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Malicious Gossip
Sketches of people and places by a renowned Indian newspaper columnist and writer.
- GenresNonfiction
247 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
14 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Khushwant Singh
298 books1,445 followersKhushwant Singh, (Punjabi: ਖ਼ੁਸ਼ਵੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ, Hindi: खुशवंत सिंह) born on 2 February 1915 in Hadali, Undivided India, (now a part of Pakistan), was a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, was among the most widely-read columns in the country.
An important post-colonial novelist writing in English, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit.
An important post-colonial novelist writing in English, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 3, 2017
Neither malicious nor gossip, a collection of excellent articles by Mr. Singh. Loved the mini travelogues the most out of this, which by the way comprises 70% of the book.
There are parts on Pakistan, and personal accounts of some of his friends.
Then there are travelogues having a great mix from obscure Indian places to some common and not so common international destinations.
This has helped me decide which countries travelogues I want to read in future.
There are parts on Pakistan, and personal accounts of some of his friends.
Then there are travelogues having a great mix from obscure Indian places to some common and not so common international destinations.
This has helped me decide which countries travelogues I want to read in future.
June 14, 2014
দেখলাম আর লিখলাম টাইপ লেখা,অন্তরদৃষ্টি বা গভীরতা নাই...তবে পড়তে মজা,কোন পুষ্টিগুন নাই,পুরোদস্তুর ঝালমুড়ি।
February 11, 2019
More of a travelogue written in Khuswant Singh's inimitable style with a generous amount of humor and satire thrown in. Lots of interesting and no-holds-barred commentaries on famous personalities from various nations.
January 29, 2022
Malicious Gossip by an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician Khushwant Singh is a collection of columns and solitary thoughts mostly on the India-Pakistan relationship. His experience on the Partition and diplomatic influence on the neighbouring nations had privileged him to see national, political, economic and human affairs from very close range.
His outspoken stance with Pakistan and India’s powerful political figures reveals more than what we usually know, along with his passion for discovering the natural and incredible beauty of India. And Around the World diary make Malicious Gossip one of the enticing books written by any Indian.
For more : https://www.inquiryall.com/book-revie...
His outspoken stance with Pakistan and India’s powerful political figures reveals more than what we usually know, along with his passion for discovering the natural and incredible beauty of India. And Around the World diary make Malicious Gossip one of the enticing books written by any Indian.
For more : https://www.inquiryall.com/book-revie...
July 7, 2025
witty, observant, a romantic and objectifier of women in no order. The author grows on you, tugs at your heart and better sensibilities even if your politics are opposed to his. we may doubt the veracity of events and people portrayed here and there but entertaining, that till the last word he is.
I have a love-hate relationship with his works. I hate how women are objectified at times but I love the emotions, the cultural richness he brings to life. My loyalties to the author are thus a constant swinging pendulum, set in a clock that tells his time singularly.
I have a love-hate relationship with his works. I hate how women are objectified at times but I love the emotions, the cultural richness he brings to life. My loyalties to the author are thus a constant swinging pendulum, set in a clock that tells his time singularly.
February 1, 2019
A must read for aspiring journalists to learn how to find stories in almost anything that you set your eyes upon. And the importance of travel in those stories and all the diverse textures it adds to it.
March 16, 2017
if you don't like light thoughts, don't read it. I haven't read the whole ..few chapter left and decided not to read it anymore
February 5, 2016
If it were limited to what he wrote as short pieces that are collected in this and in various other books, it would be a questionably good read, most of the part anyway - he does have some sort of germ in his head so to speak in language familiar to him, in that he is not happy giving intelligent commentary and rare beautiful descriptions of people and places; he absolutely must disgust the reader in general, possibly delighting a few, by copious and explicit references either to nether parts of his own or other people; or worse, explicit description leaving the reader in no uncertainty how he viewed the other half of humanity only as a package to contain those parts.
