Truth, love & a little malice: An autobiography

By Khushwant Singh

Book Overview

Read Khushwant Singh's interview done exclusively for Penguin India about his Autobiography...Khushwant Singh has always been worth listening to. In a career spanning over five decades as writer, journalist and editor, his views have been provocative and controversial, but they have also been profound, deeply perceptive and always compelling. Above all, despite his eminence and popularity, Khushwant Singh has never been less than honest and, most importantly, has never talked down to his readers. His autobiography is of a piece with his life and work. Born in 1915 in pre-Partition Punjab, Khushwant Singh has been witness to most of the major events in modern Indian history--from Independence and Partition to the Emergency and Operation Blue Star--and has known many of the figures who have shaped it. He writes of leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, the terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the talented and scandalous painter Amrita Shergil, and everyday people who became butchers during Partition, with the clarity and candour expected of him. Writing of his own life, too, Khushwant Singh remains unflinchingly forthright. writer and Member of Parliament; the comforts and disappointments in his marriage of over sixty years; his first, awkward sexual encounter; his phobia of ghosts and his fascination with death; the friends who betrayed him, and also those whom he failed. Uncompromising, comic, often moving and always hugely readable, Truth, Love and a Little Malice is a memoir worthy of one of the great icons of our time. The author, Khushwant Singh, was born in 1915 in Hadali, Punjab. He was educated at Government College, Lahore and at King's College and the Inner Temple in London. He practised at the Lahore High Court for several years before joining the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in 1947. He was sent on diplomatic postings to Canada and London and later went to Paris with UNESCO. He began a distinguished career as a journalist with All India Radio in 1951. Since then he has been founder-editor of Yojana, editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, the National Herald and The Hindustan Times. Today he is India's best-known columnist and journalist. Among his published works are the classic two-volume A History of the Sikhs, several works of fiction--including the novels Train to Pakistan (winner of the Grove Press Award for the best work of fiction in 1954), I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, Delhi and The Company of Women--and a number of translated works and non-fiction books on Delhi, nature and current affairs. Khushwant Singh was a Member of Parliament from 1980 to 1986. Among other honours, 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, Amritsar).

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670049166
• ISBN13: 9780670049165
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Viking
• Length: 423 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 8.4" x 5.9"

Customer Reviews

Informative and easy reading

I have read a few books of this author and this one clearly stands out from the rest. What strikes about this book is its honesty and simplicity. Dr. Singh has been brutally frank in this book about his sexual escapades and his own shortcomings. Dr. Singh has been in the middle of many defining moments of the Indian History and his accounts of these events provide a gripping reading. It is surprising that, someone would take this book to court and prevent it from reaching the public for 6+ years. This book has definitely affected me and will remain in my collection for a long while.

excellent

the book is written in a simple language easy to understand and no point of time the reader looses its interest in the book because of small sexual malices (...) Overall it becomes a very good reading book.

WOW-( in capitlat letters)

first of all i did not know who this guy was before i picked the book. i read the prologe just to check it out. lets just say the words just grabed my throat and pulled me into the book.... i am serious guys this is an amazing book...beautiful. " what the hell is this about?" ok ok it starts at the begining of his life...soon you will notice the way he describe the secenes and events are both beatuiful and humorous.. and then you will discover his honesty, unparallel to any other author i know, for egxample how he got confused and angry at his father after seeing him having sex with his mother.... the book ends with his philosophy which is very admiarable and interesting. this book will change your life there is no question about it. i mean this guy wrote this book when he was around late 80's he has seen so much in history. He was friends with neheru, indra ghandi, and other leaders in the world...and the most elite and famous writers of different generations...and he writes in this killer honesty, even about his first sexual eprerience".. respectability and honesty: not a combination you will encounter very often. this book will add new color to your life.