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THIS is apropos of Dr Sheila Kazmi's article 'Jinnah's leadership analysis' (Dec 25, 2010). The writer quotes Chagla from 'Roses in December': “Mr Jinnah at the time of the funeral of his young wife Ruttie (Mariyam)… .”
Ascribing the knickname of Mariyam to Ruttie Bai is a new one for me.Jinnah's wife Ruttie succumbed to cancer at the Taj Mahal Hotel of Bombay on Feb 20, 1929. She died on her 29th birthday. Two days later, through bizarre circumstances, Ruttie was reposed to eternal rest in the Khoja Shiite Isna'asheri Arambagh by Mr Jinnah. The Founder endured the worst the death of his beloved Ruttie.
My article 'Till death did they part' (April 20, 1990) was scripted from reminiscences of my late father Hajibhai Esmail Dossa. Jinnah was my father's legal adviser between 1937 and 1943.
My father attended Ruttie Jinnah's funeral. My late sister-in-law Ayisha Farouk Dossa helped me out with the work, and when we concluded the text, Ayisha, sadly posed the question to me: why did Ruttie have to die?
And I replied no true love story has a happy ending. One must always go away. Freedom at Midnight
Ruttie died very young, yet in her brief life she motivated Jinnah to greatness. My father was wont to say “fortune and success come to a man from the stars of his spouse. Ruttie Bai was Jinnah's Laxmi.” The adage goes, behind every great man there is a woman. Dominique Lapierre in (pp 259/260) has written: “Before setting off to his promised land of Pakistan, Jinnah placed a last bouquet on the tomb he was leaving behind forever. Nothing in Jinnah's life had been more remarkable or more seemingly out of character than the deep and passionate love that linked the austere Muslim leader to the woman (Ruttie Bai) beneath the tombstone.”
Better not to distort and dabble with the name of Ruttie, the first Lady of Pakistan. Instead to the fascinating woman whom the Founder loved, a better fitting, enduring service, tribute to Ruttie Bai's memory would be to allocate land for the Ruttie Jinnah Grove, adjacent to the mausoleum. My father and many citizens of Karachi endorsed Ardershir Cowasjee's suggestion for the Ruttie Jinnah Grove. My father wanted to contribute trees for the proposed grove.
However, the project was summarily turned down by the authorities.
MOHAMMED AZIZ HAJI DOSSA
Karachi
