Sardar Khushwant Singh as I met him

When I landed in Delhi in the summer of 1965 to search for a job, I got hooked to reading his weekly column 'With Malice Towards One and All'. I found it very interesting, juicy, simple language and excellent flow in his expression. He will include a bit of politics, a personal story, a moral and usually ending with a poem or a Joke. So I waited anxiously the whole week for his new fresh and superb stories.

The above famous 'Mario' cartoon he used on his column first appeared in the “Editor’s Page” of The Illustrated Weekly of India. It depicted a caricature of himself, sitting next to a pile of books, a bottle of scotch, and a girlie magazine. This was the most famous signature cartoon in the whole country.

I had the pervilidge of visiting him in person in 1984.  Government of India decorated him with  Bharat Bhushan in 1974. He returned the decoration in 1984 in protest against the Union government's siege of the Golden Temple, Amritsar. My neighboures in Jangpura Extension Mr Inderjeet Singh Rekhi, Mr Paul Rekhi and their elder brother took the initiative and also invited me to join in a group to congratulate him for the bold action he had taken.

We had already taken an appointment without which he will not meet anybody. As we gave the door bell, a man with a small turban in a Kurta Pyjama opened the door. To my pleasant surprise it was Sardar Khushwant Singh himself. At the door step we wished him Sat Sri Akal and all the four of us put merry gold flowered garlands brought with us around his neck one by one.

He thanked us and said that there was no need of such felicitations and the Government has done such a wrong that Sikhs are not going to forget it ever. His words have always echoed in my years even today. Such a strong opinion and prophecy he was capable of making. His contribution to all in general and Sikhs in particular will always be remembered.

I am including below a review on his biography  by his son Rahul Singh which will enlighten you of his rare qualities:

Biography of Khushwant Singh

KHUSHWANT SINGH, the man and his writing, what he exposes of himself, fascinate the readers of his columns. They far outnumber the readers of his books, over which, one suspects, he labours much more. To say that Khushwant Singh’s life is an open book is a cliche. He has written so much about himself that there is hardly a facet of his life that his fans are not familiar with.

Rahul Singh, himself an author and editor of repute, has produced a book on Khushwant Singh. The DNA is the same, both father and son handle the English language with felicity, and give the readers an effortless text; yet the differences in the treatment of people are significant.

Rahul Singh writes about his father much as a son is expected to, a fair blend of intimacy, respect (it does come through) and familiarity. The sentences propel the reader on to the next page, and the next thereafter, a refreshing change from the complicated, can one say convoluted, constructs of recent writing in India.

The book is also the story of a family, the shadow of which falls over large areas of prime real estate in Delhi. Khushwant Singh’s father, Sir Sobha Singh, made his fortune in building Delhi; the son wrote about the city in a memorable, controversial novel.

His childhood was spent with his grandparents, his days in Modern School, Delhi, “where he was not too good either at studies or in games”; Khushwant Singh the Stephanian, managed admission to King’s College, London University, because “neither Oxford nor Cambridge would admit anyone with a third division.”

Khushwant Singh’s childhood was spent in a religious atmosphere. The book attributes his love of listening to Gurbani every day, and his maintaining the distinctive symbols of his faith, even as he maintains the position of an agnostic to this fact. It was the discovery, by his mother-in-law-to-be, of a book of Sikh hymns under his pillow that turned the vote in his favour while he was wooing the much-sought-after Kaval Malik.

The writer exchanges greetings during his morning walk in Kasauli

Religion runs deep in us, even as we seek to negate it, and Rahul Singh’s account of the hurt that his parents experienced when he cut his hair while in London will bring a lump in the throat of many a Sikh parent who has faced a similar situation. He returned his Padma Bhushan in protest against Operation Bluestar.

Khushwant Singh, the indifferent student and a prankster, the advocate who would not pay touts to get business, the diplomat who chaffed under Krishna Menon’s bossiness in London, the journalist who joined the profession, to quote his son, after Rahul, and the man who had done memorable translations of the Japji and written a well-regarded History of the Sikhs, are all facets of the man who has written more about his life and most others. Rahul Singh brings them out in a well-written, neat and short account.

Of course, the pictures of Khushwant Singh’s wife, Kaval, show a strikingly beautiful woman. No wonder she always attracted men, something Rahul deals with candour, discretion and without malice. He also brings out her large-heartedness and the account of her last days says a lot because it is understated.

Rahul’s sister, Mala, and her daughter, Naina, figure prominently, though one would have liked to know more about other members of the family—his uncles, aunts and cousins, and even Rahul. We come across many of the characters we have met earlier in his columns. N. Iqbal Singh, who was familiar to the readers of The Tribune, the Mangatrai’s, Giani Zail Singh, the Zakarias, but they are the supporting cast, as Rahul Singh unfolds the story of his father, and he is rather even handed in handling relationships spoilt by Khushwant Singh, putting to print something that hurt someone quite dear to him.

Family photographs flesh out the narrative, which this reviewer read at one go. They add so much life to the early years of Khushwant Singh, since we are familiar with the face that we see now, not the well-turned out Sardar we see in these photos. Both Rahul Singh and Khushwant Singh tried to get into the Indian Civil Services—ICS and IAS, respectively—and both did not manage. Kismat. They wielded the pen much more effectively than they might have pushing files and fighting through red tape.

Rahul Singh has penned an engaging biography of his father, Khushwant Singh, says Roopinder Singh, in a Review above published in The Tribune Chandigarh on Sunday May 23, 2004