Happy Singh ….

‘Above all – and I am repeating this because it is so important – don’t  be afraid  to be yourself and to be honest . If you write fearlessly and candidly you have to be prepared to pay the price’ – Khushwant Singh in Khuswantnama. He definitely was fearless, candid, simple writer, whose short stories I had read and studied as part of English curriculum, and whose column I remember reading in ‘Illustrated Weekly’ during my childhood days and ofcourse his jokes … 
The tribune  ‘Our well-loved Santa and Banta owe a lot to the bespectacled sardarji, with his untidy turban, sitting in a bulb and scrawling through sheets of paper every day: Khushwant Singh, of course. He made the Santa-Banta jokes popular indeed by carrying them as a tailpiece in his weekly columns and then compiling them in best-selling books that adorn the kiosks at bus stands and railway stations’

It was coincidence that just couple of days  before his death( on March 20^th) I read 2 of his books, and one was Khushwantnama his last book which got published last year when he was 98 years old  and I had noted down some of the things which I felt were worth noting down … tWhat I like about his writing is the simplicity , very simple language which anyone can understand and his honesty and his ability to make fun of himself … in his last book Khuswantnama - towards the end of the book he narrates his experience of undergoing ‘endoscopy’ few years back and I could stop laughing loudly for atleast 10 mins tears rolling down my cheeks, when my daughter came from her room asking what happened ….. such was his talent ….

Quoting Khushwant Singh on different topics which when I read I exclaimed ‘yes yes you are absolutely right Khuswant ji’ … 

On Intolerance - ‘My biggest worry today is the intolerance I see in our country. We are cowardly lot that burn books we don’t like, exile artists and vandalize their painting we take liberties to distort history testbooks to conform to our ideas and ideals ….’

On Secularism – ‘ … a state that calls itself secular has no business involving itself in purely religious matter such as pilgrimages. By all means make provisions for the security and comfort of pilgrims as our state government do for Kumbh Mela and Rath Yatra but it is wrong beyond that … Govt should put a stop to building ad construction of any more places of worship we have more than enough already ….  It is also time to reconsider facilities provided to muslims going to hajj  …subsidies to pilgrims who cant pay for their expenses and send official delegation of muslims free of cost to Saudi …. there is no justification whatever for doing this ….’

‘… If we choose India become a Hindu rashtra , this will have dangerous consequences , we will soon face serious challenges from across our borders ….’

On Journalism  - ‘ … but the problem is there are not enough journalist who are interested in specializing and most of them are not equipped to write on the subjects they cover …. Journalists these days are not well read … that’s why so much of banal reports of speeches or political meeting …  Breaking the News story is the thing now ….’

On Sex – ‘ … Indians have it on their brains more than they have it in their right place … sex is so integral and important to one’s life that you cannot avoid thinking about it  … I’ve always belived that sex is more important than romance …. Romance is waste of time and loses its luster soon … there’s too much sexual frustration in our country. This probably explains the rise in molestation and rapes …’

On English language Paradox -  ‘ … I have often felt that language purists are the worst enemies of their mother tongue. The truth is that more a language takes from others the more it enriches itself. English is the richest language in the world because it has taken words from all languages with which it has come in contact …. Consequently Hindi which should have become our link language, has failed to do so and the language that links all parts of the country remains English …. 

One of the finest , celebrated writer I am sure Khushwant Singh will be missed by many, but one need not mourn for he lived his life to the fullest and left peacefully at the age of 99 with all his senses in place ….