In the year 1956, he conceptualised and edited Yojna which was an Indian journal and The Illustrated Weekly of India. And rightfully so! Little do we see someone be constantly trying out something new which is totally different from his/her previous profession. As I am writing this brief about him, the number of things he has served as is making my head spin. Singh in 1951 became a journalist at All India Radio.

He has quite an illustrious career, he practiced law at the Lahore High Court for near about eight years and then after India gained independence in 1947 he entered the Indian Foreign Service. He changed his name and choose to be called as Khushwant, a name that as per him was not only self manufactured but also meaningless. Singh was called “Khushal Singh” when he was a child. He had a good education and went on to read law at King’s College, Cambridge University and then was also briefly called to the bar at London Inner Temple. Singh was born in the year 1915 at Hadali which is now in Pakistan.

If you lived in the North and had a subscription to The Tribune, a daily newspaper, you may also be familiar with his columns. Maybe it is due to the fact that they reflect sincerity, whether he was right or wrong, he wrote what he thought and the same is visible in his work. While, I am guilty to state that I enjoy a bit of that, his works appeal to me just the same even without the rhetoric. His prose inspired simplicity, without unnecessary embellishments or romanticism. What struck me the most was his simple manner of writing literature.

Prior to that, I never really picked up one of his books. I was introduced to his works after we read “The Portrait of a Lady” as a part of our 11 th Grade curriculum.

Khushwant singh hindi books