I could read them, and the first book I read was Taslima Nasreen My Girlhood. It
spoke to me directly. Then he asked if I could write. I said yes, a little, in Bengali. He gave me
exercise books and I started to write and write. Now, after so many years in Delhi, I am forgetting
my Bengali, I know Hindi better. And I will learn English now. I want to speak for myself in this
language too.
You're writing a second bookyou mentioned that you might include the stories of other women
like yourself?
I thought I had finished writing, but there is more to say. And after writing the book, other women
like meand women like youtell me their stories. I am changing as a writer; the second book
will be different, I know that. And I want to read more. There is a hunger in me to read. Krishna
Sobti ji had given me her ashirbaad and said she liked my book most of all after Anne Frank's
diaryI have heard of Anne Frank's diary, but I have not read it yet, though I will soon.
After A Life Less Ordinary, do you see yourself primarily as a writer? Has the success of the
biography changed you?"

I grew up in Murshidabad, and the first language I learnedHindi came laterwas Bengali. I'm
seventh class pass. I loved school; I was good at my studies and good in play. I remember the
first poem I learnedby Rabi Thakur (Rabindranath Tagore)I still know it by heart. My father
never paid much attention to buying books. It was my teachers who gave me books. In Delhi's
homes, I often see children who hate going to school. But me, when school would shut, I would
sit at home and cry. What I got from school was love, the love of friends and teachers, and the
love of books.
Has the success of the biography changed the way you see yourself--is it easier to see yourself
as a writer?
[Baby, who's had a long day, and is rushing to catch a flight, sits up, all signs of tiredness gone.]
The "Baby" who existed earlier, that Baby has gone. She does not exist. There are so many
women like her, who have their own stories, their own thoughts. But to know what they think, you
must take time, like Tatush did with me. There is a second Baby now, and this Baby is yours. [She
gestures at the journalists gathered around.] She is your creation. As for me, my story is still
incomplete.
31 January 2014
Interview: Baby Halder, a maid in Gurgaon, also a bestseller author
There is no dearth of rags to riches stories in India, which are qualified enough to inspire anyone.
The fame of real - life heroes have a life of a firefly and thus are forgotten in a jiffy. Although, there
are some who may not be born with a silver spoon but have climbed the ladder of success with
their hard work and have made a special place in everyone's heart. One such encouraging story
is of an author born in Kashmir, brought up in West Bengal and now residing in Gurgaon.
The author I am talking about is Baby Halder (40) who works as a domestic maid in Gurgaon and
is an acclaimed author famous for her books in Bengali such as Aaloo Andhaari and Eshast
Rupantar. The books throw light on her journey of battleships, her woes, her survival and her
peace of mind. Baby Halder, married at 12 and mother at 13 has successfully defeated the
hardships of life. Her mother abandoned her at the age of four and when she left her alcoholic
husband; life has been treating her bad since then. She is happy that her two children Tapas (20)
and Piya (17) are studying. Baby Halder's life took a flight when she picked up a pen and paper to
express herself and that's when she realized this is what she finds happiness in.
In Focus
Anyone would love to know about the journey of domestic maid cum author and I was no
different. She gladly accepted my request to interview her. Baby Halder lives in a single room with
her two kids on a terrace. The house is owned by Prof. Prabodh Kumar - her literary mentor, her
friend, teacher and the one who gauged her interest in books.
She welcomed me with a decorous smile and offered me a chair with an intention, not to waste
any time for the interview (since she is a domestic maid and a author as well). She comfortably
takes her chair and avoids eye contact before we kick- off the interview. Excerpts from the
interview.
Q. Who is Baby Halder as an individual? How would you like to describe yourself?
Baby Halder (BH) - (Laughs... ). This is a very interesting question. Baby Halder has two separate
personalities altogether. One as a domestic maid and other as an author. I get completely
engrossed when I pick up my pen and recollect my thoughts and that's when Baby Halder as an
author completely takes over me. I am entirely a different person when I am not writing and
engaged in household chores. I am a very simple person and loves to engage with people who
understand me. Some people greet me as an author and some as an normal individual.

