Summary of 'Sex, Scotch And Scholarship' By Khushwant Singh

This is the fifth anthology of khushwant Singh's writings that I have had the pleasure of compiling. I seem to be getting more efficient at the job. In all the earlier ones, it devolved upon me to preface the collection with a short biographical piece on the author, tracing his rise from being an academic failure to one of the most widely read and highest-selling authors in India today. This time I have deftly absolved myself of this task by inspiring Khushwant himself to write an expansive, autobiographical piece. It is the first in this book, written in his characteristically candid, forthright style, with the eye to detail that is his forte. It makes for satisfying reading, being as it is perhaps one of the- most 'complete' and accurate self-portraits he has ever made. As he turns the telescope on himself, he tells you what his alarm clock says to wake him up, the kind of tea he drinks, the strictly regimented daily routine he follows as well as the lesser-known details of his early childhood and later years as he struggled to establish himself as a writer.  

A few words about this anthology. The earlier selections of writings were usually confined to a limited number of topics. Unlike them, in this collection, an attempt has been made to not only bring out the quality of Khushwant Singh's writing - in his own opinion, comparable to R.K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Manohar Mulgaonkar, Ruth Jhabvala, Nayantara Sahgal and Anita Desai - but also to highlight its depth and diversity which, as it happens, is closely interlinked to the author's experiences and interests over the years.

Khushwant Singh started life by practising law, then switched to diplomacy which he gave up after a few years to turn to serious writing. Along the way, he taught comparative religion at Princeton, Swarthmore and Hawaii, translated the Sikhs' prayer, ]apji, as also researched and wrote a two-volume History of the Sikhs, considered one of the most authoritative works on the subject. His interest in religion was aroused early in life. Though born into a highly religious, God-fearing family, he began to question the value of rituals and the need to conform to Khalsa traditions while in college. In his own words, 'I decided, however, to go along with them rather than create trouble for myself. I took pains to understand the ·prayers I had been reciting . . . Meanwhile, at St Stephen's College, I attended Bible classes. Although the emphasis was on the New Testament, and the life of Jesus Christ, it was the language of the Old Testament, particularly the Psalms, the Song of Solomon and the Book of Job that I found myself drawn to. Later, while  working on the Sikh scriptures, I found so many references to the Vedas, Upanishads and the epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata including the Gita, that I decided to study them to better understand the meaning of my own Gurubaani.' Two translations, taken from the book Hymns of Guru Nanak, are included here. 'Interest in religion,' he continues, 'also made me read whatever I could on Jainism, Buddhism and later developments in Hinduism. Islam was the last religion I turned to, largely to free myself of anti-Muslim prejudices which had been instilled into me as a child. By the time I was forty, no religion evoked much enthusiasm in my mind.' Expectedly, Khushwant's views on religion are unconventional. He is a self­professed agnostic, and has consistently lectured as well as pleaded in print for a rationalization of religions, shorn of unnecessary rituals and customs. You will find four short pieces here, mirroring his attitude.

Another of his pet passions has been a study of nature. As he explains in the preface to his book Nature Watch, it all began many summers ago while he was on holiday with his English friends, the Wints, in Oxford. Their three-year-old daughter, who was an avid collector of wild flowers, was his first teacher and the one who kindled an interest in natural phenomena, which has endured to this day. Over the years, Khushwant has given talks on the subject on All India Radio as well as done a highly rated television serial, The World of Nature, for Doordarshan.