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had served with the Hyderabad Contingent, in
which some of mine had also served, had long
settled at Aurangabad and had no home elsewhere.
He was one of those able and estimable men whom
Aurangabad presented to Hyderabad as an indi-
genous type quite capable of holding its own
against the claim of any outsider.
In March, 1930, the news of his death suddenly
reached me one morning at Vikarabad. My first
feeling, after that of momentary surprise, was that
he must have realised that beatitude for which
he seemed to have been longing.
He used to tell me how sudden his wife's
departure had been to enter upon a happier
phase of life, and I could guess that he wished for
a similar end. Whenever he and I talked of death,
it was with a sense of serene satisfaction, remem-
bering that every human being has to be ready
for the journey. He sometimes asked me, though
I was a much younger man, to pray for him ; and
often did I pray for him for that Peace which is
everlasting!
Strange that on the morning of his death
my Qur'an should have opened at this verse :
" O Soul satisfied ! return unto thy Lord, pleasing
and pleased." Could any message be more
reassuring ?
Nawab Akbar-ul-Mulk
Nawab    Akbar-ul-Mulk     (Mir     Akbar    Ali
Khan),   Kotwal   of   Hyderabad,    was   one   of
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