Baby Halder

Baby Halder Biography

Baby Halder is an Indian domestic help and author of acclaimed autobiography work - Aalo Aandhari (A Life Less Ordinary, 2006). This work which describes her hardship childhood, grownup days and experiences as a domestic worker received great response from critics as well as readers. Those sincere words poured from the innocent corridors of her heart written in Bengali, have been translated to 21 languages, including 13 foreign languages. She has also authored one book - Eshat Roopantar (Bengali) and now working on her third book.

She was born in Kashmir and her mother left home when she was 4. It was following her father's habitual drinking which forced her mother to leave at Murshidabad. Later she was brought up by her father and step mother. The family finally settled Durgapur, West Bengal, where she grew up. She could study only till 12 years old and her studies stopped abruptly when her father arranged her marriage to a man 14 years her senior, and a small-time decorator. Within one year, she gave birth to a child and became a mother of two more children in the successive years. After her sister was strangled to death by her husband, she started working as domestic servant in the neighbourhood. But in 1999, at the age of 25, she escaped to Delhi by train due to domestic violence. She also took her 3 children along with her and as a single parent, she raised them working as a housemaid in New Delhi homes.

Her last employer, writer and a grandson of noted Hindi literary giant Munshi Premchand, living in Gurgaon noticed her interest in books, encouraged her to first read leading authors. She began with Taslima Nasreen's autobiographical Amar Meyebela, which proved to be the turning point of her life. She read a few more books and Professor Prabodh Kumar encouraged her to write her own story. She wrote in native Bengali. Kumar also aided in editing the manuscript and translated to Hindi. Bengali version got published in 2002 and to surprise, the book turned out to be a best-seller. Later the book got translated to 21 languages and the whole world read the story of this housemaid.   

Published: N/A

Updated: January 21, 2014