When other times Khushwant Singh wrote on me:

When other times Khushwant Singh wrote on me:
The e-versions available on net here:Will update with clippings from the past soon.
----------------------25 November 2000--------
Hariyanvi ha ha!
Every region of our country has its own brand of humour, often encapsulated in proverbs and aphorisms. They are best told in the original dialect as they lose much of their rustic flavour in translation. This is well illustrated in the case of Hariyanvi which has a mix of Punjabi and Hindustani. It has some stock figures:an elder from one’s own village is called a taoo, while one from outside is a chowdhary, a wife is joroo or lugaaee, son or a boy is a chhora, a girl chhoree; hai becomes sai.
Some years ago I received a book on Hariyanvi humour, by Rajbir Deswal of the Indian police. His son, Sawan Deswal, has gone a step further by setting up Hariyanvi.com, which covers different aspects of his home state: its history, culture, lifestyle, humour, proverbs etc. I give a few examples of humorous anecdotes culled from his collection.
A jackal saw a mouse running out of a jungle. He asked him what had transpired to make him run for his life. The mouse replied: "Sher ki bebe kise nai chher di aur shak meyrey pai ho rahya sai"(someone made a pass at the tiger’s sister and the suspicion is cast on me).
An old man who happened to brush past a young girl said, "Sorry" to her. She gave him a tongue-lashing. Later a young man brushed past her and also said, "Sorry". The girl smiled but said nothing to him. The old man lost his cool and shouted"Ey chhoree, meyree ‘sorry‘ ki spelling galat thee" (hey girl, was my sorry wrongly spelt)?
A Hariyanvi’s wife went missing. The husband went to Lord Rama’s temple to pray for her return. From the side-wall, Hanumanji beckoned him and said "Ureaajaa Molar, jab iski lugaaee kho gai thee to manney he tohi thee" (Foolish man come to me, when his wife was abducted, I helped him to recover her).
There is an apt saying, pertinent to our times: "Haanji kee naukari, naanji kaa ghar" (a job for one who says yes sir, one who says no sir stays at home).
-----------------------------16 February 2002------------------------

Stamping the police:
MY opinion of the Indian Postal Services rocketed sky-high ten years or so ago when an irate Canadian Khalistani wrote me a very abusive letter in Gurmukhi with the address in English which read: "To bastard Khushwant Singh, India". It was delivered to me within a week of its despatch from Canada. I can't think of another country in the world where postal services would have bothered to locate an individual with so unsavoury reputation to discharge the duty entrusted to it.
We've had postal services of some kind or the other since times beyond memory. Every ruler employed dak runners to carry information to and fro from the outposts of his kingdom to the palace. At later stages, people trained pigeons to carry messages tied to their legs. It was during British rule that postal services were linked to the police. A regular police force was set up in 1829; the first Indian postage stamp issued in 1840. To start with, post offices were located in the same buildings as police stations. Then postal services outstripped the police and had to have large buildings like General Post Offices to handle mail, telegrams, money orders, fixed deposits, etc. Now postal services are on the decline. People use telephones, courier services, e-mail and fax. In the near future, post offices may become a relic of the past.
The story of our postal services and their close collaboration with the police needed to be put on record. They could not have found a better authority than S. Kitson, now living a retired life in Kolkata, to do so. The outcome is a handsomely produced coffee-tabler: A Philatelic Tribute to Police of India & the Sub-Continent (published by the Bureau of Police Research & Development). Six names appear on the editorial board. I could recognise one, Rajbir Deswal, IPS, of the Haryana cadre. He has written several books on Haryanvi humour. I am pretty certain most of the donkey-work in producing the profusely illustrated book of the policepost office liaison has been done by him.
-----------------------------19 July 2003---------------------
Backdoor entry to journalism:

You need not go through the mill of acquiring a degree or diploma in journalism and work your way up from being a cub reporter, to correspondent, and if you are lucky, becoming an editor. Continue in the job you are doing and start with writing letters to the editor. Editors have big egos; so pick up a singularly bad editorial and write a few lines praising it. It will be published. After a few letters appearing in the papers, move on to writing middles. This needs more skill and a touch of humour. Middles are more read than articles or editorials. Once you have established yourself as the master of light, witty pieces, the chances of your being taken on the staff of the paper at a higher level become brighter.This is roughly the course pursued by my young friend Rajbir Deswal (46) from Anta village in Jind district of Haryana. He has an MA degree in English and has no trouble with the language. He is in the Indian Police Service and is currently Assistant Director of Research and Development. The itch for writing never left him. Being a police officer, he could not indulge in writing letters to the editor. He skipped that ladder and went straight to writing middles. He has set up a record of sorts: over 400 middles in different national dailies. Also book reviews, short stories and travelogues. In between he produced Wit and Humour of Haryana and Culture Bright and Dark. He is a strappingly handsome six-footer Haryanvi Jat who could well have become a matinee idol. He, however, prefers to remain a police officer and a man of letters.

-------------------------------11 December 2010-----------------
Policeman humourist:
Rajbir Deswal is the most unusual police officer I have met. He is more eager to make a name for himself in the world of letters than by nabbing thieves and robbers. He is well on the way to succeeding in both his ambitions. He is IG Police of Haryana and has won the President’s Police Medal. He is also a member of the Haryana Sahitya Akademi and won the Haryana Akademi’s Pandit Lakhmi Chand Award.
He is a prolific writer. His middles appear regularly in several national dailies like The Tribune, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express and The Pioneer. So far he has seven books to his credit. My introduction to Haryanvi humour came through his writing. In the last two months he has produced two books — Hoor Menaka: The Seductress, an adaptation of Pandit Lakhmi Chand’s drama; and a month later a second collection of his middles, Mall Watch: Write in the Middle (D.K. Books). Deswal wields a light pen. A vein of gentle humour runs through all he writes, which makes him highly readable.
Other related links:
http://www.in.com/videos/watchvideo-khushwant-singh-interviewed-by-rajbir-deswal-on-fatima-bhutto-7667133.html
http://rajbirdeswal.instablogs.com/entry/religion-indias-biggest-enemy-khushwant-singh-as-told-to-rajbir-deswal/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLpJywDSpys