KHUSHWANT SINGH

The passing away of  renowned author    Khushwant Singh  at the ripe old age of 99 has left a void in  Indian  writing in English. Once an editor  of the  Illustrated Weekly of India, a prominent  English magazine  of yesteryears or rather a bygone era,  he raised it to the highest level of popularity  in terms , both of content and circulation. In my schooldays , I was introduced  to  him through his story “”The Mark of Vishnu “  containing the  irony of a snake  biting   the very person  who fed it with milk everyday, at the spot on his forhead  smeared with the holy paste with the letter  ‘V’ . Later I read his ‘The Train to Pakistan’  relating the poignant saga of Partition. By his own admission, an  unorthodox Sikh, his “ History of the Sikhs “ remains his magnum opus. His weekly column  in the English  papers, going by the name of  ‘With malice towards one and all “  &  “this above All “  was eagerly awaited by numerous readers. Budding  writers  from Himachal  made it a  point to visit  him at Kasauli-his summer  abode and he always  encouraged them. Active till well into his nineties , he always wrote  literally putting pen to paper, without any aid from the computer.

My humble tributes  to the celebrity author !