Baby Halder

From a maid to a best selling author, Baby Halder has come a long way.

She is an Indian housekeeper who penned down her autobiography Aalo Aandhari or A Life Less Ordinary, describing her harsh life. Abandoned by her mother at age 7, raised by a neglectful father and married off at age 12, she later left an abusive husband with her three children for a life as a housemaid in New Delhi.

She wrote after work, using plain matter-of-fact language in Bengali.

Her story powerfully illustrates the lives of domestic servants in India, who are often abused and ill-treated. Her last employer encouraged her and aided in editing the book. He translated it into Hindi and this version was published in 2002. The Bengali original was published in 2004. A Malayalam version appeared in 2005 and the English translation was published in 2006.

The book became a best-seller in India.

Translations into French and Japanese are being planned. Now she is busy writing her second book.

Not bad for a girl who started has a housemaid.......... must try and pen an autobigography [please forgive the sarcasm.... it is out of pure envy...]

Hope she goes a long way.....