In this he is far from content to merely insult all people with higher sensibilities or all women, including his own family. In a forward to one such collection by one of the many the young protegies of his who met him some time when she was young and he far from that, she mentions how he spoke explicitly humiliating a Nobel prize winning much revered poet of his nation and how he delighted in insulting and provoking a whole people, and one can only surmise from his copious references to various other poets from parts that separated from the motherland depriving him of home he had to forever hanker after, that this was his revenge on the motherland that gave him refuge, revenge for having been deprived of his home by those that threw out all other communities that they could not live with and demanded a separate nation via breaking up the motherland with threats of massacre executed before and during the partition.
His own parents lived in the capital, and his bringing up was in many places including the capital, but he was in tears when visiting his childhood village where he spent his early years with his grandmother, and where he is very aware of the community that surrounded them was always keeping away from them, no matter how friendly he or his community or even those in majority in the nation as a whole were, then or since. And his response is to be friendly with them, visit them, regret how they are not responding generally, and insult those that gave him not merely home but positions and honour despite not quite proven merit.
The pieces themselves are readable, no more and no less, in most part. If one misses them it is no big deal. And this can be said about all such collections of pieces by this author, perhaps even by all that he wrote.
FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015
In this he is far from content to merely insult all people with higher sensibilities or all women, including his own family. In a forward to one such collection by one of the many the young protegies of his who met him some time when she was young and he far from that, she mentions how he spoke explicitly humiliating a Nobel prize winning much revered poet of his nation and how he delighted in insulting and provoking a whole people, and one can only surmise from his copious references to various other poets from parts that separated from the motherland depriving him of home he had to forever hanker after, that this was his revenge on the motherland that gave him refuge, revenge for having been deprived of his home by those that threw out all other communities that they could not live with and demanded a separate nation via breaking up the motherland with threats of massacre executed before and during the partition.
His own parents lived in the capital, and his bringing up was in many places including the capital, but he was in tears when visiting his childhood village where he spent his early years with his grandmother, and where he is very aware of the community that surrounded them was always keeping away from them, no matter how friendly he or his community or even those in majority in the nation as a whole were, then or since. And his response is to be friendly with them, visit them, regret how they are not responding generally, and insult those that gave him not merely home but positions and honour despite not quite proven merit.
The pieces themselves are readable, no more and no less, in most part. If one misses them it is no big deal. And this can be said about all such collections of pieces by this author, perhaps even by all that he wrote.
FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015
February 5, 2016
If it were limited to what he wrote as short pieces that are collected in this and in various other books, it would be a questionably good read, most of the part anyway - he does have some sort of germ in his head so to speak in language familiar to him, in that he is not happy giving intelligent commentary and rare beautiful descriptions of people and places; he absolutely must disgust the reader in general, possibly delighting a few, by copious and explicit references either to nether parts of his own or other people; or worse, explicit description leaving the reader in no uncertainty how he viewed the other half of humanity only as a package to contain those parts.
In this he is far from content to merely insult all people with higher sensibilities or all women, including his own family. In a forward to one such collection by one of the many the young protegies of his who met him some time when she was young and he far from that, she mentions how he spoke explicitly humiliating a Nobel prize winning much revered poet of his nation and how he delighted in insulting and provoking a whole people, and one can only surmise from his copious references to various other poets from parts that separated from the motherland depriving him of home he had to forever hanker after, that this was his revenge on the motherland that gave him refuge, revenge for having been deprived of his home by those that threw out all other communities that they could not live with and demanded a separate nation via breaking up the motherland with threats of massacre executed before and during the partition.
His own parents lived in the capital, and his bringing up was in many places including the capital, but he was in tears when visiting his childhood village where he spent his early years with his grandmother, and where he is very aware of the community that surrounded them was always keeping away from them, no matter how friendly he or his community or even those in majority in the nation as a whole were, then or since. And his response is to be friendly with them, visit them, regret how they are not responding generally, and insult those that gave him not merely home but positions and honour despite not quite proven merit.
The pieces themselves are readable, no more and no less, in most part. If one misses them it is no big deal. And this can be said about all such collections of pieces by this author, perhaps even by all that he wrote.
February 5, 2016
If it were limited to what he wrote as short pieces that are collected in this and in various other books, it would be a questionably good read, most of the part anyway - he does have some sort of germ in his head so to speak in language familiar to him, in that he is not happy giving intelligent commentary and rare beautiful descriptions of people and places; he absolutely must disgust the reader in general, possibly delighting a few, by copious and explicit references either to nether parts of his own or other people; or worse, explicit description leaving the reader in no uncertainty how he viewed the other half of humanity only as a package to contain those parts.
