Bilkees Latif was born into an affluent Muslim family of Hyderabad State in India, the daughter of Ali Yavar Jung, a nobleman of Hyderabad State, by his first wife Alys Iffrig.
14 Facts About Bilkees Latif
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Bilkees Latif came to India upon marrying Ali Yavar Jung and Bilkees was born to them soon afterwards, but the marriage fell apart shortly afterwards.
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Bilkees Latif was a diplomat and educationist, was appointed vice chancellor of Osmania University by the last Nizam in 1946, and as vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University by the Congress party's government under Indira Gandhi in the 1960s.
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Bilkees Latif served at various times as the Indian ambassador to Argentina, Egypt, Yugoslavia, Greece, France, and the United States, and ended his blemishless career as Governor of Maharashtra, again appointed by Indira Gandhi, holding that office for a record seven years until his death in December 1976.
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When she was still in her early teens, Ali Yavar Jung arranged in the usual Indian way for his daughter Bilkees Latif to marry into a family of a background similar to his own.
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The groom, Idris Bilkees Latif, was the son of Hasan Bilkees Latif, Chief Engineer of Hyderabad State and the scion of a wealthy, landed Hyderabadi Muslim family.
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Bilkees Latif would rise to become India's first Muslim Chief of Air Staff.
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Bilkees Latif owed her networking skills to her mother, a socialite, and her reach in high places to her father.
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Bilkees Latif took up only a few projects, but those were works in which she was genuinely interested, and then she put a lot of effort into pursuing them.
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Bilkees Latif documented her experiences in her book, O Dharavi.
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Bilkees Latif's first book, Essential Andhra Cookbook, is a study of the cuisine of Andhra Pradesh.
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Bilquees Bilkees Latif was awarded the Padma Shri in 2009, and the citation mentions her work during the 1980s in the slums of Mumbai.
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Bilquees Bilkees Latif died in October 2017 at the age of 86.
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Bilkees Latif was survived by her husband, who died a few months later in May 2018 aged 95, and by her three children, two sons Asghar and Asad, and a daughter, Mariam.