India, March 28 -- It was a heartfelt thanksgiving to Urdu scholar HK Lall on Thursday evening at the Chandigarh Press Club, where lovers of the language gathered to commemorate the first death anniversary of the city's unique teacher - one who had declared, "I will serve the cause of Urdu throughout my life. This is my worship, this is my faith!" True to his words, he remained devoted to the language almost until his last breath. His journey was far from easy. In the aftermath of the Partition, Urdu, the language of great poetry, was nearly lost to this side of the border. As the celebrated poet Daagh Dehlvi had once remarked, "Nahi khel ai 'Daagh' yaaron se keh do, ki aati hai Urdu zaban aate aate" (Tell the friend, oh Daagh, it is no child's play; mastery over Urdu comes only with time). For Lall, however, the bond with Urdu was instinctive. Born into a Punjabi family in Pakpattan, southwest of Lahore, known as the City of Baba Farid, he received his early education in Urdu. After migrating with his family to Abohar at the age of 10, and later to Chandigarh, his love for the language travelled with him to the ultra-modern city designed by Le Corbusier. He went on to become the first student to receive a PhD in Urdu from Panjab University, Chandigarh. Generous with his knowledge, Lall spent nearly five decades teaching Urdu free of cost, shaping the linguistic and literary sensibilities of generations - among them judges, bureaucrats, doctors and scholars. Even in his eighties, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Lall embraced technology to continue his mission, starting online Urdu classes that drew hundreds of students from India and abroad. The Thursday memorial function was organised by his daughters Neena Behl and Smiti Misra, and son Vishal Arora. Speaking at the event, city's respected literary figure Chander Trikha, who shared a long journey with Lall from Pakpattan to Abohar and then Chandigarh, recalled the scholar's deep commitment to linguistic precision. "At a mushaira in Abohar, he even objected to a word pronounced incorrectly by the great modern poet Bashir Badr, and Badr graciously conceded and corrected it," he recounted. Such was the grace that defined both the scholar and the rich tradition of Urdu poetry, and culture he so lovingly preserved....