Mridula says mother in law has not yet accepted her fully

For around 19 years, actor Pankaj Tripathi and his spouse, Mridula, have been wed. Mridula most recently made an appearance on the Conversations with Atul YouTube channel, which is hosted by Atul Taishete. Mridula talked on the show about her difficulties with her mother-in-law, who hasn’t embraced her completely because they got married out of love at a time when such unions weren’t common.

Mridula clarified that she married Pankaj in spite of both families’ reservations. When Pankaj’s sister was getting married to her brother, she first met him during the wedding. As they became closer, they began to worry that because Mridula was from a higher social class, their relationship would not be accepted.

She said, “It’s still not acceptable. We aren’t blood relatives, but in our culture, it is unacceptable for a woman to be married into a family of a lower stature, if another woman has already been married into a family of a higher stature. And because my sister-in-law had been married above her station into my family, I couldn’t be married into their family, which was considered of a lower stature.”

When Mridula was in the ninth grade and Pankaj was in the eleventh, they began to feel something for one another. She chose to tell her father about Pankaj when she was on the verge of being engaged to someone else. She was shocked when he gave her a favorable response, asking, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? While her mother and sister-in-law were furious, she said, “I wouldn’t have wasted time looking for boys.”

Mridula mentioned that acceptance took time and even now some differences remain. She said, “There was a tehelka, a bawaal. Bhaabhi wasn’t happy, and mom wasn’t happy. They worried about how Pankaj would take care of me. But slowly, they began to accept us.” She concluded, “What can we do about it now?”

For those who don’t know, on January 15, 2004, Pankaj and Mridula were married. They received their daughter, Aashi Tripathi, in 2006.