He has been for several decades one of the greatest writers in India. Besides being a journalist, editor, writer, he was outstanding in many aspects of writing including humor, politics, analysis and malice toward one and all as he says. So when I went to New Delhi in the late 1980s I tried to meet Kushwant Singh when he was already a renowned man of letters, perhaps the most widely read writer for most of the century. As I write today he is approaching 100 years of age. He says he does not want to live much longer, but continues to write anyway.
In preparation for the visit I had read as much as I could of his exceedingly readable books ranging from his masterpiece the "History of the Sikhs,” to one or two, some might prefer had not written but still buy them.
All I needed to secure admission to his well-guarded sanctum was a phone call to Miss Saadia, daughter of Yusuf Dehlawi the founder and editor of Shama, India's great Urdu language film magazine. I had known her father during his visits to Jeddah and interviewed him for this newspaper. We met in Khan Market, a well known address where I used to shop for books and which had been built by Kushwant's father, a prominent Delhi contractor during the British era. Then we drove to the house and were well received by Kushwant who called Saadia his second daughter as he had his own Sikh daughter. Saadia was also devoted to him and visited him regularly.
We sat down to cups of very good Indian tea, which I adored, and began a long conversation that left me spellbound. It was impossible to be bored as he had a huge fund of knowledge and stories that he had gathered over the decades in addition to jokes he collected from readers of his columns. They were some of the best loved in the Indian press and now and then he published them and acknowledged their senders.
The man did not leave any subject untouched. He was a barrister from London, a government diplomat, and a former editor in chief of dailies and weeklies and of course a master of the art of conversation. His leap to public fame came to him with the publication of his two-volume book on the history of the Sikh community to which he belonged although he did not necessarily practice its tenets since he was not a religious man according to his public statements. He was an agnostic. But he was a gentleman and a loyal Indian and a sincere servant of the Indian public. From there he remained in the public eye and started writing for various publications until he was employed full time to edit some newspapers. He was hired to be editor in chief of the famous Hindustan Times and the Illustrated Weekly of India.
After his departure he chose to remain a writer through syndication. Millions of people in India and outside remained devoted readers even if they did not agree with his views.
His biography reveals scores of books, thousands of columns and articles and book reviews and he remained a prominent guest at functions and book launches. Prime ministers, leading writers, foreign visitors continued to visit him while others wrote about him with special admiration. Nobody else in India has had this kind of adoration. He was at first a devoted supporter of the Congress party and a friend of Indira Gandhi who recommended him to become a member of the Upper House of Parliament which like the British House of Lords had no legislative powers. He was bored and relieved when it was over by choice.
I met him once more at a luncheon hosted for me by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations. As usual he was the center of attraction as both men and women of all shades gravitated to his corner and as usual he was his vivacious self and made every one excited about him and enthralled by his conversation.
I continued to read his columns in the dailies and his excellent book reviews in the Indian magazine Outlook India. At the time of writing he had stopped regular columns after his farewell book. Although he uses a wheelchair he is alert and is still collecting jokes may be to bring out another book if he lives to see it in print.
Farouk Luqman is an eminent journalist based in Jeddah.
