"Note: The Elephant Chaser's Daughter is a true story of Shilpa Raj's life, and all events presented are factual based on her recollection. Individuals portrayed in the book are real, but pseudonyms are used for most to protect their privacy."--page 6.
When you are a female born into a poor Indian family, the odds are already stacked greatly against you. The human drama captured in this memoir is nothing short of amazing – a young woman’s struggle between the two worlds of her existence. Saved by her grandmother from being killed at birth for being a female, and abandoned by her mother at a young age, Shilpa faces the formidable constraints placed on her by her family and the village elders. The values with which she is being brought up in a school for poor children started by a philanthropist come in conflict with those of her family, tearing each other apart. Just when all seems settled, an unforeseen death under mysterious circumstances shatters whatever stability remains in her life.