It isn't easy for a girl from Gopal Nagar to chase a dream.
But Pinky was extremely determined. A force unto herself, she was going to go places. Literally.
Till it abruptly ended one morning on the tarmac at Baramati airport.
The laughter has died at the three-room rented flat on the 18th floor of a MHADA Gruh Sunkool development, south central Mumbai.
It died early one morning in late January.
Home to the closely-bonded Mali family, on the 28th of last month, their star, their joy, the bubbly, chanchal, much-loved Pinky, who brought so much happiness and merriment to the household, died on the tarmac at Baramati.
Pinky Mali, 30, an air hostess for VSR Aviation, was on the Learjet 45 that fatally went down while landing, also killing Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, his bodyguard Vidip Jadhav, Captain Shambhavi Pathak and Captain Sumit Kapur.
Pinky had woken up at 5 am that morning, cooked, done a bunch of household tasks at her flat in Kalwa, Thane, that she shared with her husband Somvikar Saini, who worked with KPMG, and by 6 am she had left for Kalina, northwest Mumbai, and reached the airport before 7 am.
The television was off at the Mali home, in Worli, early hours of January 28. Pinky's elder sister Preeti received a phone call from her husband at 8.35 am telling her 'News dekho. Dada's flight has crashed'.
Pinky had flown with Pawar -- Ajit Dada, as he was known -- a couple of times, they all knew.
Frantic up-and-down phoning began.
Meanwhile many calls were coming in for her father Shivkumar Mali, who drives a black-and-yellow taxi, but was also an Nationalist Congress Party worker for 35 years.
Finally, they rang Somvikar asking him if he knew which flight Pinky was on. He assured them that she had flown to Shamshabad, outside Hyderabad, and was not on Dada's flight to Baramati, 'Tension mat lo.'
Preeti remembers, "Hum log sab ke haath-pair kaap rahe the. Papa disturb ho gaye the bahut jyada. He had spoken to Pinky the evening before and he knew she was on the Baramati flight."
Preeti texted Pinky but the message didn't go through.
The Malis rang whoever they knew who might be able to provide the right information, including Vijay Kumar Singh, the Delhi-based owner of VSR Aviation.
Singh said he would get back to them in 10 minutes. They called him and he confirmed that the flight had crashed and Pinky had been on it. He was unable to give them any further details if she was "zakhm" (wounded) or what they should do.
After that Singh never called again and put his phone on call forwarding. Nor did anyone from the airline try reaching them then, or later, or -- most upsettingly for the Malis and Somvikar -- bother to have the required respectful courtesy to the inform them of her death, although they are now in touch as they await and pray for the much-needed compensation.
Finally, Somvikar took a decision and told the Malis, "Mujhe Baramati jaana hai." He immediately got going and drove there along with Preeti's husband Shashi Kumar. Later Shivkumar decided he would join them and followed in another vehicle.
They reached Baramati late afternoon and Pinky's father reached by 11 pm. They were able to identify her body from the rings and necklaces she customarily wore.
And the unconsolable trio brought their Pinky home the next day.
During this gruelling, tragic journey, to and fro, they were deeply grateful and blessed to have the support of Sachin Ahir, the Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC from Worli, who organised food, transport and accommodation.
Pinky was cremated in Worli, very close to her former childhood home at Gopal Nagar, where it had been her dearest wish to buy back a home again, and her ashes were immersed in the Godavari in Nashik.
Pinky grew up in this Worli neighbourhood. Her family was originally from the village of Bhainsa in Jaunpur district, Uttar Pradesh. But the Mali clan, says Shivkumar, was large and "kheti-bhari mein kuch ho na pata tha" so crop outputs of their holdings not so good, and her great grandfather migrated to Delisle road, central Mumbai, in 1959 and became a banana seller. His son, Pinky's grandfather. worked at Kamla Mills.
Hers was a plucky, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps Bombay Story.
She went to the local municipal school at Prabhadevi nearby and her heartbroken mother, Maya, head covered, weeping copious tears, recalls she was a "hoshiyar" student.
Pinky was a sweet little girl with Tall, Tall Dreams.
From very young, she fantasised about becoming an air hostess. Neerja Bhanot was a hero and she had watched the 2016 film Neerja several times, getting "emotional" after each viewing.
A garlanded picture of a pretty Pinky, with cute, pert features, bright eyes and a winning smile, looking awfully proud in her uniform, sits on a small table in the first room of the flat.
It faces a large portrait of Sai Baba, who Pinky revered too.
A little Lhasa terrier dances about. Pinky's family, including Maya's sisters, Shivkumar's brother, are all there to offer support.
Shivkumar's tiny hunched-over wailing mother just then arrives from their village in Jaunpur and a scene of bleak grief unfolds.
It isn't easy for a girl from Gopal Nagar to chase a dream.
But Pinky was extremely determined. A force unto herself, she was going to go places. Literally.
She attended Tulsi Manas Mandir College at Parel, finishing her 12th in commerce, and after that began her struggle to be a flight attendant -- "Usko laga ki airport par job karna hai." The practicalities of becoming a stewardess were very tricky and her aspirations a bit too lofty initially. So in 2014, she settled first on a ground staff position.
To that end she enrolled herself at the Aptech Academy, Malad, northwest Mumbai, that taught, for Rs 1 lakh plus, over six months, 'personality development' and the basics of becoming part of an airline's ground staff force.
