Grappling on and off the mat

Sakshi Malik's memoir is an honest, informative account of a young athlete's experiences in sport and off the field

- Arun Janardhan

I have never enjoyed the actual art of confrontation.

You would not expect to hear that from a professional wrestler. Not from Sakshi Malik, who won India's first Olympic wrestling medal among women, a bronze in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, besides a host of other international prizes. Nor from any combat sportsperson, whose profession, you would imagine, rests on their inherent desire for confrontation, like boxers Jake Paul and Mike Tyson showed recently.

This confession from Malik is just one of several honest, bold and unapologetic admissions she makes in her memoir Witness, written with Jonathan Selvaraj. Autobiographies can range from racy, flat-out thrillers like Andre Agassi's Open to the placid, safe Playing it My Way by Sachin Tendulkar.

In India, they tend to lean towards the latter, in an attempt to ensure no one is offended, no feathers ruffled. Witness is an exception, an informative, honest account of a young athlete's experiences in sport and off the field, written with disarming simplicity.

Now retired from the sport, Malik does not seem to fear repercussions—she has already had a taste of that after last year's protests—which makes Witness meaty.

A significant aspect of Malik's career, besides the career-defining medal at the Olympics, was her participation in the protests against the then Wrestling Federation of India president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Last year, a number of wrestlers took to the streets demanding the removal of Singh from his post over allegations of harassment and intimidation. Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Malik were the face of the protests.

A substantial portion of