Truth, Love and a Little Malice is Khushwant Singh autobiography and lives up to its title in every manner. Khushwant Singh wrote and published it in the mid-nineties when he was biting his 80’s, assuming there wasn’t enough time left, but much like his long memory, life gave him another 20 years before ending in 2014. He was 99 at the time and on the topic of death he had quoted a couplet of Iqbal:
“You ask me about the signs of a man of faith? When death comes to him, he has a smile on his lips.”
I did not know much about Khushwant Singh before this book. I knew he was somebody - but for the most part of my life I thought he was a comedian because I read one of his bawdy comic books as a kid (not age appropriate at all).
Khushwant Singh belonged to a fading generation of people who had grown up in the pre-partition India, witnessed the partition, and lived through the years of tumult as the two nations struggled. Born in 1914 in the village of Hadali in Punjab (now in Pakistan) Khushwant recounts his journey from childhood, adolescence, adulthood and following years while covering cities and hopping countries. The book is divided into chapters that cover various decades of his life.
Writing with candor, recalling with wit and reminiscing with sentiment - he remembers so much that at occasion his memory leaves the reader stunned. You see him rubbing shoulders with some of the most eminent and/or notorious people of those times (some already famous and some not yet). He is brutal and honest in his assessment/recollection of people and events (Turns out he had trouble initially publishing the book for this very reason - Indira Gandhis daughter-in-law slapped a lawsuit on the book for character assasination). He belonged to a small group of influential people on both sides of the border that believed in peace and wanted peace (which I find admirable)
“I believe I did succeed in making Indian Muslims look upon me as a friend: when I was nominated to be a member of the Rajya Sabha many said, "We have another Muslim in Parliament." Others who disliked my views called me an unpaid agent of Pakistan. I treated both views as compliments.”
But my admiration is not unequivocal. When reading someone’s autobiography you end up becoming acquainted with their personality a little too well. Khushwant had his shortcomings - most glaring was his attitude towards women and how he predominantly viewed them as objects of desire. While he makes no secret of that - this admittance of it is not an absolution.
Why read: Khushwant Singh is someone who neither spared man or God. His life is fascinating - he writes about a good 80 years which covers some of the most important events that we read now as history. His wit and recollection of amazing urdu poetry is a delight as well.
Trigger warnings: rape, violence, murder, abuse.
Ice Candy Man is one of Bapsi Sidhwas most remarkable works. Set in the decade of the India-Pakistan partition, the book is written in a first-person narrative of a young girl. Perhaps the finest way to write about the partition, before and after, was through the eyes of an innocent child with an infirmity (polio) belonging to a minority Parsee community.
Lenny grows up in a pre-partition Lahore which is a melting pot of culture, faith and community. One of the central figures in her life is the beautiful ayah who looks after Lenny and takes her out to different parts of Lahore. Ayah is alluring, beautiful and kind. She turns heads where ever she goes and collects admirers from all walks of life. In the gardens and bazaars of Lahore, Lenny spends many idyllic afternoons and evenings in company of a collection of odd characters and admirers that flutter around ayah like a swarm of moths : the masseur, the ice candy man, a knife sharpener, a gardener. All men of different faiths (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian) forced into acquaintance and friendship by their mutual admiration of ayah. Lenny is a passive participant in their company, growing frustrations with the raj, solid convictions that people of subcontinent will look out for each other and trivial everyday banter.
There is much disturbing talk. India is going to be broken. Can one break a country? And what happens if they break it where our house is?
I ask Cousin.
‘Rubbish,’ he says, ‘no one’s going to break India. It’s not made of glass!’
Their conversations sets the background for a subcontinent that, after centuries of harmoniously nurturing many faiths, is now growing increasingly polarized. When Lenny travels to her cooks village in Punjab she first hand witnesses the strength of co-existence among the Sikhs and Muslims who avow to protect each other from the increasingly radicalized Sikh and Muslim groups in east. As a reader, you can sense these are people forced by their circumstances, the same way you realize groups are becoming radical due to the divisive policies set up by the British during their last decades in India. The books ends not with partition (because it wouldn’t that be too convenient) but goes on to paint the aftermath.
This book humanizes the partition. By writing from the perspective of a child who has no stake in the event, the reader witnesses the cracking and disintegration a community. Religious identities implode into the stark horror of the partition violence. Lenny ends up witnessing and experiencing all sides of the coin. Violence suffered by and perpetuated by all faiths. These were parts that chilled and horrified me. I have tried not to go into the specifics of the characters or the plot because I want this to remain spoiler free.
Why read: It is a neutral, bleak, unsentimental and spontaneous story set on the crossroads of a brutal epoch in subcontinent’s history. This book humanizes everyone - it tells you there were no villains. Everyone was a product of circumstances and fears. It reminds me of a famous shair by the poet Ustad Daman
Akhan di laali payi dassdi hai, roye tusi vi ho, roye asin vi haan
-Saima
So much fun to read this! My experience regarding Khushwant is similar to yours! Well, till you had read his biography. He seemed like a colourful personality.
Literature on partition always comes back to haunt me. I find it to be something close to home (pun un intended) However, I like reading about it. I want to read about it. Looking for stories that tell me all the sacrifices were worth it. It is true that people are a product of circumstance(s). Some people are pushed into doing things, some people .... are just doing things irregardless.
Great post!
Ice candy man: a book i read when iwas in my teens. It felt weird to read a book where the reader is just some years older than the protoganist. I could not figure out a lot of things in that book especially the ice candy man character. By university, i watched the aamir khan movie 1940 earth based on the book, where I actually understood all the motivations of the characters in the book and political complexity I could fathom.
Bapsi sidhwa is a difficult read. Her writing can be very glooomy.
I have only read khushwant singhs train to delhi: i always felt he loves writing sex like sydney sheldon and spends quite some time there. May be i should read his autobiography to better understand the partition.