To its credit, Olympic bronze medallist, Sakshi Malik’s momentous memoir, Witness, does not bother with pussyfooting around what was, and is, an explosive issue. The Olympian’s style—on and off the wrestling mat—is simple, straightforward, brutally effective and savagely spectacular. With Jonathan Selvaraj, Sakshi takes no prisoners as she goes after not just the likes of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and Amit Shah, but even fellow wrestlers like Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Babita Phogat, her own mother (with whom there was an eventual rapprochement), and going so far as to almost, but not quite, accuse a fellow competitive wrestler of witchcraft.
But that’s Sakshi for you. The reader is taken on a whirlwind journey across Sakshi’s life, which is one of strife, triumph, love, loss, tragedy and redemption. It has the vim and verve of a blockbuster while being grounded in raw emotion that is unlikely to leave even the most jaded of readers unmoved.
She is as every bit hard on herself as she is with those who have crossed her. In a poignant portion of her recollections, she reveals how her 7-year-old self would occasionally steal money from her classmates, driven to do so by her poverty. This excuse is trotted out to explain, but not defend, her actions.
Years later, when she herself becomes a victim of robbery on multiple occasions, Sakshi philosophises that it is karma catching up with her. She is also hyper-critical of the “mental weakness” that saw her struggle.
