For this is the enduring importance of Khushwant Singh. He could be - and often was - quite opinionated, gossipy, (good-naturedly) malicious, sometimes bawdy and even raunchy, almost always provocative, an inveterate name-dropper but also self-deprecating, irresistibly witty and very, very readable.
A born raconteur, Khushwant Singh could shine across the literary spectrum, be it short essays - both travelogues and pen-portraits - short stories, novels and even plays with memorable settings and characters. I have not read all his published oeuvre but a considerable part of it though a long time
e seemingly dissolute British hippy, the old slumbering guard - are well delineated while the mood moves from a mounting sense of unease towards an acceptance of the inevitable (and consequently living it up) before the unexpected denouement. Pity Khushwant Singh did not dabble in this genre more...
A perceptive and prickly observer of people, Khushwant Singh could also embellish the most humdrum of incidents and locales into something that would captivate you. It may seem dated now and is certainly overboard, but his account of Phoolan Devi, when she was on the run after the Behmai massacre, b
It is easy to go an and on. But let me end with one of the jokes he sported in his column in the Hindustan Times. "A lady phones up a bookshop and says: 'Please send me all the books you have by Khushwant Singh. Also send me something to read'."