Absolute Khushwant  (English, Paperback, Humra Quraishi, Khushwant Singh)

Khushwant Singh’s life, his works, and his outlook about the main political events in India have been chronicled in Absolute Khushwant by the legend himself, and journalist, Humra Quraishi.

Summary of the Book

Absolute Khushwant details the life of Khushwant Singh, a man whose name has commanding connotations. Singh had made several conflicting statements and had taken strong stances over many political, social, religious events among others in his lifetime. Yet, the spirited Sardar remains to be a legend. Despite being an agnostic, Khushwant Singh was also an expert on the Holy Scriptures. He had always defended free democratic speech during the state of Emergency as well. A complex man that he was, Singh still saw beauty and simplicity in the world smeared with corruption and antagonism. What is the most striking feature about Singh is his absolute honesty. Whether it was his work or his personal life, he was always brutally honest and truthful. He is also known to have written several letters on a variety of subjects like the philosophies of attaining happiness, faith, and so on. Born in the year 1915, Khushwant Singh had watched the pre- and post -partition events and the enormous suffering faced and endured by his country. In this book, he has also spoken widely about the political personalities who have shaped up India as a country that it is today. Singh also talks about his personal successes and failures. With a brilliant career that spanned for more than sixty years as a journalist, editor, and writer, Khushwant had always stood out in the crowd due to his radical and sometimes debatable assertions. However, his views have remained to be insightful and have marked his gift of prophecy related to a lot of events in his lifetime. Absolute Khushwant is an honest take on the life of the Sardar, which deals with several secrets and confessions of the beautiful mind. His doubts, his profound longings, and people he liked and disliked are all described in this work.

About the Authors

Khushwant Singh was an Anglo-Indian writer, advocate, politician and journalist. A Padma Vibhushan awardee, Mr. Singh is best remembered for his humour, love of poetry and his vigorous treatment of secularism in his writings, most evident in: The Company of Women, Truth, Love and a Little Malice, With Malice towards One and All, The Mark of Vishnu and Other Stories and Delhi: A Novel. A graduate of Government College, Lahore, St. Stephen's College in Delhi and King's College London, he read for the Bar at the Inner Temple and served as a practising lawyer before entering journalism. He had worked with The Illustrated Weekly, The National Herald and Hindustan Times. A prolific writer, Mr. Singh wrote till the grand old age of 99, releasing his last work The Good, The Bad and The Ridiculous a few months before his passing in March 2014.

Humra Quraishi is an Indian journalist. She is a freelance columnist and reporter based in Delhi. Her features and interviews are regularly published in The Times of India, The Statesman, the Hindustan Times, Pioneer, The Indian Express, and Tribune. She has been visiting Jammu and Kashmir frequently since 1990, to report on the disorder there and the consequences it has been having on the lives of the people in Kashmir.