An anthology of Khushwant Singh’s best writings on his favorite subjects, Women, Sex, Love and Lust is at once witty, informative, thought-provoking and flagrant. Definitely a book you can’t afford to miss! If you are looking for answers to eternal questions like which came first – love or lust, or debates pertaining to celibacy, chastity or arranged marriages, Khushwant Singh delivers his unique exposé. Whether he is analysing the fine dividing line between obscenity, pornography and erotica, describing sex from ‘Chaturbhani’ (200-350 B.C.) or his ideas of a composite Indian woman, Khushwant holds the reader’s attention effortlessly. But that isn’t all – years before terms such as ‘gender issues’ or ‘gender divide’ became popular, he was writing, thinking and sharing his views on them. His deliberations reveal an unexpected side to Khushwant . . . in these pages you’ll also find a rare glimpse of Khushwant the feminist. Women, Sex, Love and Lust abounds with Indian as well as foreign myths, legends, proverbs, and poems ranging from Chaucer, Shakespeare, Whitman to Kalidas, Iqbal and Faiz. Almost each page offers you delectable quotes from Russell to Wodehouse along with special anecdotes which could only come from the inimitable Khushwant. Only he could share with you his intense experience of nudo-phobia suffered in Sweden, his acute observation of Indian whoremongers when abroad, scandals amongst the literati and glitterati – H. G. Wells as a compulsive fornicator or Georges Simenon hammering away at his typewriter (and his women) at the age of eighty are only a few revelations.

Recently separated from his nagging, ill-tempered wife, millionaire businessman Mohan Kumar decides to reinvent his life. He embarks on an audacious plan: he will advertise for paid lady companions to share his bed and his life. Thus begins his journey of easy, unbridled sexuality in the company of some remarkable women. From Sarojini Bharadwaj, the demure professor from small town Haryana who surprises Mohan with her ardour and sexual energy to the practiced charms of his obliging maid, Dhanno, The Company of Women is the story of a man's sexual exploits, and how it defines his life.

Meet the members of the Sunset Club: Pandit Preetam Sharma, Nawab Barkatullah Baig and Sardar Boota Singh. Friends for over forty years, they are now in their eighties. And every evening, at the sunset hour, they sit together on a bench in Lodhi Gardens to exchange news and views on the events of the day, talking about everything from love, lust, sex and scandal to religion and politics. As he follows a year in the lives of the three men from January 26 2009 to January 26 2010. Khushwant Singh brings his characters vibrantly to life, with his piquant portrayals of their fantasies and foibles, his unerring ear for dialogue and his genius for capturing the flavour and texture of everyday life in their households. Interwoven with this compelling human story is another chronicle of a year in the life of India, as the country goes through the cycle of seasons, the tumult of general elections, violence, natural disasters and corruption in high places. In turn ribald and lyrical, poignant and profound, The Sunset Club is a deeply moving exploration of friendship, sexuality, old age and infirmity; a joyous celebration of nature; an insightful portrait of India's paradoxes and complexities. A masterpiece from one of India's most-loved storytellers, The Sunset Club will have you in tears and laughter, and grip you from the first page to the last

The writing career of Khushwant Singh is more than six decades old. During this time he has come up with several frank and scare free writings that has punctured the prudishness, hypocrisy and humbug of Indian society. He has been quite open in expressing his views on human sexuality and he is considered one of a kind. In on Love and Sex: Selected Writings, he looks back at some of his previous publications like his autobiography, where he details about how he lost his virginity. He describes about a newly married couple, whom he witnessed, as they consummate their marriage on a moving train. This is presented as his rumination of sexuality in India. He then describes about an episode in a doctor's clinic, a poker faced narration, which left Singh with the feeling that he has been 'buggered'. He then picks another topic from his other fiction work called A Mixed Marriage. Here he describes about a Hindu-Muslim union during the times of Mughal. The Rooftop Massage describes about the unusual experience of Mohan Kumar with the Masseuse Molly. Kumar is given the suggestion later on that he should never try it again.

Travelling through time, space and history to 'discover' his beloved city, the narrator of this novel meets a myriad of people - poets and princes, saints and sultans, temptresses and traitors, emperors and eunuchs - who have shaped and endowed Delhi with its very mystique.

Wildly funny and wonderfully bizarre, All About H. Hatterr is one of the most perfectly eccentric and strangely absorbing works modern English has produced. H. Hatterr is the son of a European merchant officer and a lady from Penang who has been raised and educated in missionary schools in Calcutta. His story is of his search for enlightenment as, in the course of visiting seven Oriental cities, he consults with seven sages, each of whom specializes in a different aspect of “Living.” Each teacher delivers himself of a great “Generality,” each great Generality launches a new great “Adventure,” from each of which Hatter escapes not so much greatly edified as by the skin of his teeth. The book is a comic extravaganza, but as Anthony Burgess writes in his introduction, “it is the language that makes the book. . . . It is not pure English; it is like Shakespeare, Joyce, and Kipling, gloriously impure.”

Reports announcing the death of the book are now rife, but the continued relevance of the ten master writers discussed in this volume is proof to the contrary. Here we come across the dissident Czech writer Václav Havel, who later became the nation’s president; the South African Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer, with her pronounced anti-apartheid novels; the Chilean-American Isabel Allende, ‘the world’s most widely read Spanish author’; and Günter Grass, hailed as the ‘literary spokesman of his generation’. We also meet Graham Greene and Milan Kundera alongside the Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz, who, in his quiet way, ridiculed Islamic fundamentalism. The book is rounded off with three remarkable Latin American writers: Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz and Gabriel García Márquez. Of Love and Other Sorrows takes the reader on a fascinating journey in the company of some of the biggest names in modern literature. This illuminating study of their lives and works will seduce readers to rediscover these masters for themselves.

Instead of entering into a pointless debate on whether or not God exists, it is more important to bear in mind that belief in the existence of God has little bearing on making a person a good or a bad citizen. One can be a saintly person without believing in God and a detestable villain believing in Him. In my personalized religion, there is NO GOD! Khushwant Singh, over the decades, has built up a reputation for coming up with something new and controversial in each book, and he does not disappoint his readers this time too. He begins with a chapter on the ‘need for a new religion – without God’, in which he questions the relevance of God. He then moves on to describe how religion has proved to be more harmful than beneficial and, in the process, debunks astrologers and the breed of so-called ‘godmen’. However, he is not dismissive of religion. Through his lucid writing, he brings out the beauty and significance of holy books such as the Bhagvad Gita, the Quran and the Granth Sahib. He provides relevant extracts to highlight the poetry and the music in such books. The author next tries to dispel the prejudices held by many non-Muslims against their Muslim compatriots by giving down-to-earth examples. He also emphasizes the importance of the Ramzaan fast. Khushwant Singh’s description of the life and times of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh and his in-depth analysis of the Granth Sahib throw new light on a particularly troubled period in India’s history. The chapter devoted to the interaction of the author (a confirmed agnostic) with the Dalai Lama (probably the world’s most renowned spiritual leader) makes for fascinating reading. Here’s one book containing a wealth of knowledge and information that you would want to read or consult again and again.