Outstanding scholar, poet, dramatist, playwright and literary critic Zahida Zaidi was born on 4th January, 1930. Reputed Urdu poet Khawaja Altaf Hussain Hali was her great maternal grandfather. she worked as a Lecturer in Lady Irwin College and Miranda House at the University of Delhi before joining Aligarh Muslim University. A well-known poet, Prof Zaidi authored more than 30 books in Urdu and English covering social, psychological and philosophical issues. She translated the creative writings of noted literary figures such as Chekhov, Pirandello, Beckett, Sartre, Ionesco. An accomplished dramatist herself, she staged, directed and produced plays of several Western and Indian dramatists both in English and Urdu. She breathed her last in Aligarh on January 11, 2011.