The Muslim Women’s College was founded in the teeth of stiff opposition by Sheikh Abdullah, fondly known as Papa Mian and the grandfather of our ex- foreign secretary Salman Haider. The women’s college is now under the university but the family continues to take a keen interest. His mother Mumtaz Haider was the principal when my sister Sujata Roy joined as a professor of English in the mid-’40s, to my knowledge the first Hindu to do so. As a young student in Lucknow, I used to visit her often and have vivid memories of the poet Majaz coming to her house and reciting his verses.
