Aye,Aye Captain

The grand ballroom at Hotel Imperial was packed,with plenty of air kissing while perfume hung heavy in the air. The launch of Captain Amarinder Singh’s latest book,The Last Sunset: Rise and Fall of the Lahore Durbar brought together Delhi and Punjab’s illustrious circles for one brief evening. Singh is known for his military chronicles like Lest We Forget and A Ridge Too Far and has an abiding interest in Sikh history. The book chronicles the rise and fall of the legendary Sikh ruler,Maharaja Ranjit Singh and was released by Air Marshal Arjan Singh in the presence of author Gurcharan Das,cabinet minister M S Gill,Ministers of State Shashi Tharoor and Sachin Pilot.

“A lot has been written about Ranjit Singh by numerous historians. But they have been either chronological details of the events that took place or been determined by which side was telling the story. I wanted to give it a more individual perspective about an illiterate man who expanded his rule over an area that is larger than present day Pakistan,all before he turned 21,” says Singh. The politician-author travelled extensively through the Punjab in India and Pakistan and made trips to British museums to access Sikh documents from their archives. The book has been divided into five parts and talks about the history and politics of the Punjab before the rise of Ranjit Singh till his death in 1839 and the events that determined the fate of the region afterwards,” says Singh. The Last Sunset is priced at Rs 695.