The Author (the Narrator)

The narrator is the young Khushwant Singh, looking back with honesty and affection on his boyhood and youth.

• Observant and truthful. He records his grandmother exactly as he saw her, admitting even that the thought of her once being pretty seemed "almost revolting" — an honesty that makes his final tenderness ring true.
• Deeply attached to her. As a child he loved her voice and their constant companionship; even her going to the station and kissing his forehead is cherished as "the last sign of physical contact between us."
• Drawn into a changing world. His move to an English city school, then university, then studies abroad steadily widens the gap between them — not by his choice so much as by the pull of modern education. …