Prologue

I have some pretentions to being a story-teller. But when I look at my writings and compare them with the works of legends like Khushwant Singh, I find that I am not even a midget. In age, he was almost as old as my respected father. It would, therefore, be sacrilege to refer to him by his name. In our part of the world, it was customary to refer to our esteemed elders by abbreviating their names and adding ‘chacha’ or ‘ mama’ to it. Consequently, I propose to call him ‘Uncle KS’ in this piece.

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The Old-world Charm of Receiving and Writing Letters

Recently, when I was going through a bunch of old letters, I discovered of two post cards, and they opened up the flood gates of some very pleasant memories. Given below is a scanned copy of the first one:

Those days, Uncle KS used to publish a syndicated weekly column in some newspapers, and at the end of each post, he used to insert a joke or an anecdote sent in by amateurs like me. I was delighted to learn that my pieces had been found worthy of publication.

Permit me to say a few things about my personal background, at this stage. As I said, spinning yarns and telling tales was, and still is, my first love. I started composing poems and writing short stories when I entered my teens. But early in life, I discovered that even the most famous writers had to struggle hard for a decent shelter over their heads and food on the table. I met several famous authors and saw their economic plight for myself. I learnt that the publishers and  booksellers cornered most of the money in the business. In 1957, when I was in High School, a Hindi film, “Pyasa” said it all. It left a very profound influence on me. On the rebound, I joined an engineering branch of the Army.

 I was good at studies, especially physics and mathematics. In due course of time, I earned a Post Graduate degree in Electronics, from IIT, Delhi. Later, in 1996, I was admitted into the Indian National Academy of Engineering. This brought me in contact with the likes of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Prof PV Indiresan and Dr Anil Kakodkar. During the next few years, I spent, (or squandered) a lot of time and energy in writing technical papers on a variety of subjects. I now find that most of those papers became obsolete even before the ink had dried on them . Technology has been moving so fast that it is a challenge to keep pace with it. They say that in the field of information technology, ‘you have to keep running, even to stay in the same place!’

In July 1997, when I retired from the Army, I got a job with Ashok Leyland. One part of my responsibilities was to run a computer centre, to hasten the pace of automation in the company. I was awe-struck by the pace at which ‘IT’ was developing in India, and since we were located close to the electronic city in Bangalore, we were always aware of the latest developments. I got involved in conducting some seminars on cyber security and the ‘IT Act’. I felt that the mainstream press could help us in the process of spreading computer awareness. And that is what motivated me to reach out to the person whose post card you see.

Internet had just about arrived in India, and I registered my first e-mail ID in 1998. Soon, I was receiving electronic messages from scores of friends located all over the world. It occurred to me that if I could persuade Uncle KS to see the prowess of Internet, and write about it in his columns, we could hasten the pace of change over to digital communication in India.

Ashok Leyland is an Automobile company. I was a part of the team which was looking for solution to transportation problems. Road safety was an area of concern. Here again, we needed to attract the attention of the people in power. I flooded uncle KS with research papers on this topic, and besought him to write about the enormous loss of life and property on our roads, in his column. Simultaneously, I pleaded with him to take to computers, so that our messages could reach faster.

In response to the spate of my meticulously typed letters, I received another post card. Here it is:

His concern for road safety is apparent from what he wrote. But I suspect that he did not believe that he could do much to improve the state of affairs. I then inundated his desk with more material on the prowess of computers. After a few months, he wrote in his column that he had been persuaded by friends to acquire a PC and he had also hired a man to teach him how to use it. But after hitting at the keyboard for three whole weeks, he had come to the conclusion that he was too old to learn this ‘darned contraption’. I think he said something to the effect that ‘while the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak’

In a brief but polite note, he put an end to our correspondence. My friends, who knew him personally, told me that unlike some of his contemporaries like Manohar Malgonkar and Raj Chatterjee, who used portable typewriters, he did all his writings in long hand. He spent long hours on his desk, all by himself; and never used an assistant. I am told that he was firmly of the view that the presence of another person in the room caused distraction. In fact, he even wrote the address on the post cards in his own hand! Have a look at a post card which he sent to me:

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In an idle reverie, I went over all that I gained from this inimitable and redoubtable writer. In 1999, when I got in touch with him, he was eighty-four years old. His achievements are the envy of millions of admirers. He published more than fifty books and countless number of pieces for newspapers and periodicals. He had inherited a considerable fortune from his ancestors, and therefore, he did not need money. And yet, he found time to write ‘forewords’ for books which younger authors sent to him, and also wrote letters to non-descript persons like me!