Pinky, beginning at a salary of Rs 10,000 and working her way up to over Rs 24,000 pm, worked as a member of ground staff for several airlines over six or seven years, Bird Worldwide Flight Services, Akasa, Cambata Aviation, Emirates.
Her colleagues often told her to seriously follow her desires and strive for a flight attendant's job, because they felt she had what it takes.
Explains Maya, "Log bolte the, aate jaate, ki aap cabin crew mein try karo. Boli mujhe ki cabin crew mein try karna hai mujhe. Toh mein usko boli ki 'Theek hai try karo'. Toh bahut interview dee. Indigo mein bahut baar dee, Air India mein dee, Vistara, saarein jo yahan flights hai sab mein diya uska interview (People told her to try for a cabin crew job. She came to me and said she wanted to try for one and told her to try. She gave many interviews, several to Indigo, Air India too, Vistara, for whichever airline that flew out of Mumbai she gave an interview)."
Getting a flight attendant job is extremely uphill. Explains Preeti and younger brother Karan, "Bahut struggle kiya. 10,000 people apply for 4,000 posts. And you have to pay money to a third person like an agency/agent. You can't get a job directly, impossible. Beech mein paisa khaanewalle bahut hai (so many middle men needing to be paid)."
Agents could be given hefty sums, that went unreturned, but still no job would materialise. Pinky finally moved to Delhi for six months and, paying fees of Rs 2.5 lakh plus, she trained at an academy in Gurugram. Her first lucky break was for Fly Big, a local Assam airline. But the airline folded up thereafter.
The next job took much longer in coming along and in the interim she taught at the Speed Jet Academy at Dadar, north central Mumbai.
In 2025 she secured a better job. This time with VSR.
She was over the moon. Pinky was an air hostess at last.
The newly-minted flight attendant was now earning an adequate enough income that could help support her parents, who she worried about endlessly.
She enjoyed every moment of her nine months and 80 to 100 trips with VSR, recalls Preeti.
Her flights took her to Goa, Hyderabad, Kerala, Tirupati, Pune, Maldives, Kolkata, Kashmir, Varanasi, elsewhere in Maharashtra. On a good week she was in Mumbai for a day or two, else she was out the whole week.
She was flying with a whole range of big-wigs and that made life quite exciting.
Actor Chiranjeevi. Actor Ram Charan and his wife. India TV newscaster Rajat Sharma. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Bharatiya Janata Party MP Narayan Rane. Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. Maharashtra Governor Acharya Devvrat. (Later Vice President) C P Radhakrishnan. Telangana Chief Minister Anumula Revanth Reddy. Maharashtra Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule. NCP leader Praful Patel. Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dattatray Bharne. Several Hyderabad stars. Businessmen.
On her return she would recount to the Malis, especially her sister, what it was like flying with the who's who. Says Karan, "Utarti thi, hotel mein pahuchti she would call (She would get off the flight, reach the hotel and call)."
She spoke to one of the family at least once a day, telling them thrilling or quirky stories from her flights. Preeti remembers an odd one: "She would say all the celebrities like croissants! And would ask for them."
Before her last flight, the sisters met up at Korum Mall, Thane, and spent the day together on January 24, their final meeting; she was the last one of the Malis to see her.
Pinky was a carpe-diem kind of girl. Bindaas. "Ekdum hasmukh." Loved life. "A universe believer." Adored flying. Kept up with the news, informing her family about news breaks. Enjoyed her movies -- particularly Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. And her Bollywood songs.
She was crazy about Shah Rukh Khan. Her favourite song, says Preeti, who could not get its name, had lyrics that went thusly: Mere din badal jayenge, puri duniya mere kadam chumegi, mujhe mere naam se pahchanegi...
Always busy, gazing forward to the future, planning, organising, Pinky was on the lookout, perenially, for ways to help her family.
She had even buttonholed 'Ajit Dada', after serving him a glass of nimbu pani, on her second last flight with him on Saturday January 24. It was a day, she later recounted to Preeti -- she was never afraid of flying till then -- when the plane landed in Mumbai with an odd sounding "jerk".
She told Pawar, while they were in the air, that she regarded him as a father figure and asked for help for her father, who had become quite disheartened with not getting anywhere after putting in so many years of service with the NCP. Ajit Dada's PA had called Shivkumar the day before Pawar died.
Pinky also continued dreaming.
She wanted to fly with bigger and better airlines. There were plans to someday start an aviation academy. She often coached young airline aspirants in her spare time, gratis. She had once bought her mother a ticket to UP but wanted to do it again, and again.
A foodie, she relished her chai, Chinese fried rice, seafood. A cook too. Malvani-style fried fish was her specialty; she made it like she had been born a Koli.
On Republic Day weekend, Pinky was trying to coax her family to visit her in Thane. But they promised to plan the outing later. A Mali clan trip to Nashik was also on the cards.
You may not have ever met Pinky. But you too can acutely feel the Pinky-sized hole in the Malis' home. And in their life, that they lived vicariously through her.
It's now solemnly quiet.
Mourns Maya, heavy sobs shaking her frame, as her husband quietly, in a tender gesture, wipes away her tears: "Humare haath-pair kat gaye, humara eklauta sahara thi, humara pura ghar uss par depend tha. Humara sapna, uska sapna pura karne ke chakkar mein, hum log ek dum barbaad ho gaya."
The favourite sister and daughter, the hasmukh has gone, taking her Big Bombay Dreams and laughter with her.
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