Truth, Love & A Little Malice by Khushwant Singh

Title: Truth , Love and a little Malice.

Author: Khushwant Singh

Genere : Autobiography

Publisher: Penguin

Non-Fiction

ISBN: 9780143029571

Pages:432

“in this world men of faith and self confidence are like the sun, they go down on one side to come up on the other side. translation of a wonderful urdu shayari.”

The above line is a translation of many shayari in this book which is one among the many wonderful lines quoted in this book. What makes a book special and memorable may vary from person to person but there will be something that one thing which you would recall whenever that book is mentioned. To me this book was special in many aspects. Among the Indian authors , he is one of those whose writing has inspired me not for the decorative language but for the simplicity by which he presents his thoughts. I have read his books and also a short biography named absolute Khushwant. Considering the fact that he is in his late nineties makes it all the more compelling read for the fact that the view of a century is covered and especially the most happening part of the Indian history. The other aspect which will remind me of this book is that i read it on the Delhi metro sometimes lurking on a rod amongst multitudes of crowd , sometimes tired and bored while returning from a hard days work and quite aptly all the time in noise and a lot of people around for this book is about India and its people.

The book is divided into many chapters arranged chronologically according to the events in the authors life.He talks about many people in the book and sometimes i am dumbstruck at his memory. Among the many chapters i liked the beginning of the chapter on mumbai and also the last chapter which is a general chapter. Khushwant is truthful and even after being a successful writer has presented the facts quite bluntly and in its true sense. It not only presents a picture of evolution of India since independence but also presents an idea on the distribution of power and politics that went on. It gives hope to those who may find themselves in a stage which is leading to no where and may have an idea of life which others may not agree to. His journey of writing amongst a lot of foreign trips , women and scotch comprises of small stories, in fact his most famous stories like,”The Mark of Vishnu” have been inspired by real life events. Amongst all things is his truthfulness and the courage to admit whatever happened in his life. There are many facts which have been presented which may seem astonishing but this is what Khushwant is all about. There is no doubt that how networking is important in one’s life and how he made the good use of it. Small stories, laughters, shayaris, names, scotch , women, politics, and so on is what this book is all about. This is a wonderful read on life in general and a review of history of India from a different perspective with a pinch of salt.

“Dhoondta phirta hoom aya Iqbal apne aapko

Aap hi goya musafir aap hi manzil hun mein

(I keep looking, oh Iqbal, for myself,

As if I am the traveler as well as the destination itself)”

Rating : 3/5