Networked computers have revolutionized information interchange. We do not receive letters any more. In fact, I have not seen a postman for several months (or even years) now. The Internet and the e-mails have replaced them. We first had ‘Facebook’ messages, and now, we have ‘WhatsApp’. It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with the pace of events. I am only seventy-seven, and therefore, much younger than the age of uncle KS when he chose to cast-off computers. No one knows whether we are proceeding in the right direction. Call me a cynic, if you like, but I think that the post cards sent by Uncle KS delivered a more profound message than the video clips on WhatsApp and the tweets being dished out by our celebrities at regular intervals. His post cards contained much more information than the e-mails which I receive from my erudite and computer-savvy friends. For one thing, these handwritten letters were written exclusively for me, while in the e-mails, I am just one of the many addressees. Hence, when I had his post card in my hand, I received undivided attention of the man whom I adored.

During that period, I read some of his books, especially the ones related with history. I am impelled to summarize what I learnt from his style of writing. Let me put it in point form:

• His works are eminently readable. Each sentence leads to the next one in a sequence so well designed that the reader is kept glued to the book. The serious portions are intercepted with light anecdotes and parables, which make reading a pleasure.

• He sticks to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; no matter how bitter or unpalatable it is. His credibility has been created by enormous hard work and sincerity. And that makes his work cogent. He gave an impression of being an easy-going writer, but in effect he worked very hard to ensure that his facts were meticulously correct, and the language was flawless.

• Uncle KS stuck to his core-competency. Even though he covered many topics, he kept off technology and economics. And that is why he chose to say ‘No’ to my request for a foreword or message for my seminars.

• He was aware of his writing abilities, but he also knew his limits. When he found that computers were beyond his reach, he gave it up, without wasting time and sinew. 

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A Memorial for Uncle KS

Uncle KS did not believe in God. He was a professed agnostic. But he had a universal message to give to all mankind. It may seem that he had a ‘dirty’ mind, obsessed with sex and single malt Scotch whisky. But look deeper into his works and you will discover profundity. He did not have the benefit of the wealth of information which we can now obtain with a click on the keyboard, or a touch on the screen. And yet, if you check out the facts and historic dates given in his books, you will find that they are amazingly accurate.

People erect statues in the memory of people whom they admire. For Uncle KS, the KSLF which is held in Kasauli every year is a much more appropriate ‘monument’. It attracts eminent persons from all over the world, and the credit for organizing this annual event goes to his son, Rahul Singh, who is ably assisted by Ms Niloufer Billimoria. May the Lord give more strength to their elbow. Uncle KS could not have asked for a more worthy scion.

If I am allowed to make one suggestion, I would like to ask them to reach out all the writers who have gained from the works of this genius and compile all such pieces. I think we need to gather all the letters written by him to individuals and publish them in the form of a book. I have seen one such collection of letters written by Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan Ghalib, whom he adored.

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Post Script

I am tempted to share four of the pieces chosen by Uncle KS, which were sent by me, in 1999.

No. 1 Talking about generals, admirals and air marshals:

Question: “Why do the private cars and wives of senior military officers look so good?”

Answer : “Because they are well maintained …and sparingly used!”

No.2 Kings and Prime Ministers

Question : “What is the difference between a king and a prime minister?”

Answer “The King is his father’s son. The prime minister is not…and you must also remember that while maternity is a fact, paternity is only an opinion!”

No.3 DNA of a new-born

When a child is born, it is natural for the elders to compare his looks with his parents. You find people saying, “This kid looks just like his father…” and you hear someone say, “Ah! The eyes of this child are just like those of her mother!”

And then once in a while, the situation becomes thorny, when an indiscreet person comes out with a naughty observation and tweets, “I think this child looks like your neighbour!”