On the first floor verandah of the Jungshahi-stone Mohatta Palace, overlooking Old Clif ton, Mohtarma Shirin Bai was seated on a sofa once used by [her brother] Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

On a table nearby is a clock which Mr Jinnah glanced at from time to time when it was placed on his writing desk, and many years later it continues to function. Mr Jinnah`s prized Iranian carpets adorn the tiled floors of the verandah, where a teak dressing table, flower vases, exquisite pieces of pottery, as well as a host of articles used by him can be seen and complete the perfect `relic-room setting` which today inspire his only surviving sister to recall moments of her cherished association with the man who changed the destiny of a people and the world political map.

`My son is destined to be Rajah. He has a birth-mark on the sole of his right foot, mother used to tell us of ten when we talked after dinner about Bhaijaan who was then studying law in England,` Mohtarma Shirin Bai recalls. `Upon his return from England, my sisters and I, curious about his birth-mark, requested him to let us look at the sole of his right foot.

``Don`t be superstitious,` was his immediate, brusque response, but after our cajoling, he eventually yielded, and took off his shoes and a sock. And there it was, right in the middle of his sole round and the size of a rupee coin.

`That the prophecy would prove truer than the belief could not, however, be dreamed by any of us,` Mohtarma Shirin Bai says.

Mr Jinnah lived a disciplined life and followed his schedules rather rigidly. He was usually dressed in a three-piece suit except when retiring for bed; he would wear a dressing gown before his morning bath or as he relaxed every afternoon at 5:30 p.m. That was the time when family members usually visited him.

`He greeted us with a soft smile always. He was pleased to receive us, she remembers. `He would enquireabout everyone`s welfare, not excluding that of my cook Latif, whose Mughlia dishes, especially biryani and zarda, he particularly liked.

However, given the fact that he was a very busy person, first as a lawyer and later as a politician, the courtesy calls had to be brief. In Mohtarma Shirin Bai`s case, the conversations were even briefer. This was because while Mr Jinnah was not conversant in Gujarati or Urdu, she was not fluent in English. After her marriage, Mr Jinnah visited Mohtarma Shirin Bai at her in-laws` home; she remembers vividly the time that he bought a mechanical toy for her son who he called `Little Akbar`.

During the time when Mr Jinnah was associated with the Home Rule League,he was living alone as Miss Fatima Jinnah was studying dental surgery in Calcutta. It was then that Mohtarma Shirin Bai stayed with him.

`I vividly remember watching the proceedings of one of the League`s meetings from the ladies` enclosure which was separated by a qanat,` she recalls. The Quaid wanted her to become an active worker of the Home Rule League to mobilise the women of the country.

`He went to the extent of translating each and every word to explain the concept, aims and objectives of the Home Rule League and all that it entailed. It was all so complicated that I begged him to spare me. I suggested that Fatima would be a better choice, and indeed, she was.Mohtarma Shirin Bai, however, did introduce the Quaid to several women who were active in public life, including Mrs Sarojini Naidu, Atiya Begum, Begum Bhopal and Begum Nazli.

For nearly 12 years, Mohtarma Shirin Bai lived in Poona. `During this time, Bhaijaan visite d us, mos tlyunannounced, unexpected and unscheduled. One evening, while I was at the new Poona Club, my servant came running to tell me that he had come to see me. He had first gone to my house, and upon not finding me there, he asked the servant to accompany him to the club. The servant came on a cycle and Bhaijaan followed him in a car. As word got around, a host of his admirers and f ollower s, including Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah (who later became theñrst governor of Sindh after independence) gathered around the table. After a while, we returned to my residence; he stayed there for a while and lef t early due to a dinner engagement elsewhere.

She adds: `The Quaid was a hard taskmaster but he was benevolent and rewarded persons of merit. He paid a handsome salary to the person who looked after his files and maintained his of fice for 20 years.` As she was nearly 15 years younger than Mr Jinnah, she confesses that she knows little about her illustrious brother`s childhood. `I wasn`t born when Bhaijaan was studying at a school in Bombay or when he was pur suing law at Lincoln`s Inn in London.

Mohtarma Shirin Bai established the Quaid Foundation in January, 1974, after donating one-quarter of her property, mainly due to her curiosity about the various aspects of Mr Jinnah`s life and his achievements.

She is hopeful that that the Board of Directors, which she heads and which includes Mr. M.H. Saiyid (VicePresident), Mr. Rizwan Ahmad (Secretary/Treasurer), Mr. Husain Imam, Maulana Zafar Ahmed Ansari, MNA, Mr. Justice (Retd) M.B. Ahmed, Mr. Z.A. Suleri, Mr. K.H. Khursheed and her son Mr. Akber C. Jafferbhoy (members), will be able to do this, and adds that the Foundation`s progress has been insignificant so far, perhaps due to the pending property inheritance case in the court.

Sheis ofthe opinion thatthe condition prescribed by the Government with regard to income tax exemption on donations to the Foundation, which requires the Foundation to consume every penny within the year the donation was received, will be an impediment.

Besides, she points out, the Government has not revalidated this exemption for the year ending December 31, 1976.

Mohtarma Shirin Bai is confident that these problems will be overcome in due course, and states that the work done so far, which includes initial research undertaken on individual basis by various board members, is encouraging.• The article has been edited for clarity.