E-Paper
Punjab is Khushwant Singh’s canvas and he paints it in different strokes
Khushwant Singh’s new novel, The Opium Toffee, captures the turmoil through the ’80s and ’90s in a love story and a note of hope
Punjab and Punjabis, past and the present, scattered all over the world have drawn this writer and the latest is The Opium Toffee which tells of the times of terror in a leap from Chandigarh to London Town.
True to his times and in tune with the adventurous spirit of the Punjabis, author Khushwant Singh took it on himself to travel and capture the spirit of people of the land of the five rivers who had earned name and fame in distant shores in his first book,The Turbaned Tornado. The adventure continued when he took a peek at the glorious times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the contemporary metaphor of Maharja in Denims and now it is The Opium Toffee which finds him talking of love in the times of terror and after.
The writer says: “My first two novels are rooted in the history of Punjab from the glory of the past to a view of the more present times. The Opium Toffee which was completed in the isolation of the Covid times encases the dark past juxtaposed against the healing power of love.
The story begins dramatically with Chandigarh girl Shabnam, now a supermodel in London, finding her love Ajit stringing the guitar as a filthy beggar and singing ‘Jugni’ if you please, at the Strand. Then pages of the past and present unfold covering the drug abyss, extremism, illegal immigration and all till love conquers everything.
It is on this note of love that the novel dedicated to “the farming community of India” ends. “The story ends on a note of hope which is integral to the Punjabi soul and soil,” says Khushwant.
One of the initiators of the Hoshiarpur Literature Fest, Khushwant is indeed savvy with the pen as well as taking things forward and his two novels which are all set to be made into web series. What next? “I am busy signing copies for now and let’s see what follows,” says the writer who has also penned the biography of Captain Amarinder Singh, former chief minister of Punjab titled, The People’s Maharaja.
