LAHORE: “I can never forget Anarkali and the Government College, Lahore. Their memories are still fresh in my mind,” journalist and one of India's best known satirists, Khushwant Singh, also the oldest known Ravian, had shared with the GCU chief librarian last year during his visit to India.

Singh breathed his last at his home in Delhi on Thursday.

“He expressed the desire to visit Lahore again,” recalled the chief librarian Abdul Waheed.

Old Ravians Union (ORU) Secretary Dr Khalid Manzoor Butt was part of a delegation of alumni that met Mr Singh in 2006 at his home.

“Khushwant Sahib had a lot about the days he spent at the Government College to share with us. He told us that he had to leave Lahore unwillingly after the partition,” he said and added that Mr Singh had written a special article for a brochure of Old Ravians Union in 2004 on the occasion of the college’s 140th anniversary celebrations and had expressed his deep love for his alma mater and Lahore.

ORU President Kamran Lashari said both Khushwant Singh and Dev Anand had great love for their alma mater and they were also stanch supporters of Indo-Pakistan friendship.

“Unfortunately, we lost both of them within the last two years,” he said and added that efforts would be made to invite the family of the late Mr Singh at the condolence reference being planned for him at the GCU.

GCU Vice-Chancellor Prof Khaleequr Rahman said the Khuswant Singh did his graduation from the Government College, Lahore, in 1934 and wrote two articles; Macher (mosquito) and “School Eshq Di Fees” for the college’s literary magazine The Ravi in 1935.

Khushwant Singh was contemporary with Urdu poet N M Rahid at the GC and records showed they had strong interaction during their days at the college. Both used to write for the college magazine, The Ravi. Eminent poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz was leaving GC in 1932 after completing his masters when Khushwant Singh joined it.