Khushwant Singh

Last month my daughter told me that she had heard Ruth was very sick and not expected to last long.  So it was not a shock to learn that she passed away on the 3rd of this month. Khushwant Singh reports.

India rightfully boasts of being the world's largest democracy. But not in one of its elected institutions, right from the Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabhas and Municipalities, does it function as it should. Khushwant Singh writes.

I wish there was a nicer sounding Hindi word than Patjhar for the spectacle of trees shedding leaves and donning new ones. In Delhi this takes place in the middle of March. Khushwant Singh writes.

I was overjoyed to receive what I assumed was a new book by Vikram Seth.  It is illustrated with lovely drawings by Prabha Mallya. Khushwant Singh writes.

Sets of plain-clothes policemen visited me three times during the day and told me: “Advani Sahib is coming to see you in the evening. Can we inspect your residence?” I replied, ‘Go ahead’.

The hanging of Afzal Guru on Saturday, the 9th of this month, should once again remind us of the futility of killing murderers. It does not have the slightest impact on the incidents of murders, writes Khushwant Singh.

For many long years I have been intrigued by the word Aum and wondered if it has an equivalent in English. Khushwant Singh writes.

The alarming increase in the incidence of the crime of rape has rightly drawn maximum attention of the media. Khushwant Singh writes.

During my years working in Bombay, I took a week off to visit Anand Milk Colony run by Verghese Kurien and his wife. I was most impressed by what they were doing. Farmers owning cows or buffaloes brought their spare milk produce from their villages and sold it to them, writes Khushwant Singh.

Khushwant Singh writes about how he celebrated Diwali this year and what keeps him going.

I can do no better than reproduce the introduction I have written for my 9th Joke Book. It says all I want to say about my being an inveterate Joker. Khushwant Singh writes.

It is for the first time that my Secretary, Lachhman Dass, during his 30 years of working with me, dared to ask me: “When Sisters’Day — Raksha Bandhan, Fathers’ Day, Mothers’ Day are celebrated, why not Wive’s Day or Husbands’ Day?..." Khushwant Singh writes.

Out of nowhere, memories of my close association with Raja Rameshwar Rao stole back in my mind. He has been gone for many years but reappeared in my mind as if it was only yesterday that he breathed his last. Khushwant Singh writes.

I came to befriend David Davidar from the day Penguin Viking set up branches in India. He was appointed by the British partners who held the majority of shares, I by the Sarkars of the Anand Bazar Patrika of Calcutta. Khushwant Singh writes.