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LAST week, Syed Babar Ali dedicated a classroom in memory of his best friend, Sardar Harcharan Singh Brar, at their alma mater Aitchison College in Lahore. Babli Brar, the daughter of Harcharan Brar, came from India to attend this special gathering.
Babar Ali and Brar came from very different backgrounds. Brar, born in 1922, was from a Sikh landlord family of Sarai Nanga near Ferozepore; while Ali, born in 1926, hailed from a Syed Muslim business family of Lahore.
Both met at Aitchison College in the mid-1930s and developed a friendship that lasted about seven decades and transcended the trauma of the partition, the narrowness of patriotism, and their professional careers.
What brought them together was Aitchison College, established as Punjab Chiefs College in 1886 – 140 years ago – which is known for its multi-faith pre-partition roots, and was set up and established to provide quality education to the landed gentry, princes and elite chieftains of Punjab.
