Thursday, July 13, 2006

A Life Less Ordinary

Abandoned by her mother at 4, married off at 12 to an abusive husband, a mother herself at 13 - there is little in Baby Halder's traumatic childhood to suggest she would become an emerging star on India's literary horizon.

A single mother at 25, struggling to feed her three children by working as a maid for a series of exploitative employers, 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 child's notebook and pen and encouraged her to start writing.

A "Life Less Ordinary," this season's publishing sensation in New Delhi, 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.
Read more here.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw a pic of this author in y'day's Deccan Herald! Very interesting...hope to read this book soon, if not later!

remainconnected said...

This is what I call "India Shining",people who were never been able to express themselves have now opened up.

Also I had read a similar article in the Hindu Sunday Metro Plus magazine,(dont remember the exact date, but around 2-3 months back) on Vaishali Haldankar. A detailed article on this was also published in the Outlook magazine.

It was how Vaishali,a hospital worker, domestic work, juice vendor, Osho disciple, bar performer and now a writer has written a book based on her life, a 1200-page hand-written manuscript in Marathi.

You can read more here:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2006051400430400.htm&date=2006/05/14/&prd=mag&

Anonymous said...

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I am looking forward to reading this book soon.

Unknown said...

would love to read this book by vaishali.if she could autograph it for me,that would be the icing on the cake.good luck vaishali for a better life.

Anonymous said...

miss vaishali,
congratulations and god bless you.may your life and luck change for the better.you can count on me as your well wisher and friend.
steve vincent
svf710@rediffmail.com

Anonymous said...

dear vaishali,
i would like to be your friend.my email is virgo219@indiatimes.com
my name is stanley siolcar.