Q. When were you first introduced to the idea that you should pen down your thoughts?
BH- Honestly, I never speculated about writing a book. When I was newly employed with Dadu
(that's how she greets Prof. Prabodh Kumar), I used to have a look at the extensive collection of
his books and gradually he figured out that I am little inclined towards the world of literature. He
made me read a book written by renowned author Taslima Nasreen and within next few days he
handed me a pen and a notebook and asked me to write anything, which I felt like.
Initially, I was a bit skeptical about the same because I was already managing household chores
and my kids as well. However, it was a lifetime experience when I took it seriously. I let the cat out
of the bag and wrote something, which was always hidden like a treasure inside me. I started
loving this whole new experience which ended up as my first novel.
Q. Your first book/ memoir came out in 2002. What did you feel when it became a best selling
novel?
BH- I never expected it to be a best seller, reason being it was my own story and I expressed it
the way I wanted to. There are innumerable people like me who has faced the same trauma and
therefrom, I never took it as an exceptional story. I penned down what I went through and I am
glad I could share my story globally.
Q. Why do you still continue to be a domestic maid when you can devote your full time as an
writer?
BH- This is something which I am doing willingly. No one is forcing me to do anything and to be
really honest, it's very difficult to leave daadu at this point of time. He is an aged person and
moreover my kids are very close to him. Whenever, we talk about leaving Gurgaon and shifting to
West Bengal, my children and I always dedicate a thought to daadu. Even though his family is
here to take care of him but I am very close to daadu and can't imagine to leave him.
I have built my house in Bengal and I am aware of the fact that someday or the other, I have to
leave this place. Daadu is everything to me. He is a father figure, a friend in need and a mentor
as well. My life saw the sunlight only because of him. Daadu holds a great importance in my life.
Another reason is certainly my children. I also have to devote time to take care of them. These
are one of the key reasons why I am not devoting my entire time as a writer.
Q. Do you think A Life Less Ordinary has been your best work till date? What is next on your
cards?
BH - My work is to write and I won't title it as best or worst because I simply wrote about my life
and coincidently the masses loved it. Currently I am working on my third novel, which takes the
new changes in my life into spotlight. It talks about how people used to treat me earlier and how I
have managed to change their perception as an individual.
The book has been submitted in the press to publish and will hit the stands in the first week of
February and will be launched in the Kolkata Book Fair. My first priority is to read and write and
because I always want to flourish as a writer. I am still in a nascent stage.
Q. Have you revealed all the secrets of your life in the novel - A Life Less Ordinary or you still
have few secrets buried in your heart?
BH - (Laughs.....) It is palpable to hide few things because I was writing for the very first time and
I felt a little awkward sharing my life story to the entire world. However, I would like to add that if I
would have written my first novel now, I would have revealed more secrets. On the contrary,
many feel that the book would have sold less copies, if written today. I personally feel I have

grown a lot as a writer and my perception has taken a new direction in the last few years. I
confess that I have not revealed everything but the truth should undoubtedly be revealed.
Q. How has life changed after becoming an author and have you changed after becoming an
acclaimed author?
BH- I am not changed at all. I still believe in living a simple life, however my life has certainly
changed for the better. I never expected to build a home in my native town and to secure the
future of my children. It is ultimately a step for the betterment for my children. I got a wonderful
opportunity to travel in the country and out of the country as well. It's a surreal feeling when
people already know about me. They respect me.
According to me, if one can achieve anything if he/she educate themselves and walk in the right
direction. Even people who has a similar background like me can also see better days. I gathered
my courage and stood against the bad times of my life. Everything is a part and parcel of life.
Q. How was the experience when you met renowned authors and actors in the Jaipur Literary
Festival?
BH- I could not imagine that author Salman Rushdie knew me and had read my novel. We
discussed about my life and about my novel. I always knew them as in, they exist , but I never
speculated that even they knew about me. I also met Deepti Naval (actress) and we spoke about
literature, my life and asked about my future plans.
Q. Would you like to convey any message for women who went through the same trauma like you
did?
BH- I would like to convey only one message to women who faces lot of bottlenecks - one should
rise like a phoenix and continuously strive to achieve their goals. Women should not be classified
as inferior sex as they are capable enough to do anything which men can. One should be
independent and should avoid relying on others. Move out of your shell and breathe openly.
The Ballad of Baby Halder
Posted on August 2, 2006 by siddhartha
A realization of the horror of her new married life comes suddenly. Soon she is pregnant and,
barely understanding what has happened, finds herself being rebuked by the doctor for
choosing at so young an age to have a child. Two more children follow; then her husband
splits her head open with a rock after he sees her speaking with another man, and her elder sister
is beaten and strangled by her own husband.
Thats part of the synopsis, in todays New York Times, of Baby Halders memoir, recently
published in English by Penguin India, coming after the great success of the Hindi and original
Bengali versions.
Baby Halder, now 34, is a domestic worker whose gift for reading, and ultimately composing,
literature was discovered by her employer, retired anthropology professor Prabodh Kumar, in
Gurgaon. After reading the article, I was surprised that we hadnt discussed this book yet at the
Mutiny, although commenter Dhaavak (who hasnt been around lately where you at?)
mentioned it here.
Im looking forward to reading this book, a classic exercise in giving voice to the voiceless. A few
days ago on the thread about Sri Lankan maids in Lebanon, there was a tangential debate about
the extent of domestic worker abuse in Indian households. Of course, its hard to measure. Baby
Halders own experience veers from one extreme to another: after she flees Murshidabad and
comes to work in the Delhi area, her employers range from the ones who have her lock her

