Indian Memsahib: A ‘VIP spouse’ lifts veil on grind behind the glitz & glamour

The auditorium at the India Islamic Cultural Centre was packed to the full with bureaucrats and their wives. As a bureaucrat’s wife herself, Suchita Malik couldn’t have been happier. After all, the audience comprised a world she knew best. “My marriage began with a peace accord. It would set the foundation not only for our marriage but also for our lives,” said Malik at the launch of her debut novel Indian Memsahib: The untold story of a bureaucrat’s wife (Rupa, Rs 195). The book was released by Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna.

Indian Memsahib… spans the roller-coaster journey of Sunaina, a bureaucrat’s wife. Malik admits that her characters are drawn from her own life, including the protagonist Sunaina, who fights a lonely battle at different stages of life while flagging her own brand of individualism. “Being a VIP spouse is like a finished product of the cinematic world— the glamour is reflected on the screen, while the grind is relegated to the background. My book lifts the veil of our little-known reality, a life that is full of struggle, challenges, apprehensions, and above all, compromise,” said Malik, who also teaches English Literature at the Government College for Men, Chandigarh. Malik recently completed her post-graduate doctorate thesis on ‘faction’ — a literary mix of fiction based on facts.

“I clearly knew that I did not want to write an autobiography. I teach fiction and it is based on certain facts of life and of the times. The story is mine and yet it belongs to many other women,” said Malik who was inspired to write her book after reading Upamanyu Chatterjee’s English, August.

Suchita is wife of bureaucrat Yudhvir Malik.