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Delhi delights

Khushwant Singh is back with another book on the history of the Sikhs

PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF Khushwant Singh with the Prime Minister at the book launch

At the age of five he came here, there was no New Delhi. At that New Delhi was just taking shape. Writer, journalist, critic, and historian Khuswant Singh has spent more than half a century in this beautiful city called New Delhi. This past week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released his latest book "Illustrated Book on Sikhism" in the Capital.

Khushwant Singh's health has been an obstacle but he has combated that one with sheer endeavour to write this book. While presenting the book to the Prime Minister he was overwhelmed to see him for the first time after he had taken the post. This book was written in Charanjeet Kaur's farmhouse for which he expressed gratitude. Whenever he felt like writing he just drove away to the farmhouse and Charanjeet kept him away from all the phone calls. A lot of research went into this book. Various libraries in London and India came in handy.

The book commences from Guru Ramdev ji, Maharaja Ranjit and goes on to the Green Revolution via all the pitfalls of the British rule, the Partition, etc. The book also explains that the Sikh soldiers were the favourites of the British and were often given land grants. The assassination of Indira Gandhi and the 1984 massacre sidelined the Sikhs for some time but the situation turned around and today the country has a Sikh PM and another as a Chief of the Army staff.

Khushwant Singh complimented the Prime Minister, saying, "If all PMs are put together they won't be able to match him in the field of academics."

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