Sujata Ajawale is one of the many characters in the show Mumbai Diaries who had to fight the hardest to finally get what she wanted: dignity and respect. This show by Nikkhil Advani made sure to present lead characters from all walks of life to make the viewers understand that everyone has their own journey and struggle. Everyone in the show works towards dealing with their issues and saving lives. Dr. Sujata was one of them.
Just like Dr. Diya Parekh and Dr. Ahaan Mirza, Dr. Sujata joined Bombay General Hospital as a first-year resident doctor. Bombay General Hospital might be a government entity, but it holds a reputation for having good doctors working very hard to make sure the patients remain safe, guarded, and alive. Dr. Sujata comes from a background of lesser means, and she has fought tooth and nail to reach this position.
It is implied that Sujata was a good student, and she got the medicine seat based on the caste-based reservation, which is meant as a way to grant her community opportunities they’ve been denied for generations. Something many in the countryside and the cities don’t try to understand. It is easy to comprehend the fact that she and her family struggled through their lives because of their backgrounds, and being the first doctor in the family was a big deal for her. She was not willing to forget her past humiliation and struggle and carried it in her heart as a badge of honor to let others know that what she and her family faced was real. Yet she ended up undermining other people’s dilemmas and issues. Sujata disregarded Dr. Diya Parekh’s issues with her identity and depression, which showcased her self-centeredness in the beginning. It was only because she thought she would have to fight for her position at the hospital, just like she had to up until now in her life.
Sujata’s arc is interesting because we get to witness firsthand discrimination from a policeman who refuses to get treated by her because of the caste she belongs. This is probably the reality she wanted to talk about and let her peers see the ugly face of society. She was not surprised at being treated differently because she was raised in an environment that eventually made her immune to people disregarding her and reducing her to the caste she belonged to.
This rampant bias is what made her proud of her identity and fight for it till her last breath. But as the saying goes, crimes and killings do not see caste and creed, and as a doctor, she treated everyone as any other physician would. This is when we get to see the most chauvinist of people being at the mercy of doctors like her and suddenly becoming willing to see the person as a professional. Sujata dove into helping as many as she could, as the hospital was under attack from the terrorists. She also helped the policeman who had repeatedly shunned her. It was her need to help him as a doctor that challenged his beliefs.
Dr. Sujata also decided to give Dr. Diya the benefit of the doubt since she lost her mother in the terrorist attacks, but things got only worse. In season two, her tiff with Dr. Diya continued because, just like the entire hospital, she blamed her for Dr. Kaushik being cornered and projected as a bad professional. Sujata, who worshiped Dr. Kaushik, could not bear the man being put through a media trial, especially when they saw how hard he worked on the night of November 26th. Sujata’s arc in the second season was about proving her mettle as a good doctor and a strong decision-maker. Since she was a witness to an accident amidst heavy rainfall, she managed to rescue all of them except the mother. Sujata was affected by the sudden death, even though it is common in their line of work to witness a demise. But Sujata’s deeply affected core wanted to help the child because she wanted to be someone who fought for the needy. She was aware that growing up, she never got any support from her surroundings, which triggered her need to fight for the young girl and save her. Her fight backfired because she ended up getting suspended for forging Dr. Kaushik’s signature.
This did not stop her from saving young kids from a juvenile home who, by the looks of it, were being molested and, as a result, were probably suffering from STDs. Her day had begun on a bad note, but she wanted it to end in a manner that would help her feel better about herself. Despite everything she had been through, Sujata was as inexperienced as Diya and Ahaan. All three had to work twice as hard as any senior personnel in the hospital to sustain their jobs. It was a struggle for them as much as it was for her. Sujata managed to save the children from a horrible fate, which made all the difference to her in the last twenty-four hours. Her suspension being revoked helped her regain the confidence that she had lost. It helped her confront the caretaker at the juvenile home, who was finally sent behind bars for molesting young kids and causing them life-threatening diseases.
Sujata is politely asked by Dr. Kaushik and Dr. Subramaniam to stop fighting. Her constant reaction to everything is to fight, because this has been her reflex since childhood. Asking her to stop fighting at a workplace where she is treated as an equal comes from a place of respect, which means they will always stand by her. It only made sense because she had reached a point in her life where she could control her narrative and live life on her terms. Something her superiors feel proud of. Dr. Sujata is far from perfect, but she is on the path to being a better person and accepts the fact that she got the job she always wanted, and there will be nothing that will stop her from here on.
