Professor Naimuddin Siddiqui was my English Literature professor during my graduation at Osmania University, although for just one year, because he was offered a position in Liberia as mentioned above. Besides me, Shameem Aunty, Masood bhai and Azher were also his students of English at Osmania University.
Another very interesting anecdote for those who are not aware; and I never get tired relating it is as follows: During my father’s deputation to Europe in 1947, six young Hyderabadis rented a house and the tenants were Professor Naimuddin Siddiqui (Abida Apa’s husband who was there studying at Oxford) along with his brother Mazhar Siddiqui, Mr. Aziz Ahmed (Zahida Apa’s husband who was studying Engineering), Mrs. Zahoorunnisa (Amjad bhai’s mother-in-law who was doing Masters probably in Biology) and my parents. At the time my parents had no idea that one day their room-mates would all get married into our Aziz Bagh family. What a lovely coincidence.
When I presented my manuscript to Naim Uncle to review, he suggested that instead of just prose, I should make the book interesting for the young audience and he framed it into Question & Answer format. This can only be achieved by a very talented professor.
On another incident, during my visit to San Francisco, I requested Naim Bhai to translate Aziz Jung’s book Tariq-un-Nawayat. Since the book was extensive and he had no time to translate, he did impress me though by reading the book in English, while the book was in Urdu and Persian. To this day I just cannot understand the level of talent Naim Bhai had. Just imagine looking at Urdu & Persian script but reading in English!