This is so not because prominent Khalistani leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who loomed large on the Punjab canvas in the 1970s and 1980s, belonged to Rode. It is so because city-based painter Malkit Singh, whom we lost on Friday, belonged to it. This was a favourite joke between the mother and son always. Malkit had built re-built his village home with all the city trappings and it resembled a town bungalow. Once I had gone there to interview Nachhatar Singh Rode, assassin of Punjab Kesri newspaper’s owner Lala Jagat Narain, after he had returned to his village completing his life imprisonment term.

Source: Hindustan Times January 21, 2018 08:26 UTC