Journalism Pakistan
Journalism Pakistan
Freedom of expression shrinks in Pakistan as PECA Amendments take toll: report اظہارِ رائے کی آزادی محدود، پیکا میں ترامیم سے میڈیا کو شدید دھچکا: رپورٹDawn urges Indian media to abandon war rhetoric ڈان کی بھارتی میڈیا سے جنگی بیانیہ ترک کرنے کی اپیلIndia bans 16 Pakistani YouTube channels following Pahalgan attack پہلگام حملے کے بعد بھارت نے پاکستان کے 16 یوٹیوب چینلز پر پابندی لگا دی'In A Different Realm' offers a philosophical take on cricket's greatest innings ان اے ڈیفرنٹ ریلم کرکٹ کی عظیم ترین اننگز پر ایک فکری نقطۂ نظر پیش کرتی ہےCoordinated or coincidence? Identical tweets by Pakistani journalists raise eyebrows ہم آہنگی یا محض اتفاق؟ پاکستانی صحافیوں کے ایک جیسے ٹویٹس نے سوالات اٹھا دیےThe PSL paradox: pageantry or progress? پی ایس ایل کا تضاد: دکھاوا یا ترقی؟Sher Afzal Marwat launches personal attacks on journalists after PTI expulsion پی ٹی آئی سے نکالے جانے کے بعد شیر افضل مروت کے صحافیوں پر ذاتی حملےJournalist Sanaullah Khan alleges FIA blocking accounts of YouTubers and families صحافی ثناء اللہ خان کا انکشاف: ایف آئی اے یوٹیوبرز اور ان کے خاندانوں کے اکاؤنٹس بلاک کر رہی ہےA launch in style: Dr. Nauman Niaz unveils 'In A Different Realm' ان اے ڈفرنٹ ریلم کی رونمائی: ڈاکٹر نعمان نیاز کی کتاب Sindhi journalist AD Shar brutally murdered, PFUJ declares three-day mourning سندھی صحافی اے ڈی شر کا بہیمانہ قتل، پی ایف یو جے نے تین روزہ سوگ کا اعلان کر دیاAJK government registers case against newspaper and staff آزاد کشمیر حکومت کا اخبار اور عملے کے خلاف مقدمہJournalist Arzoo Kazmi alleges FIA threats, possible arrest over reporting صحافی آرزو کاظمی کا دعویٰ: ایف آئی اے کی دھمکیاں، رپورٹنگ پر ممکنہ گرفتاری

Writer, editor Khushwant Singh dies at 99

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published March 20, 2014

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Writer, editor Khushwant Singh dies at 99

NEW DELHI: Khushwant Singh, a journalist, editor and prolific writer whose work ranged from serious histories to joke collections to one of post-Independence India's great novels, died Thursday at his New Delhi apartment, his daughter said. He was 99.

Singh, who continued writing until shortly before his death, "passed away peacefully at home," said his daughter Mala Singh.

A gleeful provocateur whose love of the limelight competed constantly with his disdain for fame, Singh was a self-proclaimed failure in law and diplomacy who turned to writing in the 1950s, soon after India's 1947 independence, and quickly became a force in Indian journalism and literary circles. He remained one of the country's best-known writers for more than six decades.

The son of a wealthy builder, Singh had a famously patient wife, a newspaper column that skewered everything from corrupt politicians to desk calendars, and a sign outside his apartment door that warned: "Please do not ring the bell unless you are expected."

"He lived a truly creative life," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tweeted after the death was announced.

Singh, who often said he regretted not having sex with enough women, was one of the first modern Indian novelists to openly discuss sexuality, using often-graphic descriptions that made generations of readers blush.

"I've been called a dirty old man and it doesn't bother me one bit," he said in a 2010 interview with The Associated Press, when age and illness had begun to slow him, and a new generation of writers often regarded him as a literary relic.

Not that he cared much. Bad reviews were little more than flies to be swatted away.

"I couldn't give a damn, he said of an extremely critical review of his 2010 novel, "The Sunset Club." Writing, he said, "is where I succeeded. I was a flop in everything else."

At the height of his powers, Singh was a writer of almost unlimited energy.

He rose to fame in 1956, with a short novel about the horrors of 1947's partition, when British colonial India was carved into largely Hindu India and overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan. Sectarian violence swept the new nations, as millions of people sought shelter across the newly created borders. Over 1 million people died.

"Train to Pakistan," with its quiet prose and powerful imagery, remains a classic of modern Indian literature.

While born a Sikh, Singh was an avowed agnostic and staunch secularist whose books on the history of the Sikh people and religion were widely praised.

Singh, who never stopped writing, also had lengthy careers as an editor, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s. He turned a minor magazine, the Illustrated Weekly of India, into a journalistic power and also ran two newspapers, the Hindustan Times and the National Herald.

He received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award.

His wife died in 2002. He is survived by his daughter and a son. - AP

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