In this he is far from content to merely insult all people with higher sensibilities or all women, including his own family. In a forward to one such collection by one of the many the young protegies of his who met him some time when she was young and he far from that, she mentions how he spoke explicitly humiliating a Nobel prize winning much revered poet of his nation and how he delighted in insulting and provoking a whole people, and one can only surmise from his copious references to various other poets from parts that separated from the motherland depriving him of home he had to forever hanker after, that this was his revenge on the motherland that gave him refuge, revenge for having been deprived of his home by those that threw out all other communities that they could not live with and demanded a separate nation via breaking up the motherland with threats of massacre executed before and during the partition.
His own parents lived in the capital, and his bringing up was in many places including the capital, but he was in tears when visiting his childhood village where he spent his early years with his grandmother, and where he is very aware of the community that surrounded them was always keeping away from them, no matter how friendly he or his community or even those in majority in the nation as a whole were, then or since. And his response is to be friendly with them, visit them, regret how they are not responding generally, and insult those that gave him not merely home but positions and honour despite not quite proven merit.
The pieces themselves are readable, no more and no less, in most part. If one misses them it is no big deal. And this can be said about all such collections of pieces by this author, perhaps even by all that he wrote.
In this he is far from content to merely insult all people with higher sensibilities or all women, including his own family. In a forward to one such collection by one of the many the young protegies of his who met him some time when she was young and he far from that, she mentions how he spoke explicitly humiliating a Nobel prize winning much revered poet of his nation and how he delighted in insulting and provoking a whole people, and one can only surmise from his copious references to various other poets from parts that separated from the motherland depriving him of home he had to forever hanker after, that this was his revenge on the motherland that gave him refuge, revenge for having been deprived of his home by those that threw out all other communities that they could not live with and demanded a separate nation via breaking up the motherland with threats of massacre executed before and during the partition.
His own parents lived in the capital, and his bringing up was in many places including the capital, but he was in tears when visiting his childhood village where he spent his early years with his grandmother, and where he is very aware of the community that surrounded them was always keeping away from them, no matter how friendly he or his community or even those in majority in the nation as a whole were, then or since. And his response is to be friendly with them, visit them, regret how they are not responding generally, and insult those that gave him not merely home but positions and honour despite not quite proven merit.
The pieces themselves are readable, no more and no less, in most part. If one misses them it is no big deal. And this can be said about all such collections of pieces by this author, perhaps even by all that he wrote.
November 11, 2013
This book was written way back in 1989. I don't know which genre it fell under back then, but right now its genre is pretty obvious - blog.
It is a series of almost random blog posts and apart from the first 2-3 chapters on Pakistan, holds no value, either of knowledge or of entertainment to anyone apart from those with a purely academic perspective.
Meh. Pooh. Unless your aura of Khushwant Singh blinds you to the world.
It is a series of almost random blog posts and apart from the first 2-3 chapters on Pakistan, holds no value, either of knowledge or of entertainment to anyone apart from those with a purely academic perspective.
Meh. Pooh. Unless your aura of Khushwant Singh blinds you to the world.
December 18, 2016
Highly recommend.
While I don't have enough knowledge to understand the fairness or accuracy of the articles, they were very well written snippets. The ones on the India of my teens were enjoyable. The portions on Pakistan were the best of the lot. Loved the articles on countries around the world too. I am planning to read the second part of the anthology soon.
While I don't have enough knowledge to understand the fairness or accuracy of the articles, they were very well written snippets. The ones on the India of my teens were enjoyable. The portions on Pakistan were the best of the lot. Loved the articles on countries around the world too. I am planning to read the second part of the anthology soon.
July 6, 2015
This is my first Khushwant Singh book and truth be told, it was extremely disappointing.Having read so much about him, I had huge expectations and this book simply fell flat.The editing was shoddy and the book ended up as a collection of ordinary insipid essays with no coherent narrative.
October 5, 2013
Trademark Khushwant , Irreverent and Inimitable , as always !!!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews