The Elephant Chaser's Daughter by Shilpa Raj

If this was not enough,she also had to live in a violent environment of her family where she witnessed constant fights between her parents. They had no good clothes to wear, no proper food to eat and their home had no bathroom and they had to go outside. Just like her, her two siblings, her younger sister Kavya and her little brother Francis too had a difficult childhood. Her mother worked as housemaid and her father Anthony Raj is a Elephant Chaser. Shilpa in her childhood live a life of unprivileged kid in her village in south India.

In this book, she talks about the unimaginable difficult phases of life she has faced boldly. The Elephant Chaser's Daughter is Shilpa Raj's Memoir. Written with raw honesty and grit, this is a deeply moving memoir of a young girl confronting her ‘untouchable’ status in a caste-based society, and her aspirations for modernity. Is she strong enough to stand up to the people she loves, and pursue what she wants?Īt its heart The Elephant Chaser’s Daughter is about hope, when all seems lost. Pulled in opposite directions, and torn between despair and dreams, Shilpa finally makes a choice for her future. Just when all seems settled, an unforeseen death under mysterious circumstances shatters whatever stability remains in her life. Shilpa is torn between the contrasting lives she leads: one of servitude and injustice experienced by her family the other of opportunity and empowerment offered by a good education in a school started by a philanthropist. She faced abandonment by her mother, the formidable constraints placed on her by her family, and the barbs of village elders bound by hundreds of years of oppressive practices and customs that subjugate women. Saved by her grandmother from being killed at birth for having been born a female, Shilpa’s life took many unexpected turns and twists through her early years.

The Elephant Chaser's Daughter by Shilpa Raj