EMPOWERER EXTRAORDINARY
BABYHALDAR, 46 Author and social worker, KOLKATA
Her story is by now well-known. How she was married off to a much older man when she was 13, had three children by the time she was 20, chose to escape her abusive marriage, and landed in the national capital region with her three children. There, she gained employment with Munshi Premchand’s grandson, Prabodh Kumar Srivastava, who found her leafing through the works of Mahasweta Devi and Taslima Nasreen while dusting books in his library. Tatus, Polish for father, as she would call him, encouraged her to read. He also handed her paper and pen to write down the story of her life. That resulted in A Life Less Ordinary, the English translation of her 2003 autobiography Alo-Andhari. It turned Baby Haldar into a literary sensation, with her book translated into 14 languages. She went on book tours to France, Germany and Hong Kong. A couple of more books—Ishat Rupantar, Ghore Pherar Path—followed.
In 2016, Baby relocated to Kolkata, to be close to her Bangla roots and the people she would write about. Here she joined the NGO Aapne Aap Women’s World. She now teaches children of sex workers in areas such as Sonagachi. “I teach them Bengali and Hindi,” says Baby. “Sometimes their mothers too come along. They narrate their tales of woe and often seek our advice and guidance. We look for ways to empower them.” Baby, of course, just has to tell them her story to show that nothing is impossible.
She has just finished writing two novels. “I am yet to decide on the titles for them,” she says. They are about my book tours to foreign shores—between 2007 and 2009, and about my work with Aapne Aap Women’s World.” ■
“NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER ACCEPT ADVERSITY AS YOUR DESTINY. YOU ARE YOUR DESTINY AND YOU CAN CHANGE IT”