A tale about twilightAuthor: Khushwant Singh
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 216
Price: Rs 399
Sunset Club is the story of three elderly gentlemen — three strangers who get acquainted while taking walks in Delhi’s Lodi Gardens and develop a close relationship near the sunset of their lives.
The first of the three gentlemen is Pandit Preetam Sharma, a Brahmin and a bachelor, who had held important government posts at home and abroad before retirement.
The second is Sardar Boota Singh, a well-educated widower, who, too, had held important government posts, and is now retired.
The third gentleman is Nawab Barkatullah Baig Dehlavi, who comes from a Pathan family settled in Nizamuddin. He is a wealthy person and has a chain of Yunani medicine shops.
All three are in their mid-eighties.
Khuswant Singh, in his own characteristic style, portrays three distinct individuals in their mid-eighties who talk, laugh and argue while sitting on what came to be known as the boorha bench, owing to the age of its regular occupants.
Sharma, the serious type, takes his caste and religion very seriously, while Singh is fun loving and ebullient, despite suffering from many infirmities. He does not mind having fun at his own or at others’ expense.
Dehlavi, on the other hand, is more circumspect and often plays the role of peacemaker between the other two, though he, too, is not averse to a good laugh at their expense, as is apparent when someone plays a practical joke on them on All Fool’s Day.
Sometimes, in the absence of Sharma, Singh and Dehlavi exchange more personal and salacious stories of their youthful exploits.
Dehlavi grows fond of Singh, and this is evidenced by his observation to his wife that conversations are dull in the latter’s absence.
The account of their meetings begins on the January 26, 2009, and the details — their views on politics and other topics, celebration of the various festivals and their periodical indispositions, the passing of the seasons — stretch on till the end of the year.
With the New Year begins the end of the story, as Dehlavi and Sarma pass away in quick succession, leaving Singh alone with the realisation that his own end was also near.
It would be natural to expect the book to be dull, considering the subject. But Khushwant Singh has woven the whole story in such a way that the reader will find it hard to keep the book down. In fact, one is left with a desire for more even after the story ends.
Like most of his books, Sunset Club is another example of the writer’s storytelling prowess.
A very entertaining read indeed.
H. W. T. SYIEM
Published on October 21, 2011
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