A friend living abroad needed a recommendation letter to apply for admission to some university and asked me to get one from Professor Dr A.H Khayal. This gave me an opportunity to meet Dr Khayal in 2007, 18 years after leaving Government College, Lahore, now GCU.

Dr Khayal’s new book was arriving that week. He was writing against Bush then. When I went to collect the recommendation, he told me something about himself that I would like to share with the readers.

He said, "When I did M.A English I topped in the university and prayed all the time for a miracle to happen after that. I would go for a walk to Lawrence Garden every day. One day before leaving for the walk I prayed hard to my God to put in my way a purse with 1875 rupees only, no more, no less. I prayed with all my sincerity to find a lost purse with this much money in it. You must be wondering why this exact amount. This was the fare to England. I ached to do my Ph.D from London. I went to walk that day looking for the purse for which I had prayed but I did not find that all my way. I felt dejected, devastated because I believed that there is nothing in the world that you want with all your heart and the Lord Almighty won’t grant you. But that day when I returned home looking for the purse with the money which I desired so much, without finding it, I felt shattered. How could my God deny me what I really wanted so much. As I reached home, the doorbell rang. There was my friend whom I had not seen for two years. He had left for Saudi Arabia after doing his B.A and was earning there. My friend asked me what was wrong with me and why I looked so depressed. I told him the reason. He immediately took out his purse and handed me the money needed to take me to England for my Ph.D. That was the air fare to London in 1965 -- Rs 1875. I tried to refuse the money but he insisted that it was for me, that he had been thinking of me and had brought the money specifically for me. With that money I went to London University and did my Ph.D in English Language in 1967. I broke the University’s 40 years old record and was offered lecturership there which I refused and came back to my land to teach my own people."

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Dr Khayal was awarded the title of ‘Distinguished Professor’ in 2005. He remained in the visiting faculty of Government College University, Lahore from 1997 till 2008.

Dr Khayal taught us prose from 1987-89. He would usually drift to other subjects while teaching but he had a very engaging personality. He was always full of interesting insights. He was a master in coining new words. Once he came up with decoration’s origin -- dekho re shan. The class was awe-struck where the words had nearly same sound and meaning. He started writing quite late in life. His first book of short prose was titled ‘Nasreechay’ -- a new word he coined for short prose. He wrote satire. Some of his writings would pierce the heart.

Dr Khayal would be long remembered by his students for his wit, knowledge, great love for mankind and eccentricity which too was remarkable.