Well-known sketch artist, poet and Amrita Pritam’s long-time companion Imroz breathed his last on 22nd December at his residence in Bombay. He was 97. He died of age-related issues. Even after her demise in 2005, Inderjeet Singh alias Imroz used to insist that she was around, she wasn’t dead and gone. “Woh yahin hai, ghar par hi hai, kahin nahi gayi (She is here only, she is home, she hasn’t gone anywhere),” used to be his constant refrain after she had passed away.
Amrita Pritam’s last poetic work, Main tainu pher milaangi (I will meet you again) in 2004, was for Imroz whom she met in 1957 and who loved her the way she had loved Sahir Ludhianvi. Convinced that she would be back, she wrote in the nazm for Imroz in 2004, “Main tainu pher milaangi / Kithe… kis tarah… pata nahi… / Par tainu zaroor milaangi…(I will meet you again… / Where.. How?… I know not.. / But meet you again I will).”
Although they were in a live-in relationship for 40 years, they never got married. A film on their love story, titled Imroz: A Walk Down The Memory Lane, was released just last year.
Imroz had a brush with publicity designing for films. He designed posters of Aan, and also worked for Guru Dutt and O.P. Ralhan.