I was in no mood of writing a review, being out of touch for almost an year now but somebody made me write it and this review is dedicated to her.
?If you don?t present the truth as you know it, don?t bother to write an autobiography
-Khushwant Singh?
K.S. is one of those few literary giants that India has produced who when pens down even rubbish, people sit down to read. His collection of jokes, short stories, novels and articles as a journalist have been much celebrated and have brought him his due laurels.
He in the beginning of his autobiography justifies the reason as to why he took to writing quoting Benjamin Franklin:
If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten
Either write things worth reading
Or do things worth reading
He modestly adds that he does not feel that he has done anything worth recording so he thought of writing things worth reading.
Khushwant Singh (K.S.) never intended to write an autobiography and when probed about his past would often quote Urdu poet Hakeem Makhmoor:
?I told no one the story of my life
It was something I had to spend
I spent it.?
Nevertheless K.S. at the age of 80 went on to write this magnificent autobiography which he claims his daughter ?bullied? him into writing.
K.S. in the very beginning warns about not to expect much from his autobiography other than ?some gossip, some titillation, some tearing up of reputations, some amusements?. But I would differ from the grand old man himself and would say that the book is a mixture of some nostalgia, some experiences - sour and sweet, experiments ? successful and flop, a bag full of truth and curtness and a life both worth reading, writing and remembering about?
The author begins from where he finds it safest to begin that is the beginning. He gives a brief picture of his childhood in the small village of Hadali , his self assumed birthday, 15th Aug 1915 and the carefree days spent there.
K.S. then tells us about his school days in the Modern School Delhi. Here he describes about his plight as a subject of ridicule being a sardar and about boys who were infamous for buggering and about boys who farted all the time. He claims by the time his days of schooling were over he had learnt about women and their being objects of ?love and lust?His college days were spent in St. Stephen?s College, Delhi and Govt College, Lahore where he studied law. Here also he describes about his escapades with his sister?s friends, girls of his college and about some of the boys in whose association he came.
Then comes his life as a man when he had to leave for London to do his masters in law which he left uncompleted but not without proposing to his new found infatuation who was to later become his wife with a verse he had memorized from Elegy:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
Dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear,
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness in the desert air.
K.S. admits he was himself unsure of the meaning of the verse but he knew he had made his mark as no other person had courted the girl with such flowery words.
He then has stories to tell about his interactions with the high profiles of the society right from Jawaharlal Nehru to Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her sons. He gives a detailed description of Nehru?s exposure by the press in England when he tried to meet Lady Edwina Mountbatten at midnight and then in a coffee shop when he had gone to England for the first time as the P.M. of India.
He then has to tell about his closeness to Indira Gandhi who also got him in the Rajya Sabha while he was the editor of The Illustrated Weekly and later The Hindustan Times. He was a first hand witness to Maneka Gandhi?s being thrown out with her little son out of the P.M?s house. He was the only journalist from India who went to meet General Tikka after the Mukti Bahini launched by India to help Bangladesh become free from Pakistan. When the interview was drawing to a close K.S pointed to a quotation from the Koran kept on the mantelpiece and asked the General what it meant.
The General read it loudly: ?Nasr min Allah Fateh un qareeb. It means Allah grants victory to those whose cause is just.?
K.S. quickly replied ?General Sahib, Allah in His wisdom granted us victory as our cause was just?
For the first time the General smiled during the interview and said ?Sardar Sahib, I suspect you knew what the quotation meant?. K. S. admitted he did and left.
Then came the bitter experience of Operation Blue Star in which the armed forces stormed the Golden Temple of Amritsar on the occasion of the death anniversary of the Sikh Guru Arjun Singh. Many innocent lives were lost during this operation and much damage was done to the holy place. This hurt the sentiments of K.S. to such extent that he returned his Padma Bhushan that he had received in 1974. But many snubbed this act of his as a mere propaganda stunt to gain publicity. He was asked as to why he did not resign from R.S. as well; he replied that he did not wish to let go of a platform from where he could voice the grievances of his community to the government and that?s exactly what he did. When the parliament session started he dubbed the whole unfortunate incidednt at the holy shrine in the following Urdu verse:
Woh waqt bhi dekha tareekh ke gahraiyon nay
Lamhon nay khata kee thee
Sadiyon nay sazaa payee
(The ages of history have recorded times
when for an error made in a few seconds
centuries had to pay the price)
He recounts his association with Pakistan for which he had a soft heart.
Then comes a very interesting chapter titled Oddballs and Screwballs where he rips apart a lot of strange people he met who were odd to his taste most of them being people obsessed with self praising and endless talking. He also gives a very interesting incident where one person came to him and claimed to be the son of Pd Nehru and another incident when a person came with a ?scoop? that he had concrete evidence that Sanjay Gandhi?s death was tailored by Churchill as he was jealous of the fact that Sanjay was seducing the Queen of England!
The Last But One Chapteris how the last chapter of his autobiography is rightly christened as an autobiography can not have a last chapter which only the death publishes. Here one gets to know the inner K.S.- his fear and fascination for death, his non belief on God and religion, his aversion to astrology but his sticking to Sikkhism which provides him an identity to his existence. He wants to die like both his parents died. In his own words ?Both my parents were long lived. My father died at ninety- a few minutes after he had his lost sip of Scotch. My mother?s ladt request made in a feeble voice was ?Viskee?. It was given to her. She threw it up and spoke no more. I hope when my time comes, I too will be able to raise my glass to take one for the long road.?He ends his life?s account by saying that he would like to go as Allama Iqbal exhorted strong men to go
Nishaan-e-mard-e Momin ba too goyam?
Choon marg aayad, tabassum bar lab ?e-lost
(You ask me for the signs of a man of faith? When death comes to him He has a smile on his face.)
contd in comments.
