Our maternal grandfather was a forest officer in Hyderabad. Our father was DIG police. We therefore lived in a huge residency of 5 to 6 acres with many servants, horses and stables and even our very own ‘Dhobi’.

My mother’s name was Mumtaz. My father called her `Bibi, lovingly. They loved each other dearly. He loved to paint to relax and unwind.

He was reputed to be a very strict officer. Once he caught an officer napping with his gun on the ground. He quietly took the gun and brought it home. It is said that the officer never let go of his gun during duty ever again.

Post partition, my father considered staying in Dhaka and in fact, even made a trip to Dhaka but decided against moving. As he was a senior police official, he could only go to Pakistan as late as 1951. We came earlier to Karachi, accompanied by our mother, grandmother, our servant and his wife. The hours of waiting were very long…

(Narrated by his sister Shaheen Siddiqui)