A Life Incomplete by Nanak Singh, originally published in Punjabi in 1940 as Adh Khidya Phul, and translated by Navdeep Suri (his own grandson) is a moving document of Punjab during British rule. It was written within a span of three weeks in a hermitage located somewhere in the idyllic foothills of the Himalayas, near Dalhousie.
It is more fact than fiction, and was inspired by the pious soul who ran the place, tending to the sick, the injured and the destitute. The saint had entrusted to Nanak Singh an old notebook containing jottings made on just about in every available space on the pages, along with letters, and a portrait that which carried the title Adh Khidya Phul which Singh used for his book.
Kuldeep Singh is in jail for agitating against the British, when his wife dies leaving behind their infant child. Out again, he is torn between renunciation, the pressures of religious intolerance and his feelings for faithful friend from the past.
A Life Incomplete
by Nanak Singh
HarperCollins Publishers
Rs.299