Who could guess in the mid stormy forties that this lean and tall lad, who rambled in the streets of Anarkali, Lahore and walked on the banks of Ravi, would one day be compelled to abandon this landscape, cozy and romantic and have an equally enchanting streets of Delhi and the banks of river Yamuna as his new environment to grow and flourish. The student world remained but the lean young lad rapidly grew with new anguish, agony and aspirations. From Lahore Student Congress to Delhi Student Congress was not a high leap but Pran Sabharwal had changed in all his thinking process. Instead of belonging to a bubbling city of Lahore he belonged to a sizzling continent of India. He had crossed a bad drain and river of pains and suffering. Pran rushed to maturity in one go.
I myself, had shifted to London in early 1948 and had since no contact with the student world for almost 4 years and therefore I cant talk with surety about Pran’s long leaps in the field of education, but my first confrontation with him apprised me of Pran’s presence in Delhi campus as a socialist leader of the young students who were chased both by communist and the communalists. Pran as an oak tree stood between them and attracted them to the socialist party through his work and his dedication to the party, to which he remained attached through out his life. Pran had come closer to me and as I visited the Delhi campus, Pran was the President of the Delhi Student Union. One day he accompanied me to Siddiqi Building, Bara Hindu Rao and had a hand shake with many of Delhi Socialist. The socialist movement had colored his loyalty for the rest of his life. He was the leader of the student by his own rights. Any visitors to the campus could not miss him, tall, well built with an obliging smile on his face. You tell him your problem and he would find a ready solution to it. A new period of rendezvous had now attracted Pran and soon he was on a trip to Europe. The Socialist Party in India had started having its early hiccups. Dr. Lohia had started rocking the boats he rode in and formed a new socialist party while the major part of it remained in the Praja Socialist Party. Pran did not leave the chunk lead by J.P and Ashok Mehta. Pran Sabharwal, who had given his many years to the University of Delhi, remained stuck to Ashok Mehta as his personal assistant. But Pran soon found out that Ashok Mehta besides being an eminent scholar and economist was a hard task master. They, in fact, were poles apart. Moreover Pran being young in age sought greener pastures to chalk out his destiny. For a young socialist the field of media appeared more attractive where his free lancing habits paid him his personal income. Money in fact never deserted him. Pran had spread the net of his activity far and wide and now his usual haunt was the barrack in Connaught Place where Chandra Shekar another ambitious politician had his tents pitched in. One wondered how an M.P coming up in the eyes of the nation catered to the pranks of Pran Sabharwal, who asked many a complicated question. Pran had entered in his manhood and spread his political net far and wide. He was being talked about in many circles and journalist of experience rushed to be in his circle of pals as Pran got a byline in Baltimore Sun, a reputed American newspaper. His company was sought by one and all and Pran Sabharwal had arrived on the scene of Delhi. But his association with his socialist buddies continued. To many he was an enigma who got wrapped in mystery as the days went by. No, he should not have passed away that soon.