10
caught the spirit of the poem, for the Report
mentions that my recitation was liked by the
English-knowing people present. This was my
first response to English poetry and the small
beginning of my life-long habit of reciting or
reading aloud whatever interested me. I received
from the honoured hands of the great Minister
(Sir Salar Jung) a beautifully bound quarto volume
of The Arabian Nights. Its blue and gold cover
and the wonderful illustrations within, were like
a dream to me. And the stories as I read them
afterwards from day to day became part of the
life of imagination which has brightened my
actual life since then. Another benefit that
book brought me was love of reading, and I had
become an irresponsible pleasure-reader before
reaching the age of sixteen."
Mr. Nizamuddin Ahmed left the Madrasa-i-Aizza
towards the end of 1884 and joined the" England
Class " at the Madrasa-i-Aliya in 1885, but was
pronounced too young to be sent to England with
his brother and cousin. " So; by way of conso-
lation," he says, " I studied Mathematics with Dr.
Aghomath^^atopaclhaya (Mrs. Sarojini Naidu's
father) and English at Tiome with a Mr. Gloria.
In 1886 I spent a few months at Poqna and read
Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats with"a Mr. Ram-
krishna Iyer—an uncommonly enthusiastic young
man devoted to English poetry, who became a
life-long friend."
He sailed jor_England _in May, 1887, with
Lt. Colonel Cudlow, CJ.E., Inspector-General of