children in an attic all day, to Mr. Kumar, who coached her to find her voice.
But the bigger point here is that its not just the employment experiences of domestic workers that
are misunderstood; its their whole life stories. For so many employers in societies where
domestic labor is widespread, when workers go home to the village, they disappear into a black
box. At most, perhaps we learn of the problems their families back home face and for which we
are asked to contribute some money. Of their back stories, their childhood and formative
moments, we usually know very little, and often dont care to know at all.
The Hindu has a nice story and interview that gives a little more detail:
My employer Prabodh ji has lots of books, including many Bengali books. While dusting them,
I always used to think if one day I could read them. Even as a child, I always wanted to go to
school. Despite our poverty, my mother never stopped us from going to school and even after she
left us, I continued going. I studied till class 7th. So when Prabodh ji once saw me a little lost
while dusting the books he asked me whether I would like to read a Bengali book, to which I said
yes. He gave me Taslima Nasreens autobiography and soon I realised her life is so similar to
me, she narrates. Not stopping at Nasreen, Baby soon picked books by Mahasweta Devi,
Shanko Ghosh, Charat Chandra Bangopadhay, Rabindranath Tagore, Ashapurna Devi, Nasrul
Islam and more such Bengali luminaries.
This is, among other things, a compelling example of the vital importance of girls primary
education. (Heres a map showing female literacy rates in India, district by district.) Its also a
wonderful story. Much respect to Baby Halder!
A bestselling author, she works as a domestic help in Gurgaon
Manoj Sharma, Hindustan Times New Delhi, January 04, 2014
She has been on book tours to cities such as Paris, Frankfurt and Hong Kong; her books have
been translated into 12 foreign languages -- including French, German and Japanese. She is
often invited to speak at literary festivals across the country.
Baby Halder at the house of Prabodh Kumar, for whom she works as a maid, in Gurgaon. (Manoj
Kumar/ HT Photo)
Her new book is set to hit the stands later this month.
However, there is an intriguing twist in the tale of Baby Halder. This 39-year-old prolific writer
does not like to be called an author.
"I am a domestic help, not a writer," said Halder, who has two best-selling books to her credit and
first shot to fame in 2006, with her work A Life Less Ordinary.
For the past 14 years, Halder has been working as a maid at the house of Prabodh Kumar in
Gurgaon, where she lives in a temporary house on the terrace.
Kumar, 80, her employer, is not only her employer, but also her literary mentor and translator.
"When she started working at my house, she had enormous interest in books. She would pick
Bengali books from the bookshelf and avidly read them. As I interacted with her, I realised that
she had a story that needed to be told," said Kumar, a retired professor of Anthropology.
Halder had a motherless childhood and an abusive father. Her step-mother married her off at the
tender age of 13 years to a man twice her age. She was raped on her wedding night.
Fed up with her abusive husband, she boarded a train from Durgapur in West Bengal for Delhi,
where she started working as a maid at a house. She, however, soon left the house after her
employers started mistreating her. Soon, she found work at Prabodh Kumars house and life took

a turn for the better.

