for family picnics. At school, the subject of domestic science included learning dishes like blancmange, whose bland taste drove Jaffrey to dismiss the cookery lessons as preparing "British invalid foods from circa 1930". However, at the time of the practical examination, her class was asked to make a dish from an assortment of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and Indian spices in a pot over wood to be lit with matches. Jaffrey did her best but guessed that she failed the subject of domestic science altogether. Jaffrey and her cousins would regularly answer summons from the nearby All India Radio station for parts in radio plays or children's programs. As she was paid a small fee for each session, Jaffrey considered this to be her first professional work. Meanwhile, Jaffrey's father had moved to Daurala as general manager of Daurala Sugar Works, a factory owned by family friends, the Shri Ram family. Jaffrey, along with her brothers, her younger sister, Veena, and her mother remained behind in Delhi in to avoid disrupting the children's education. During this period, Jaffrey's elder sisters were at boarding school in Nainital. In the letters that they exchanged with their siblings and cousins at Delhi, they addressed each other only by their initials. This tradition cemented over time so that Jaffrey became M for her circle of close friends and family. Jaffrey's father eventually returned from Daurala and joined Delhi Cloth Mills, a textile factory owned by the Shri Ram family. Delhi (1950–1955) From 1950 to 1953 Jaffrey attended Miranda House, a women's college, where she gained a B.A. degree in English Honours with a minor in philosophy. She took part in her college's all-women productions of Hamlet and The Importance of Being Earnest. She appeared in The Comedy of Errors performed by St. Stephen's College. In 1951, Jaffrey joined the Unity Theatre, an English language repertory company founded by Saeed Jaffrey in New Delhi. She auditioned for the role of the Queen's Reader in Jean Cocteau's play The Eagle Has Two Heads just four days before the opening but was cast in the role. The next play that she did with Saeed was Christopher Fry's A Phoenix Too Frequent. After graduation from Miranda House in 1953, Jaffrey joined All India Radio, where Saeed Jaffrey was an announcer. She worked as a disc jockey at night. Saeed and Jaffrey fell in love, and dated at