Husain, nevertheless left Bahnera and moved to Agra and then to Gwalior—some 250 miles away—where he took up the profession of a lawyer. This development was much to the disgust of Fateh Husain s father, who couldn't understand why his son wanted to "work" when he, the father, already had, "thanks to God's kindness, enough to feed ten servants of his own " When Fateh Husain went to Gwalior, he did not take his family with him—which was more or less the rule at that time—but left them in Bahnera with his father Bibi Ashraf was only eight years old when her mother died. and she and her baby brother were brought up by their loving grandmother and a not-so-loving aunt and uncle. Soon after her birth, Bibi Ashraf was engaged to be married to a second cousin, Sayyid Alamdar Husain, who was nine years older to her. They were married in 1859 Alamdar Husain had been educated in Arabic and Persian at the famous Delhi College in Delhi and, before his marriage, had been a deputy inspector of schools in Jullundur District in the Punjab. When that job was curtailed for some reason, he returned to Bahnera, but after his marriage he took his wife to Lahore where he began to teach Arabic in a school. In 1865, Alamdar Husain was hired as the Assistant Professor of Arabic and Persian at Government College, Lahore, which had been established only the previous year. They had four children, two of whom—a boy and a girl—died very young. Alamdar Husain himself was consumptive and succumbed to the disease in 1870,4 leaving the surviving two daughters and Bibi Ashraf to fend for themselves in Lahore. By that time Bibi Ashraf's grandparents were already dead; then, just a few months later, her father also passed away Alamdar Husain had been well regarded by his superiors as well as by the gentry of Lahore, and they tried to help the bereft family. The Director of Public Instruction in the Punjab—Captain W. R M. Holroyd—offered Bibi Ashraf a small teaching job, and the two girls scholarships of five rupees per month. Bibi Ashraf declined the job, preferring to support her family on whatever she could earn from sewing clothes and making lace. She did, however, accept the scholarships and had her daughters admitted to a local school for girls. But there were too many mouths to feed, for Bibi Ashraf always had several children of relatives staying with her while getting education in Lahore Eight years later, when she was again offered a teaching job, she agreed and became a teacher at Victoria Girls School, a semi-official primary school. She worked hard and eventually became its head teacher; she also strove to improve the school's reputation—which had not been too good—and finally saw it raised to the level of a middle school. She continued to work until she died—after only a short illness—on 7 May 1903. 4 Alamdar Husain became seriously ill in August I969 and died on 14 May 1870 There is an interesting sidelight to this event When Alamdar Husain went on sick leave, his temporary replacement was no other than Maulvi Muhammad Husain Azad—the author of Ab-e Hayat—who, after the former's death was made permanent at a salary of Rs 150/- per month Aslam Farrukhi, Muhammad Husain Azad Hayat aur Tasanlf (Karachi Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu 1965) pp 212-213 Annual of Urdu Studies, #6 100