Khushwant Singh : Man For All Seasons

Uma Nair

“Here lies one who spared neither man nor God Waste not your tears on him, he was a sod Writing nasty things he regarded as great fun Thank the Lord he is dead, this son of a gun.” Uma Nair remembers and pays homage to the witty writer and the fearless journalist as the world mourns..

The bulb has gone out,but its presence will serve as a light for many generations to come.The man in the bulb –the late Khushwant Singh was known for emanating ideas and multiple tasking which the world talks about today. He was also known for single handedly changing the signature of journalism in India when he took over as the Editor of the Illustrated Weekly. Why is Khushwant Singh important for the art world? Because he began a legacy in honing and going after the best artists and photographers in the country to make ‘Illustrated Weekly’ the best read magazine in the country.
It was the staple diet of my school life and I waited to look at the inside cover illustrations of the great cartoonist Mario Miranda. Each person in his choreography was vital to the whole. Mario’s subtle humor and cupid desires shone through in the way he positioned the men leering at the bikini clad femmes on the beach. Behind Mario’s success and the many historic photographs of the great lady Homai Vyarawalla and India’s doyen Thiagrajan ,was the hand and design strategy of Khushwant Singh. My first meeting with Khushwant was at the home of Arpana Caur around twenty years back . It was at a reading of a great film director from Bengal. Over the years with a firm friendship in place , I noted that he had an eye for art. It was he who said “ Bengalis are born with poetry on their fingertips” . There were many artists who would come to his home and he would promptly tell them to wait and call me and ask me to go over and see their work. In those days I was writing as a critic for the Asian Age and he would read all my columns with great concentration and discuss whys and wherefores with me ,when sometimes I would accompany him for a walk in the Lodhi Gardens.