Khushwant Singh : The Legend Lives on

Prolific writer. Acerbic critic. Editor nonpareil. Trenchant humourist. Connoisseur of single malt. Lover of life, words, women and all things beautiful. Here was a man. 'You know that I am 99 years old.' I replied: 'May my years be added to yours.' He looked up at me with the softest expression and said: 'No, but may you live as long as I have.' I held his hand, the hand that had spent a lifetime writing books and inimitable articles and kissed it. He brushed his cheek with mine. Both of us knew that it was a farewell. I left and stood on the gravel outside - Fakir Syed Aijazuddin, Features Writer, Dawn the Patiala Peg of publishing is no more! But we will continue to raise our glasses and thank him for liberating us from our idiotic, hypocritical, fake, humourless lives for making us laugh at ourselves for ridding us of quaint sexual hang-ups for chucking old rules into the waste basket for caring a damn! Jeena isi ka naam hai! - Shobhaa Dé, Bestselling Autho