Sorayya Khurshid had the opportunity of living next to Fatima Jinnah in 1956. She took care to write a diary of her sittings with her and we are lucky that she did that because it explains the personality of Ms Jinnah and lets us have a glimpse of her views. Sorayyas brother Khalid Hasan has rendered the book into Urdu and we are face to face with some of the facts in history we didnt know before.

Sorayya married KH Khurshid who was a 20-year-old college-going boy in Srinagar when Jinnah chose him as his private secretary. We dont know how Jinnah chose him but he picked up no ordinary man and Khurshid married no ordinary woman who ended up writing the diary in 1956. Khurshid served with Jinnah from 1944 to 1947 but was arrested by India when he visited his home in 1947 just after Partition. He was released in December 1948 but by then Jinnah was no more.

Jinnah had asked Ms Jinnah to look after Khurshid after his return from the Indian jail. Khurshid went to London and did his law Ms Jinnah used to send him food packets there and on his return began his legal practice in Karachi. Ms Jinnah got him to live with her at the Flagstaff House. And when Khurshid married, Sorayya was added to the mnage as Ms Jinnahs companion. The stage was set. The young girl worshipped the sister of Jinnah and constantly quizzed her on life and politics. The result is this book.

Sorayyas innocence and love for the new country comes through too. She wanted Khurshid to write about his four years spent close to Jinnah. He could have done it but he met with an accident in 1983 and died, leaving Sorayya as the only eyewitness to Ms Jinnahs life during the year 1956. Ms Jinnah died in 1967.