In Witness, Sakshi Malik writes about more than winning matches: she examines fear, body image, insecurity and her own failings alongside her life in wrestling. Prem Panicker’s review of the memoir reads that candour as its defining quality—a portrait of the person behind the athlete, not just a record of sporting achievement.
What kind of story is Witness?
Witness is Sakshi Malik’s memoir, co-authored with journalist Jonathan Selvaraj and published by Juggernaut. In his review, Prem Panicker describes a narrative that moves from Malik’s childhood in a small Haryana village and early experiments with sport to wrestling, elite competition, relationships and the wrestlers’ protest. His reading is that the book’s political and institutional conflict bookends a more intimate life story.
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That distinction matters: the book is not only a chronicle of a sporting career or public controversy. As Panicker presents it, Malik also turns her attention inward, writing about fear before bouts, self-doubt and the personal costs of her choices. The review’s descriptions of other people and institutions reflect Malik’s account and Panicker’s interpretation; they should not be mistaken for adjudicated findings.
Why the mirror matters
A Scroll excerpt from the memoir offers a concrete example of the self-scrutiny at the centre of this angle. Malik writes about feeling uncomfortable with her muscular arms, avoiding clothes that exposed them, and gradually becoming more at ease with her body. She describes her biceps as 14 inches thick—a personal detail from her memoir, not a general statistic.
#1 Best Overall
In the excerpt, Malik writes, “I’m a lot more comfortable with my body now.” The sentence captures a change in self-perception without suggesting that confidence arrived all at once or that the discomfort was trivial. Her account makes body image part of an athlete’s lived experience, rather than a side note to performance.
Fear and self-criticism alongside achievement
The review also highlights how Witness attends to the emotional experience of competition. Malik writes, “I’ve always been afraid, sometimes almost sick with worry.” Reproduced in Scroll’s review, the line complicates the familiar image of elite athletes as untouched by anxiety. It does not negate her achievements; it shows fear coexisting with the work of competing.
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Panicker’s interpretation emphasizes a willingness to look unsparingly at herself, including her insecurities and mistakes. The memoir’s interest, on this reading, lies in the tension between public achievement and private uncertainty: Malik is both the wrestler known to the public and the person who recounts what she found difficult.
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The New Indian Express’s 9 November 2024 book listing gives Witness as 336 pages and Rs 799. Those are dated listing details, not confirmation of the book’s current price or availability. Check a current retailer or publisher listing before relying on them.
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