Khushwant Singh’s “the Company of Women : Character portrayal of a Neo-Richman

Pages:10
Menoti (Department of English, Singhania University Pacheri Beri, Jhunjunu, Rajasthan)

Khuwshwant Singh is the most controversial, yet the most readable writer that we have today. He is a versatile genius who championed almost all the fields of writing novels, journalism, history, short stories and even jokes, which fetch him a good royalty. His brilliant craftsmanship and narrative techniques are reflected in Train to Pakistan, I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale, Delhi- A Novel and the Company of Women. When his novel The Company of Women was attacked for its sexuality Khushwant Singh emphatically opined: “I think that explains the success of my last novel – The Company of Women. It was really a memoir of my own fantasies in old age. People pretend to be very shocked and yet for the eighth week it has been on top of the bestseller list. So there are dual standards. They like to condemn me for writing it for they consider it pornography. Yet they try it, and the sales keep going up.”