I AM deeply saddened by the demise of the illustrious educationist Dr Aquila Islam. Aquila and I were students of Physics and Chemistry, respectively, at the University of Karachi during the late 1950s. She was a very bright student and had a friendly and jovial personality. She had also visited my house once with some friends.
Then we met in 1998 at the Hamdard Institute of Information Technology (HIIT) where I was working to set up a decent Chemistry Section. We spent a great time together. Later, when the HIIT moved to its campus, we shared a nice intellectual bond along with Zahir Kidwai and Mumtaz Saeed there. The four of us used to enjoy informal literary sessions together. She had a very fine literary taste and would sometimes read couplets composed by herself. I still remember some of them; they were beautiful.