Indian Memsahib: life and times of a bureaucrat’s wife

The auditorium at the India Islamic Cultural Centre in the Capital was packed to capacity with bureaucrats, along with their wives who had all come for an evening that belonged to them.

The auditorium at the India Islamic Cultural Centre in the Capital was packed to capacity with bureaucrats, along with their wives who had all come for an evening that belonged to them. As a bureaucrat’s wife, Suchita Malik couldn’t have been happier — the audience comprised of a world she knew best after all.

“My marriage to my husband began with a peace accord between us. It would set the foundation of not only our marriage but also our lives from that day on,” Malik said 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 Tejendra Khanna, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.

Indian Memsahib… spans the roller-coaster journey of Sunaina, a bureaucrat’s wife. Malik admits that her characters stem from her own life, including Sunaina who fights a lonely battle at different stages of life, flagging her own banner of individualism. “Being a VIP spouse is like a finished product of the cinematic world where 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, a resident of Chandigarh. She teaches English at the Government College for Men in Sector 11.

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A keen academic, Malik has 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, of the times. This story is mine and yet it belongs to so many other women,” said Malik, who was inspired to write her book after reading Upamanyu Chatterjee’s English, August.

“Chatterjee was in the same batch as my husband and after reading his book, I wanted to present the perspective of the spouse who is as involved in this profession as the bureaucrat himself,” said Malik.

Though the idea had taken seed, it took many years to germinate and it was only in 2006 that Malik began writing. Keeping the ever-growing manuscript a secret from her husband, she began recollecting and writing her book that eventually had to be shared with her husband, Yudhveer.

“I started asking him to recollect certain important events in his career and soon, he caught on to what was happening. But this book could not have been possible without him,” said Malik. Having ended the book on a not-so-final note, she may contemplate writing a sequel soon.