An ‘official’ insight

The agony, ecstasy, labour, loneliness, uncertainty...of being a writer is something Suchita Malik has lived. And as her debut novel Indian Memsahib...

Suchita Malik’s debut novel, Indian Memsahib, weaves fact & fiction to tell the untold story of a bureaucrat’s wife

The agony, ecstasy, labour, loneliness, uncertainty…of being a writer is something Suchita Malik has lived. And as her debut novel Indian Memsahib, the untold story of a bureaucrat’s wife makes waves, Suchita sums up the entire experience aptly, “it’s like bringing into being a baby, as tough and as satisfying.’’ A student of literature and now teaching American Literature at the Government College for Boys, writing and reading, smiles the lovely author, has come naturally to her and she’d been toying with the

idea for a long time, ever since she read English August. “That was from a bureaucrat’s point of view, but there is another side to it all, the wives’ perspective, for behind the glamour is the grind and my journey of more than 25 years as a civil servant’s better-half is what Indian Memsahib is all about,’’ for Malik, who began her teaching career from MD University, Rohtak and has been regularly writing newspaper columns, penning the book was a walk down memory lane. Recalling the various stints of her husband, his transfers, associated problems, situations, the good and bad times and jotting it all down was how Suchita began it all. What people see, rues Malik, is only a hunky-dory situation, though many times there are situations which call for many adjustments, “as a wife, you have to play second fiddle, submerge your identity, be reticent, always have a smile and fight a lone battle at different stages of life, flagging her own banter of individualism. She also tries her level best to come up to the expectations of everyone at every stage of life relegating her own self, career and individualism.’’

The ground reality is different from what is seen by outsiders and Malik did a lot of introspection as she went through the process of writing and looked back closely at her own life, taking care of home, family, career and at times, also feeling personal gaps and emptiness. It’s been a long journey, nods Malik. As to whether the book is autobiographical, Suchita recalls how in one of her meetings with Khushwant Singh, he said that the first work of fiction is usually autobiographical and encouraged her to write a novel with that element in mind. “As a writer you have to be objective and even the imagination has to be factual, and so this novel is not only about my experiences, but also of the other wives, their emotions, identities,’’ Suchita recalls how apart from her daughter no one else had a clue about Indian Memsahib. And she’s absolutely ecstatic about the reviews and sales of the book and is all set for another novel and some non-fictional work too. “Teaching is like catharsis, challenging, satisfying and education is a subject that will occupy my writing now,’’ Suchita’s words come easy.