He regretted lusting after women

Khushwant Singh, who died on Thursday at the age of 99, confessed in his autobiography “Khushwantnama: The Lessons of My Life” that he always looked at women as objects of lust.

“I have also come to the sad conclusion that I have always been a bit of a lecher. From the tender age of four right to the present, when I have completed 97, it has been lechery that has been uppermost in my mind,” he wrote.

“I have never been able to conform to the Indian ideal of regarding women as my mothers, sisters or daughters. Whatever their age, to me they were, and are, objects of lust.”

Singh wrote about the precious time he wasted in “pointless rituals”, “socialising” and spending years of his working life as a lawyer and then a diplomat.

“I wasted many years studying and practising law which I hated. I also regret the years spent serving the government abroad and at home, and the years with Unesco in Paris,” he wrote.