One day, Kumar handed Halder a pen and asked her to write her story in her mother tongue,
Bengali.
"I was nervous when I held the pen in my fingers. I had not written anything since my school
days. But when I started writing, words began to flow effortlessly. In fact, writing turned out to be a
cathartic experience," revealed Halder, who has studied up to 7th grade.
"What she wrote had enormous depth. In fact, I showed it to my friends and they agreed with
me," said Kumar, who has translated Halders books into Hindi.
In fact, her first book Aalo Aandhari (Light and Darkness) was published in 2002 in Hindi. In
2006, it was published in English, titled A Life Less Ordinary: A Memoir.
In 2010, she published her second book Eshast Rupantar, -- a sequel to her first book -- the
English translation of which is slated to be released next month. Her third book -- the story of her
progression from childhood to teenage -- will be published by the end of this month.
Halder said she writes between cooking, sweeping and swabbing and it took her a year to finish
each of her books. "I am not organised or disciplined as far as writing is concerned. I write
anytime, anywhere," she added.
Halder has rubbed shoulder with many top writers at literary festivals and seminar across the
world.
She is a fan of Arundhati Roy, Taslima Nasrin and Jhumpa Lahiri. Nasrins Amar Meyebela (My
Girlhood) is her favourite book. "I have met her several times; she has always been very
encouraging," said Halder.
And what do writers talk to her about?
"They mostly discuss my life and my writing; but one question that everyone asks is why I
continue as a domestic help," Halder said.
Halder has built a house in Kolkata with earnings from her books. "I need not work as a domestic
help anymore, but I am not comfortable leaving my employer who is a father-like figure to me. But
eventually I hope to move to Kolkata someday, which I think is the best place for people who want
to write in Bengali," said Halder.
Her two children, Tapas, 20, and Piya 17 -- who want to become a fashion designer -- often
complain about not being sent to a private English-medium school.
"They do not understand that when they started going to school, I did not have enough money.
Today, I would have certainly sent them to a private school," Halder added.
A voracious reader, Halder is looking forward to reading Jhumpa Lahiris The Lowland and The
Diary of Anne Frank. "Many people say it is similar to my first book," Halder said.
She has been closely following the Devyani Khobragade issue and feels that it was Sangeeta
Richard, the maid, and not her employer who is the victim in the case.
"I appreciate the domestic helps courage in taking on her powerful employer, who I believe
shortchanged her in terms of salary. Unfortunately, there is no respect for physical labour in India.
The rich and the powerful feel that they have a right to exploit their domestic help," she added.

The Diary Of Baby Haldar

Sheela Reddy
The new maid Professor Prabodh Kumar found through the milkman behaved oddly. All day the
29-year-old Bengali girl, a mother of three, worked hard and silently, sweeping, mopping, cooking;
but her busy hands would still as she dusted the books, the dustcloth moving with unnecessary
slowness through the pages of his Bengali tomes. Prabodh, a retired professor of anthropology
and a grandson of Munshi Premchand, finally confronted her. "Do you read?" She looked as
guilty as if he'd caught her hand in the biscuit tin.
Baby Haldar, it turned out, had been to school intermittently until she was married off at 12 to a
man 14 years her senior. And when the kind professor offered her the use of his bookshelves,
she hesitantly chose Taslima Nasreen's Amar Meyebela (My Girlhood). "It was as if," recalls
Baby, "I was reading about my own life." Other books left Prabodh's shelf in rapid succession:
novels by Ashapurna Devi, Mahashweta Devi, Buddhadeb Guha. That was when Prabodh went
out one day and bought her a pen and copybook. "Write," he told her, an order that made Baby
almost weep with frustration. What was there to write? Hers, she says, was a mindless life,
moving where her father, an ex-serviceman and driver, took them, from Kashmir to Murshidabad
to Durgapur, a motherless child unquestioningly enduring an abusive father and step-mother and
a husband, until one day out of desperation she boarded a train for unknown Delhi with her three
children. In the capital city, she soon did what thousands of women fleeing poverty and despair
and drunken husbands are doing: took ill-paid work as a domestic, sometimes spending the nearfreezing winter nights with her children on the streets.
Here then for the first time in her bleak life was an unlooked-for mentor urging her to write about
her life. So she picked up the pen, with the same curious blend of grim determination and blind
faith, covering the first few pages as painstakingly as if it was yet one more chore in her busy day.
"It was nearly 20 years since I had ever written in a copybook, I had forgotten spellings. It was
very embarrassing, especially when my children wanted to know why I was writing in a copybook
instead of them." But her first words worked their own magic: they unlocked her past. All her
searing, suppressed memories of the mother who abandoned them, the night when the man she
married climbed into her bed and raped her, the sister who was strangled by her husband, the
terror and pain of delivering her first child at 13, memories she had never confided to anyone,
didn't even realise she had, flowed out into the notebook. There was no stopping Baby now. She
wrote in the kitchen, propping her notebook between the vegetables and dishes, she wrote in
between sweeping and swabbing, after the dishes and before, and late at night after putting her
children to bed. Her mentor was bemused: "I need so much preparation before I can get down to
writing anything, my chair, my study, my writing materials, and here was this girl writing as easily
as if she was chopping vegetables."
The results were even more unexpected. "All I had in mind when I urged her to write was to take
her mind off her problems. But the closely-written pages of the notebook were astonishingly
good," says Prabodh. Prabodh was excited but did not trust his own judgement. He consulted
friends Ashok Seksariya and Ramesh Goswami with whom he shared a common interest in
literature. Both were enthused by Baby's manuscript, hailing it as another Diary of Anne Frank.
Prabodh was persuaded to translate it into Hindi. Aalo Aandhari (Light and Darkness) was ready.
But finding a publisher for such an unusual narrative was tougher; the book was too strange for
their tastes. But Sanjay Bharti, who owns a small publishing house, Roshani Publishers, agreed
to risk it even if it lost him money.
There was, however, yet another surprise in store for all the four friends of literature: Aalo
Aandhari began selling from the first day of its launch. "Everyone from the sweeper to the retired
headmistress next door wanted to buy a copy." It sold so well that the second edition will be out in
less than two months. There is talk of film rights (by Prakash Jha); someone wants to make a
play out of it, others want to translate it into English, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu; and a new literary
magazine in Calcutta, Bhasha Bandhan, will start serialising the book in the original Bengali from

its next issue.

But for Baby, the best thing about her rebirth as an author is the regard of her new friends. "For
the first time in my life, I feel confident that my story is worth telling, and in my own words."
In India, a Maid Becomes an Unlikely Literary Star
Amit Bhargava for The International Herald Tribune
Published: August 2, 2006
NEW DELHI, Aug. 1 Abandoned by her mother at 4, married off at 12 to an abusive husband,
a mother herself at 13 there is little in Baby Halders traumatic childhood to suggest that she
would become an emerging star on Indias literary horizon.
Baby Halder works for Prabodh Kumar, who encouraged her to write about her life. The resulting
book, A Life Less Ordinary, is both a critical and commercial success.
A single parent at 25, struggling to feed her three children by working as a maid for a series of
exploitative employers, Ms. Halder had no time to devote to reading or to contemplating the harsh
reality of her existence until she started work in the home of a sympathetic retired academic, who
caught her browsing through his books when she was meant to be dusting the shelves. He
discovered a latent interest in literature, gave her a notebook and pen, and encouraged her to
start writing. A Life Less Ordinary, this seasons publishing sensation in India, is the result of her
nighttime writing sessions, squeezed in after her housework duties were finished, when she
poured raw memories of her early life into the lined exercise books.
Prabodh Kumar, the retired anthropology professor who discovered her, was impressed with what
he read and encouraged her to continue. After several months, he sat down with her and helped
edit her text into book form. Written in Bengali and translated into several other Indian languages
and English this year, Ms. Halders autobiography has become a best seller.
In a sense, this is an Indian Angelas Ashes: Ms. Halder echoes Frank McCourts Pulitzer Prizewinning account of his miserable boyhood in Ireland with her story of a bleak upbringing in
northeastern India in the 1970s. Ms. Halders style will never win her literary prizes; even with Mr.
Kumars editing, the narrative is rough, and the horde of characters who flit in and out can be
confusing. Nevertheless, her book provides a moving depiction of life for millions of impoverished
Indian women, and of aspects of Indian society not usually the focus of novelists attention.
Ms. Halder recounts her life story in plain language, without a trace of self-pity. She starts out with
a snapshot of how her mother exhausted by her husbands extended absences and his failure
to provide for the family goes out to the market and never returns. She relates,
unsentimentally, how her father beat her for telling a school friend that there was no food in the
house, how he introduced one new mother after another into their household, how intermittent
spells of schooling were cut short by money shortages and domestic chaos, and how her elder
sister was abruptly married off because their father could no longer afford to keep her.
Ms. Halder was too young to understand the significance of the preparations for her own
marriage, preferring to play with her friends in the street instead. After meeting her future
husband, twice her age, the 12-year-old Baby tells a friend: It will be a good thing to be married.
At least I will get to have a feast. Even in the hours before her wedding, she writes, Id sing and
jump about and play.
A realization of the horror of her new married life comes suddenly. Soon she is pregnant and,
barely understanding what has happened, finds herself being rebuked by the doctor for
choosing at so young an age to have a child. Two more children follow; then her husband splits
her head open with a rock after he sees her speaking with another man, and her elder sister is
beaten and strangled by her own husband.

Ms. Halder decides to walk out on her marriage. She flees on a train to Delhi, where, like many
other desperate women, she seeks work cleaning the homes of the capitals rising middle class.
There she escapes destitution by sending her eldest son out as an under-age domestic servant
and by working for abusive employers. Her bosses treat her harshly, forcing her to lock her
children in the attic all day while she works.
She writes of one employer: As soon as she sat down, Id offer her tea, water, sherbet, whatever
she wanted. Then I had to massage her head or her feet or whatever: the work was never
ending.
Ms. Halder never articulates her rage directly and rarely blames her father or her husband for the
cruelty she experienced, but the facts stand powerfully for themselves. This is a simple
description of a grim existence that has no need of embellishment with literary tricks.
During an interview at Mr. Kumars house in Gurgaon, just outside Delhi, where she still works as
a housekeeper, she seemed initially more at ease with her role as maid than as writer, refusing to
sit down until everyone was given water and offered tea.
Ms. Halder, now 32, said she wrote up in the servants quarters, once her tasks were finished and
the children asleep.
When I wrote, I felt like I was talking to someone, and after writing I would feel lighter, as if I had
taken some sort of revenge against my father, who never took care of me as a father should, and
against my husband, she said. I never thought that other people might be interested in reading
my story.
Mr. Kumar, however, said he was immediately struck by what she had written. I was amazed; I
knew it was very special, he said. He photocopied the work and sent it to friends in the
publishing world.
Ms. Halder added: They liked it and said it reminded them of Anne Franks writing she was a
girl who wrote a diary and died young. I was encouraged to write down everything, my whole life.
I had no plan to start a book; I was just writing.
Hailed by Delhis literary elite as a groundbreaking work, A Life Less Ordinary has also found
readers among women who have shared Ms. Halders difficulties.
This is not a book that can be read and tossed aside. It raises questions about the fate of the
millions of domestic workers in our country and their ill treatment, a review in the newspaper The
Hindu concluded. Truly this is a story of courage under fire.
It also illustrates how Indian society treats women who leave their husbands, stigmatizing them
and pushing them to the margins of existence.
It is the most difficult thing for a woman to do, Ms. Halder said. People in the villages say dirty
things about you, but I wanted to give my children a better life, so I had no choice.
One woman told me that this was precisely her story too, which made me very happy, she
added. There are so many other women in India who have left home like me. There is no support
for them; life is not easy, and they are not able to speak out. If I can give them some confidence,
then I will be satisfied.
Mr. Kumar explained that he helped Ms. Halder reorder the text so it became a chronological
account of her life, removing repetition and fixing grammar. He said that at first her spelling and
handwriting were poor, but that she swiftly improved and gradually gained greater sophistication
as a writer. Her later manuscripts show tidy handwritten Bengali, crushed into the lined pages of

the notepad as if she were concerned not to waste paper.

Despite her books success, Ms. Halder says she has no plans to change careers. She is writing
her second book, continuing the narrative of her life, in between domestic chores.
I want to be a writer and I will continue to write, she said. But for now, she said, she cannot
abandon Mr. Kumar, so I will go on working here.
And then she left, to prepare lunch for her boss.
Maid in India turns into Best Selling Author Her Difficult Life: Documented.
Baby Halder is being hailed as a best selling writer. Her humble and cruel life story give us a
window to a world we have never imagined or want to experience. Her courage and
determination are inspiring.
Article is from the August 07, 2006 edition of The Christian Science Monitor.
NEW DELHI The hardships of Baby Halder abandoned at 4, married off at 12, a mother
herself by age 13 could fill a book.
Small surprise then that Ms. Halders breathtaking memoir, A Life Less Ordinary, is causing a
stir in the Indian publishing industry. Halders book offers a window into a world that shocks many
Indians, one in which women, and particularly poor ill-educated women, remain second-class
citizens.
Still in its first printing of 3,500 books after three months, admirable for a first-time author in
India, Halders personal memories as a poor domestic worker aspiring to a better life seems to be
selling best in bookstores that cater to foreigners in India. But the books buzz also has the
potential to stir debate about the social responsibilities of Indias wealthy as the country moves
toward greater individual opportunity and fewer collective obligations.
The semifeudal contract that existed before between rich and poor, between master and
servant, has broken down. And nothing has come to replace it, says Nandu Ram, a sociology
professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and specialist in caste issues.
Many older prejudices have waned, as citizens of lower castes are taking greater part in the
political process, and as more of those of humble background prove themselves in the todays
marketplace. But the waning of caste prejudice has not meant that more Indians are suddenly
doing more for those less fortunate, says Mr. Ram. There is a generation gap of our younger
people who are becoming more and more self-centered, with not much consideration for the poor,
for even the older members of their own family.
Baby Halders book forces consideration. Ms. Halders life is a parallel world where domestic
abuse is acceptable, hunger is unremarkable, women are bound by rules of family honor, survival
is uncertain, and education is an extravagance. And thanks to the unstinting descriptions of
Halder a housekeeper turned author its a world that has become easier to imagine.
I dont feel angry with anybody, or sorry for myself for what happened, says Halder, in an
interview at the office of Zubaan Books. In many ways, everyone in my life was doing what they
were equipped to do, what they knew. If a dog barks at night, you cant say to the dog, why are
you barking?
That said, Halders stoicism is remarkable. The birth of her first child was so painful that
doctors had to tie her hands and feet to the bed. None of her family, and certainly not her
husband, bothered to visit the hospital until days after the birth. While pregnant with another child,
Halder was beaten by her husband with a piece of timber for visiting female friends. Days later,
Halder had a miscarriage.

Yet Halders lack of fatalism and her earthy, dispassionate style of writing makes this book
almost revolutionary to read. Theres no sense of how does this happen to me? says Urvashi
Butalia, editor of the English edition of Halders book, and chief of Zubaan Books in New Delhi.
Baby refuses to be a victim, and shes able to articulate something that thousands of women
have gone through.
At face value, Halders future was written the moment she was born into a working rural family.
While she received a rudimentary education, paid for by her mother, Halder soon was left behind
when her mother fled the constant beatings of her father. And when, at the age of 12, she
became too much burden for her father and new stepmother, Halder was married off to a man
hardly anybody knew.
The good times, such as they were, were over.
I had to do as he said, I had no independence, Halder writes, about her husband after the
birth of her first son. But why? I used to wonder at the injustice of this. It was my life, not his.
But even though society doesnt grant it, Halder staked out an independence of sorts in her
drive to give her children an education and a future.
Leaving before dawn, she took jobs cleaning other peoples homes, then returned to cook
breakfast and ready her children for school. This work, itself demeaning in the eyes of her
husband and other villagers, was actually the foundation of Halders growing confidence, and it
gave her the financial means to eventually leave her abusive husband and the cruel gossip of
village life.
The ability to bear pain sometimes is also a strength, says Halder. We should never see
women as victims. They have an inner strength that allows them to bear these things. I might
have been the same kind of woman, if not for my children. Thinking about them, about their
future, and my past, made me want to move out.
Yet Halders story would have remained a silent one another numb stare in a crowd on the
streets of Delhi if Halder hadnt found employment at the home of Prabodh Kumar [the retired
anthropology professor who discovered her], and if that teacher hadnt noticed Halder pausing
while dusting his bookshelves.
Can you read at all? he asked her.
babyhalder.jpgI wont lie, she said, but what I know is like knowing nothing.
Her employer pressed her further, and realized that not only did his maid know how to read, but
had studied to the fifth grade, and had even gained an appreciation for the Bengali writer
Rabindranath Tagore. He handed her a notebook, and encouraged her to write her life story.
Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist at Jawaharlal Nehru University, argues that do-gooders like
Halders employer whom she calls Tatush, an affectionate Bengali term for father are not
so much a sign of Indian largess as they are a sign of the failure of the Indian government to
provide the barest essential services to its citizenry.
Why are there so many Mahatmas in Indian society; that in itself shows the inadequacy of the
state social services, of health, and education, and so on, says Mr. Gupta. The state doesnt
look after its citizens.
Today, with proceeds of the book saved away for her childrens education, Halder continues to
work for this employer, a man she regards as the father she wished she had. She also makes

