Baby Halder’s memoir must be titled ‘A Life Extra Ordinary” because that’s just what it is … from working as a househelp to becoming an author is simply unimaginable. Not that a maid doesn’t have an interesting life, but very few have the support system that helps them write about their life.
Last year we had watched this Netflix mini series titled “Maid”. It’s based on Stephanie Land’s memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive”. The series centers around Alex, a young mother who walks out of an abusive relationship. She takes up the job of cleaning houses in order to support her daughter. This is in the US.
I do hope someone makes a limited web series or a movie about Baby Halder.
A Life Less Ordinary – Summary
Baby, her sister and her brothers are abandoned by their birth mother as her father doesn’t provide for them. Her father remarries a couple of times and finally remains married to one lady who doesn’t have any children. So Baby and her siblings end up calling her mother.
Baby loves going to school but is not able to do so regularly because her father doesn’t pay the fees and they have a couple of relocations.
One fine day, Baby’s elder sister is married off and Baby herself is married off at the age of twelve to a man who is twice her age. Baby becomes a mother at the age of 14..two more children follow. Baby’s husband splits her head open with a stone when he sees her talking to another man. Somehow, she manages to escape to Gurgaon, the millennium city with her children. Baby manages to find work in a very abusive household initially. She even lets her elder son work as a child labourer.
Soon she manages to find work at Mr. Prabodh Kumar’s house. Prabodh Kumar is the grandson of Hindi Literature’s giant Munshi Premchand. He becomes Baby’s de-facto father and helps her read books when he notices her interest in his library. Then he encourages her to write her life story. A huge turning point in Baby’s life. The autobiography she wrote in Bengali is titled “Aalo Aandhari” and has been translated into 27 languages.
The English translation is done by Urvashi Butalia and its an excellent translation because its Baby’s voice you hear in your head…
Do read the Better India article, which has a short video of Baby speaking about this book right at the end – Child Bride at 12, Mother at 13: How a Domestic Help Became a Bestselling Author!
Here is her TED Talk –
My notes – One of the sessions that we do during our student mentoring program is about the life lesson of “Past is not equal to Future”. This is to say that your current circumstances don’t determine the trajectory of your life. We give examples of Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the most loved President of Bharat in recent times to say his past as a fisherman’s son did not stop him from becoming a scientist, the missile man of Bharat and eventually the President of Bharat.
After reading Baby’s memoir, we now have yet another example of past not being equal to the future !!
Hoping to meet Baby Haldar someday. Truly inspiring life journey.