‘The Grand Old Man of Indian Writing’, Khushwant Singh was a famous Indian writer and journalist. In a career spanning many decades, he wrote several novels, articles, stories and memoirs. He is known for his colourful characters, his unabashed portrayal of intimate relationships, his controversial choices of subjects and his playful approach towards showcasing human eccentricities in his writings. His best-selling books include A History of the Sikhs, Train to Pakistan, Delhi: A Novel, Ranjit Singh: Maharaja of the Punjab, and an autobiography, Truth, Love and a Little Malice.

The only play written by him in his long career, Tiger Tiger serves as the perfect site for Singh to showcase a vast array of characters whose lives get intertwined due to unavoidable circumstances. Through this, he is able to present a critique of society and its double standards, using this opportunity to explore some of his favourite themes like cultural difference, prejudice, hypocrisy and deception. The plot of the play is fairly simple: away from the rest of the civilisation, in the heart of a protected forest is a hotel where tourists from different countries collect to observe the wild beasts. As the narrative progresses, however, we discover that the real confrontation that is happening here is between cultures, traditions and beliefs.

His comparisons of social and behavioural characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. In this wild tale filled with humour, passion and intoxication, Singh exposes the fakeness of human existence and the lies that we tell each other, and most importantly, ourselves, to survive.