Pankaj Tripathi and Mridula have been married for 19 years now, but the actor’s mother hasn’t accepted Mridula as his daughter-in-law.
Mridula, in a recent interview, shared how their relationship was tested as love marriage was highly uncommon in their area. She shared that because her family was from higher kul, so it was unacceptable for her to marry Pankaj. Owing to these societal constructs, her mother-in-law hasn’t accepted her to this day.
For the unversed, Mridula was in the 9th standard and Pankj in the 11th when the two realised they liked each other.
‘It’s still not acceptable’
Speaking on Conversations with Atul’s YouTube channel, Mridula explained “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.”
She recalled almost getting married to someone else when she told her father about liking Pankaj. Her father was surprised and said, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I wouldn’t have wasted time looking for boys.” However, her mother and sister-in-law (Pankaj’s sister) were devastated.
(A file photo of Pankaj and Mridula | Image: Instagram)She shared that it took time for everyone to come on board and accept her and Pankaj’s relationship. “There was a tehelka, a bawaal (a ruckus). Bhaabhi wasn’t happy, mom wasn’t happy. She was concerned about how he’d take care of me. But slowly, they came around to accepting us,” she recalled.
(A family photo | Image: Instagram)Mridula opens up about her mother-in-law’s reaction
Pankaj and Mridula got married in 1993 and welcomed their first child, a daughter, in 2006. To date, her mother-in-law believes in her social stature and hasn’t accepted her as her daughter-in-law. However, the couple has made their peace and moved on. “My mother-in-law hasn’t accepted me to this day, for the reasons I mentioned earlier. She is still upset about this intermingling. But what can we do about it now?” she concluded.
