Mumbai: Acclaimed actor Pankaj Tripathi’s wife, Mridula, a charming and down-to-earth woman, has recalled that she first saw the star in a photograph and how their love story began in 1993 and culminated in marriage in 2004.
In a chat with filmmaker Atul Taishete, Mridula said it was in 1993 when she first saw Pankaj.
“I saw my husband, and he saw me on 23 May 1993 for the first time. Before that, we received some photographs. It was for my brother’s wedding. A girl’s picture was sent to us. Her two brothers and parents were also in the picture. That was when I was in ninth standard in school, and he was in the eleventh class,” she said.
Mridula further shared that she took the pictures to school and showed them to her close friends back then.
“They saw my bhabhi (sister-in-law), but they also saw the two brothers. The elder brother had gotten married and had kids, and then the younger brother. My friends teased me that the younger brother would look nice with you.”
Mridula first saw Pankaj (in person) on the day of her brother’s tilak ceremony, a traditional Indian pre-wedding ritual in which the groom’s family visits the bride’s home to officially ask for her hand in marriage.
“We were looking at each other a lot during the tilak. I still tell Pankaj that I saw him when he had just started getting a beard, and now I see him when he has glasses. It has been a long journey,” she recalled.
Talking about the love story, she said that the “liking was mutual and that he started looking for reasons to meet.”
A handkerchief played a major role in their love story.
“The conversation started like ‘haath dhoya to remain’ chaise (after washing hands, you need a handkerchief). So, I would be the one to hand that over to him. ‘Rumaal dene main hi haath touch hogaya’(The hand would brush while handing the handkerchief), which was enough for me to get butterflies,” she narrated.
Their conversations started very slowly.
“I used to say ‘aap,’ but my mother told me to call him ‘bhaiya’ because he was my sister-in-law’s brother and was older than you by two years. That was a dilemma because I couldn’t call him bhaiyya. I started with Pankaji ji. I never called him Bhaiyya or Pankaj.
Mridula revealed that she calls Pankaj “Pati”, or husband, and the two have a daughter named Aashi Tripathi.
“To this day, I call him Pati. When he comes to Calcutta (Kolkata) in six months or a year, he purposely touches my foot. He has a naughty streak. It’s a small love story that began in 1993, and we completed it in 2004 by getting married.”
The two never formally confessed their love; she said it was very ‘organic.’ However, she said she wrote him a letter about getting married when he was at the National School of Drama in New Delhi.
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–IANS