time to write.
I cant give this up, she says with a smile. It is a different kind of writing. Today Im a very
different person. [I write to] recover that sweetness that I find in my daily life. I dont want to lose
it.
A Life Less Ordinary is published by Zubaan and Penguin India and is available
`Writing has to be classless'
MITA KAPUR
A freewheeling chat with Baby Halder, who broke the tradition of silence that shackles women's
lives in India.
WARM, livewire, steely, soft, fiery, calm, innocent, wise; random words buzzed around in the mind
space. She evoked multiple reactions, all in a moment, leaving me trying to grasp thoughts in
mid-air.
Baby Halder, hailed as a star for her life-story A Life Less Ordinary, broke the tradition of silence
that shackles women's lives in India. She's worked out the trajectory between the bitterness of
bearing the burden and the need to turn the tragic into a reservoir of learning.
Her story is the story of the marginalised. Being a woman is in itself a form of abuse. "Why can't
people think of her first as a human being and then a woman? We have the same limbs, eyes
and a mind and can live our lives just like everyone else. We should stop depending on men
that they will earn and we will cook and serve. If they step out to work, we also work at home."
She still has the 10 paise coin Baby's mother left in her palm before walking away from her
children.
Early life
Without rancour, Baby recalls how she lost her sister at the hands of her murderous brother-inlaw. She grew into an adult before childhood was over. There were happy moments when she
went to school sporadically, followed by a cruel stepmother, a nearly absent father, a loveless
marriage, three children and a husband who thought he could beat her when he wished.
"My cousin sister gave me strength, She made me think. I wanted to see if I could live by myself
and bring up my children on my own. Even when I lived with my husband, I was working in other
people's houses. I could do the same staying alone with my children, why should I bear all the
beatings, ashanti and violence?" Baby's brother and sister-in-law taunted her with the proverbial
"everyone had fights at home, do they all run away?" but "I thought, I'd already lost my sister and
my mother to this malaise, why should I suffer as well?"
The indignities borne by domestic workers in our society is a part of Baby's reality. "Don't give in
to any kind of torture and discrimination. I've decided I will not cry anymore. I have to work more
and write more. To reach within myself, I want to delve inside and throw all the weakness out."
Her first sentence seemed a squiggle, a formless pattern to her. "I held a pen after many years.
My first sentence was about the time I was born in Kashmir. For the first three-four pages, I
feared, `what will Tatush think?'" Tatush is an affectionate term for Prabodh Kumar, her employer.
He encouraged her to write more. Prof. Kumar showed Baby's work to his friends, they all sent
her appreciative and encouraging letters.
After the book

"I could never have dreamt that I will write a book. I loved studying as a child, was always hungry
to read and write, ... " She lets the thoughts linger. She feels she's "done something. So many
people want to meet me now and I'm being called by people like you for such festivals."
The writer and the worker are fused, there are no walls: "I look at my housework and writing as a
whole. I began as a domestic worker. If I hadn't come to work for Tatush, mere likhne ka kaam
kaise hota?"
Baby will not stop writing or working for Tatush. "This is not work. I don't get a salary, it's my
pocket money." Her wealth is the caring, respect, dignity and love she receives as a daughter in
that house. No wonder then, Baby rushed back to Delhi the day her session for the Jaipur Literary
Fest was over. "Tatush is alone and not too well."
Dealing with success
As a natural aftermath of the explosion that her book made in the world of literature, `success'
becomes a buzzword. Baby smiles, "It feels nice but I've seen people who let their success
change their thinking. They lose their own identity and can't recognise themselves... My family
looks at me with more respect now and that's what matters. I know I'll never be ill treated again,
I'll face anything ... "
She has other concerns in her mind now. "I want to write about society and the country, what is
good and what's bad, I need to analyse it." Baby recently wrote an article, condemning Saddam's
execution as an inhuman act. She wishes to contribute in spirit and in strength to the women's
empowerment movement in the country. "Why should a man give up his seat in a bus for a
woman? This makes women weaker and gives men a self-delusory pride that they are better and
stronger... we don't need that."
Baby wonders about those writers who've written lots of books but have not been read by many.
"When you write you should write in a universal `language' that everyone understands and
empathises with. Writing has to be classless."
Reasons for writing a book and reading a book are very different. "Publishers mark high prices on
books. How are people like me expected to read them? If a book is priced at Rs. 50, it will sell
more in volume and will earn the same amount of money, as when priced at Rs. 1000. It will
reach out to more people."
Currently reading Sharat Chandra's novel, her dreams are to continue on her journey with her
guide and mentor and to keep writing. For her children, "They must study to become something."
Her elder son is training to be a chef, the younger son wishes to fly as a pilot and her daughter
wants to be a doctor. "I hate to see little children working when they should be studying. They
have to be granted freedom."