Book Review: Indian Memsahib by Suchita Malik

Indian Memsahib, by Suchita Malik

The book Indian Memsahib by Suchita Malik is partly autobiographical of the author’s life. Again, I had taken up this book based on a review read on some website or magazine, which I don’t remember where.

The book is the story of Sunaina, who takes through her life as a bureaucrat’s wife. The tagline that forms the book title “The untold story of a bureaucrat’s wife” is actually a bit misleading for almost 90% of the book. It feels rather than her life it’s actually Raghu, her husband’s life being described for most of the book. Her feelings and emotions are described in snippets and pockets until the last few chapters of the book, rather descriptions soar on Raghu’s ways of working, his projects, bureaucracy hassles, political intervention in work etc. The author has followed a question and answer style of narration, like education books, as she learns about Raghu’s job. The pre marital phase feels so passé, with elements like cultural dissimilarities, urban versus rural India, introvert versus extrovert types; explainable by the year 1988 mentioned somewhat later in the book. However it goes unexplained why Sunaina, an ambitious woman, desirous of an independent career gives it up all and simply wants to follow her husband to village trips?

The book does bring out the different aspects of bureaucracy in Government agencies and the highlight being a woman’s life as a wife of someone in the limelight, however only in later stages of the book. The administration problems in India is known by all Indians, but what this book provides is an outlook though the bureaucrat’s wife, the problems faced by her and the family through transfers, social status as VIP’s wife etc.