H.S. Malik

H.S. Malik (1894–1985) lived a life of great and dramatic achievements, and this autobiography tells the extraordinary story of a life shaped by the spirit of adventure. When he was 14, his thirst for adventure took Malik to England from Rawalpindi, and he spent the next 11 years there far from home and family. After school and university, he joined the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot during WWI and engaged in daring dogfights with German warplanes, once crash-landing in France with two bullets in his legs. Lucky to survive, he returned to India and spent the next decade as a district officer in the ICS in rural Punjab. During this time, he faced and overcame very different challenges. Malik’s life spanned years of great change in India, and he sensed adventure at every stage. He was the first Indian to represent the country in the USA, before Independence; then the prime minister of the princely state of Patiala during the transfer of power; and then the representative of free India abroad, as its first envoy in Canada and France. After retirement, he took up the challenging task of making a contribution to India’s industrial development. Malik tells his story simply, with a touch of humour, in the elegant language of his time. In the process, he gives us an unputdownable chronicle of his life and times, which is also a story of adventure, the bonds of family and friendship, Sikh identity, and the power of faith. .