Abandoned by her own mother at the age of four Baby Halderexperienced things worst than a nightmare. The 4-year-old child grew with herfather and her stepmother who forced her to drop out of school in 6thclass. Suddenly one day she saw herself sitting in a mandap thinking that it’sa normal pooja but was asked to accompany the old man to his home. Yes, she wasmarried at the age of 12 to a man 14 years older than her.
When girls of her age used to play and spend their childhooddays cheerfully, Baby became a mother. First an abusive father then an abusivehusband Baby’s fate was following her badly. One day in the year 1999, 25-year-old Halder managed to escape her husband and ran off to Delhi with her 3 children.Her destiny had few more struggles planned. In Delhi, she started working as adomestic help in different homes where she was often humiliated for being asingle parent.
The turningpoint
Her stars were about to change when she started working at awriter’s home. Probodh Kumar was a writer and a retired anthropology professorin Gurugram. Every time while working in professor house her hands used to slowdown at the bookshelf like something is calling her from inside to stop andgiving signs of positivity. The professorher gaze for the books and from that day he started encouraging her to read. Hemotivated her to read many books written by notable writers including AmarMeyebela. Narrating about this in an interview Baby said, “reading AmarMeyebela felt like I was reading my own story aloud”.
One fine day when professor Prabodh had to visit south India fora trip he gave Baby a blank book and a pen. He asked her to write in it until hereturns. To this Baby was utterly confused that what will she write and willshe be able to write something after 20 years. What will she write? The biggestquestion of the time; her abusive father, the dark days of her married life,the domestic violence, the labor pains she faced at the age of 13, or thememory of her sister being strangled? Slowly and gradually she began formingwords and sentences. There was a feeling of liberation as she went on with it. Whenfinally the professor returned, Baby had written 100 pages. Yes, full 100 pagesall by herself!
The professor was in tears after reading the final manuscript ofBaby’s first-ever book. ‘Aalo Aandhari’ (light and darkness) was the name ofher autobiography. Many reading enthusiasts compared her book with ‘the diaryyoung girl Anne Frank’. After many rejections, Aalo Andheri first saw theshelves in 2002. The English translation of the book was published in 2006 andsoon became a bestseller. Today the book is translated into 13 foreign languagesand 21 local languages. Later on, Halder wrote two more books and said, “writinggave me the identity I never had. It is my life”.
A girl who never saw the sight of a notebook for 20 years emergedas a bestseller writer. Baby’s story is nothing but a source of inspiration forall of us who in spite of having all the facilities don’t find ourselves capableenough of something extra-ordinary. Giving up on life and never taking a standfor yourself will make things worse. The way Baby refused to tolerate the violenceand took charge of her own life was the moment her stars began to change. As itis said ‘God helps those who help themselves.