BHOPAL: Journalist and author Khushwant Singh had spent several months in Bhopal while penning his ‘Train to Pakistan’ and his father, who was a leading contractor who had built almost half of Delhi, had raised several buildings in the state capital. This was revealed by Khushwant Singh’s son Rahul Singh during a session titled “Life and Writings of Khushwant Singh: Rahul Singh in conversation with Bachi Karkaria and Anil Dharkar” on the second day of the Bhopal Literary Fest at Bharat Bhavan on Sunday. Bachi Karkaria, a former editor of the Times of India, and Dharker, an author and the founder and director of the Mumbai International Literary Festival, had a delightful conversation on the late Khushwant Singh – a writer, journalist, columnist and iconoclast rolled into one. Bachi Karkaria fondly recalled the times when, as a 22-year-old trainee, she worked under Khushwant Singh, who was the illustrious editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India. “Take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously was his advice to us,” Karkaria said, recalling how Khushwant Singh came to the office dressed rather shabbily. “Working under him was a life-changing experience for me,” Karkaria said.
In a lighter vein, she recalled Khushwant Singh’s weakness for premium liquor, “People would come to the office and present him a bottle of exquisite scotch”, she said, “And then, they would request him to have a look at the poems of their sons or daughters.” She said that Khushwant Singh did not want to become the editor of the Illustrated Weekly and so he put impossible conditions before the Times of India management but the management accepted each of them. Rahul Singh chipped in saying that he too edited the Illustrated Weekly. “But having a famous father is a burden. You will never match-up to him and your work would never be recognised,” he said wryly. “His shoes,” Rahul said, “were too big for me.” Dharker added that he had once asked Sachin Tendulkar as to why he had allowed his son to become a cricketer. “I told him that had your son become a tennis player, at least he would have been never compared with you.” Khushwant was irreverent to the core and despite being a respecter of all religions, was very proud of being a Sikh, said his son. Rahul’s description of his father’s interview for joining the Indian Foreign Service evoked peals of laughter.
Rahul said that the first question Khushwant Singh was asked by the board comprising Englishmen was why he wanted to join the IFS. “Unlike other candidates who talked of patriotism and their desire to enhance the stature of their country in the comity of nations, Khushwant answered, ‘I am told the pay is rather good.”’ And when he was asked how many guns were fired when the Viceroy of India had a child, Khushwant responded with a comment that left the interviewers red-faced. “I don’t not know that but what I definitely know is that the Viceroy’s ADC was fired!” He said.