Shilpa Raj has been raised in the poverty and went to Shanti Bhavan to get her education and all that was unexpected to a great extent because Dalit children in India are seldom there to be found in the schools which offer education. Shilpa’s journey as an author has begun with her debut memoir The Elephant Chaser’s Daughter which will be released worldwide on 28th July 2017. In her memoir, the very debut work, Shilpa Raj has given an insider’s view of the lives of the Dalit people around the nation. As an author, picking a very serious issue in her very first book, Shilpa Raj has set the standards for herself and delivered a message that her writing means something… she is not in the business of writing something for the sake of writing!
Born in 1993 to an elephant chaser father, Shilpa Raj was scared when she learnt about going to school, away from her family. However, the decision of going to Shanti Bhavan proved to be life changing for her and she made the most of it. She experienced two parallel lives as she writes in her book as well. One was the life within the sphere of her family and society – the underprivileged one and another at Shanti Bhavan, where she could have everything ‘general children’ born to some elite family have. These experiences become the foundation for Shilpa’s writing when she begins to write.
The inclination towards writing casual short stories during her high school days and later maintaining a journal eventually came up as making Shilpa the first every Dalit woman to have written a memoir. Her writing has won her recognition and praises all over the intellectual zone. Kirkus Reviews have praised Shilpa’s craft in The Elephant Chaser’s Daughter. Many critics from India and celebrities have spoken well about the debut memoir of young author Shilpa Raj. All this have only fused motivation in Shilpa to write further and raise her voice against the prevalent discrimination and partiality in the society.
Shilpa Raj has made her debut as an author with purpose and her book is surely going to work on the conscience of people. I will also be bringing the book review of The Elephant Chaser’s Daughter very soon. Till then, good time!
story by – Rajdeep