आलो-आंधारि बनाम पेंग्विन से छपी 'ए लाइफ लेस ऑरडिनरी'

द अदर साइड आफ साइलेंस पुस्तक की मशहूर लेखिका उर्वशी बुटालिया ने बेबी हालदार की किताब आलो-आंधारि का हिंदी से अंगरेजी में अनुवाद किया है-ए लाइफ लेस ऑरडिनरी शीर्षक से। यह पेंग्विन से छपी भारत, अमेरिका और आस्टेलिया तीनों देशों में एक साथ। पुस्तक के पीछे के कवर पर बेबी हालदार का परिचय कुछ यों है-Baby Halder was born and grew up largely in Murshidabad, in West Bengal. She was abandoned by her mother when she was 7. Her father would vanish and reappear at random intervals. She was married off at 12, and pregnant soon after. She had two more children, and then her husband attacked her with a rock for speaking to another man. With remarkable determination, she walked out and took a train to Delhi with her children, where she started work as a household cleaner. Her employers were largely abusive, one forcing her to lock her children the attic, another demanding never-ending chores and massages. She worked in the home of a retired academic who noticed her interest in his books. He gave her a notebook and pen, and encouraged her to write herself. At night, after her work was done and the children asleep, she poured out her life story into the notebook. This resulted in her memoir A Life Less Ordinary. She wrote in Bengali, and the book has been translated into several languages including English.
The autobiography is the raw story of one person, but powerfully illustrates the lives of domestic servants in India, who are often abused and illtreated.
Baby Halder lives and works in a house in Delhi, and is writing her second book. इस परिचय के कारण बेबी की दूसरी किताब के बारे में लोगों को उत्सुकता है. यह दूसरी किताब ईषत रूपांतर शीर्षक पहले बांग्ला में, उसके बाद हिंदी में आएगी. बेबी की पहली किताब आलो-आंधारि का अब तक अंगरेजी सहित फ्रेंच, इतालवी, चीनी, कोरियन, स्वीडिश, तमिल, मलयालम, तेलुगु, उड़िया, बांग्ला इत्यादि भाषाओं सहित तीस से अधिक भाषाओं में आ चुका है। आलो-आंधारि का परिचय सुप्रसिद्ध लेखिका उर्वशी बुटालिया जी ने कुछ यों दिया है-A Life Less OrdinaryPenguin, India. 2006 The autobiography of a young woman and a domestic worker in a home in Gurgaon. Baby wrote this book in Bengali some years ago when, encouraged by her employer Dr Prabodh Kumar she began to read afresh, and then to write. Baby's life story is, in many ways, an "ordinary" one. From her difficult childhood, spent moving from place to place, coping with domestic responsibilities thrust upon her by an absentee father and a mother who abandoned the family when Baby was just a small child, to her marriage -- at the age of 13 to a man nearly twice her age -- and becoming a mother when she was still just a child herself. However it is "less ordinary" in that she battled against the odds, left her violent and abusive husband, and determined to build a better life for herself and her children in an unknown city. Baby's search for work led her finally to the home of Dr Prabodh Kumar, a retired professor and grandson of Premchand, the well-known Hindi and Urdu writer. With his encouragement and support she wrote her life story, which was published in Hindi and Bengali as Aalo Aandhari, and became a bestseller in both languages.

बेबी की अगली कहानी ईषत रुपांतर से शीघ्र ही हम यहां लाएंगे. वैसे जो पाठक उनकी पहली किताब आलो-आंधारि खरीदना चाहेंगे वे दिल्ली में इन दिनों चल रहे पुस्तक मेले से खरीद सकते हैं अथवा इस चिट्ठाकार से भी संपर्क कर सकते हैं.