This Above alL
No answer to this question
Khushwant Singh

SOME years ago I read a fascinating book entitled Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. It was by a young Rabbi of New York whose only child, a 10-year-old son, was stricken by cancer and died. The Rabbi and his wife were a God-fearing Jewish couple who had never hurt anyone. They believed that God was almighty, just and merciful. If so, why had He caused this infliction on them? It would have shaken most peoples’ faith in the existence of God. However, the Rabbi remained a staunch believer.

Since then I have put the question to many people but never received a satisfactory answer. I was hoping that Jagadguru Kirpaluji Maharaj — whose sermons I listen to with great interest on the TV, and who has a large following in India and abroad — would deal with the subject. He has not done it so far. Consequently, I was eager to hear what one of his principal disciples — who translates his thoughts into English, Dr Bageshwari Devi — had to say on the subject in a lecture, "Why Me?" delivered by her at the Habitat Centre last November.

I got a copy of her text, but not the answer. The learned person quoted Hindu scriptures, and like-minded western thinkers gave witty anecdotes and epigrams, but when it came to answering why bad things happen to good people, she had nothing new to say. She ascribed it to karma — acts done in previous lives for which one atones for in the present life, or in lives hereafter. There is not an iota of proof of previous lives or lives to come.

We inherit some traits from our parents, like resembling them, or having similar traits because they are in our genes. Belief in previous life and re-birth after death are figments of our imagination. They are like building sky-scrapers of unproved assertions with foundations in quick sand. They crumble with the slightest tremor of rationality. Why not be honest and admit "I do not know why bad things happen to good people." Nor does anyone else.

On an average I read around 40-50 books every year. I note down their titles, the names of authors and publishers at the end of my diary. I have slowed down, as this year I read only 26. I thought it proper to write about them before the end of the year as I intend to take two weeks off from column-writing that I am entitled to.

Before I comment on books I liked and those I thought over-rated, I have to admit that for many years I have not bought any books. They are sent to me by publishers or authors in the expectation of my writing about them. Of the hundreds I receive, I can barely manage to read 40 to 50. The rest I give away to friends or public libraries.

The first book that left a pleasant imprint on my mind was a short novel by Pinki Virani, Deaf Heaven (Harper Collins). She has written in the style of English spoken by the young generation of Indians in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. It takes a while to get used to the language but it is well worthwhile because it is witty and at times blasphemous.

I also recommend Manohar Shyam Joshi’s The Perplexity of Harihar Hercules (Penguin). Shyam Joshi had a malicious sense of wit that I have not come across in any other Indian writer. He wrote only in Hindi; this one has been well translated and makes hilarious reading. Of this year’s choice of books, I rate William Dalrymple’s Nine Lives (Bloomsbury) very highly. Dalrymple writes about India with more knowledge and elegance than any Indian I know. And this is on the aspect of Indian life I was not fully aware of — the bizarre ways of religious cults in their search for divinity. Though strictly factual, his narration grips the reader. It is unputdownable.

And finally, I recommend Written For Ever, edited by Rukun Advani (Ravi Dayal and Penguin-Viking). It comprises selection of articles and anecdotes published in five issues of Civil Lines, which Ravi Dayal published earlier. It restores confidence in the minds of readers that Indians can handle the English language with as much finesse as any Englishman or American. As a post-script, let me also mention this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature — Herta Muller’s The Land of Green Plums (Granta Books).

I had never heard the name of Herta Muller, nor indeed had many people outside Germany. It is about a German community which finds itself stranded on the western boundary of Romania at the end of World War II. They were Nazis and had to suffer worse humiliations under a Communist dictator. I really could not make head or tail of it, and wonder why it was awarded the world’s most coveted literary award.

Question: What should be the byline of India’s foreign policy?

Answer: Chini Kum.

Two-in-one question: Can a person be sweet and sour at a time?

Answer: Madhu Koda (ex-Chief Minister, Jharkhand).

— Contributed by KJS Ahluwalia, Amritsar

Note: Khushwant Singh’s column will not appear in the next two issues of Saturday Extra — December 19 and 26, 2009

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