| Language | English |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 978-0-143-41532-9 |
| No of pages | 317 |
| Font Size | Medium |
| Book Publisher | penguin |
| Published Date | 18 Oct 2010 |
About Author
Related Books
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 978-0-143-41532-9 |
| No of pages | 317 |
| Font Size | Medium |
| Book Publisher | penguin |
| Published Date | 18 Oct 2010 |
Khushwant Singh, one of the best -known Indian writers of all times, was born in 1915 in Hadali (now in Pakistan).
He was educated at the Government College, Lahore and at King's College, Cambridge University, and the Inner Temple in London.
He practiced law at the Lahore High Court for several years before joining the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in 1947. He began a distinguished career as a journalist with the All India Radio in 1951.
Since then he has been founder-editor of Yojana (1951-1953), editor of the Illustrated weekly of India (1979-1980), chief editor of New Delhi (1979-1980), and editor of the Hindustan times (1980-1983).
His Saturday column "With Malice Towards One and All" in the Hindustan times is by far one of the most popular columns of the day.
Khushwant Singh's name is bound to go down in Indian literary history as one of the finest historians and novelists, a forthright political commentator, and an outstanding observer and social critic.
In July 2000, he was conferred the "Honest Man of the Year Award" by the Salah International Social Service Organization for his courage and honesty in his "brilliant incisive writing.
" At the award ceremony, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh described him as a "humorous writer and incorrigible believer in human goodness with a devil-may-care attitude and a courageous mind.
" The Indian external affairs minister said that the secret of Khushwant Singh's success lay in his learning and discipline behind the "veneer of superficiality."
Among the several works he published are a classic two-volume history of the Sikhs, several novels (the best known of which are Delhi, Train to Pakistan, and The company of women), and a number of translations and non-fiction books on Delhi, nature and current affairs. The Library of Congress has ninety-nine works on and by Khushwant Singh.
Khushwant Singh was a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Indian Parliament) from 1980 to 1986.
Among other honors, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974 by the President of India (he returned the decoration in 1984 in protest against the Union Government's siege of the Golden Temple in Amritsar).
© 2023 Dharya Information Private Limited
Delhi is the twin of pure paradise, a prototype of the heavenly throne on an earthlyscroll Amir Khusrau.
A city of contradictions, where ancient traditions and modern aspirations jostle for space, Delhi has often been compared to a phoenix rising from the ashes. Its three thousand years of eventful history have witnessed the rise and fall of several empires, a process that continues today.
City Improbable brings together writings by immigrants, residents, refugees, travellers and invaders who have engaged with India's capital over different epochs. Babur shares his earliest experience of the city and Amir Khusrau praises the fine lads of Delhi;
Ibn Battuta and Niccolao Manucci record the glories and follies of prominent rulers; William Dalrymple and Khushwant Singh provide intriguing accounts of the threshold period that saw the coming of the British and the waning of the Mughals.
Poets and storytellers Meer Taqi Meer, Ghalib, Yashpal, Kamleshwar, Ruskin Bond narrate their versions of the city. Contemporary Delhi is featured in a variety of vignettes: the bureaucracy, the Emergency, the anti-Sikh violence, lovers and joggers in Lodi Gardens, the city's Sufi legacy as well as its changing cuisine.
Among the new pieces in this expanded edition are Sam Miller's account of his experiences in the suburb of Noida, Manto's story about a girl from Delhi leaving the city during Partition, Jarnail Singh's unflinching recollection of the massacre of Sikhs in 1984, a photo essay on Shahpur Jat by Karoki Lewis, and a composite narrative by the young writers of the Cybermohalla Collective about the making of a resettlement colony.