I REPRODUCE the pertinent text from Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh Kudaisya’s book, a landmark compilation, ‘The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia’ published by the Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, London.
“In the evening (Aug 14, 1947), after Mountbatten and his party had left, the Karachi Club, hosted a grand independence banquet (800 covers were laid) where the cities crème de la crème jostled to felicitate the Quaid. The club had been established in 1934, by the elite Hindu Amil community, mostly from Shikarpur, the Bohri Muslim community and old titled Sindhi families.
Ken Mac, the musician and conductor who performed at the Cricket Club of India in Bombay, had been flown by a special Tata airlines plane to perform at this special event. Jinnah arrived with his sister Fatima for the banquet and was received by the Club’s president Justice Tyabji and its honorary secretary Jethanand Tandon.
They were led to the other guests, who included cabinet members, the diplomatic corps, the commander-in-chief, Sir Douglas Gracey, British civilian and army officers, Pakisitani officers like Iskander Mirza, all resplendent in cummerbunds or dress suits with ladies in colorful saris and evening dresses.
At the sit-down dinner around the teak dance floor, they were serenaded by Ken Mac and his band.
Haji Bhai Esmail Dossa, a Bombay-based businessman, recalls the highlights of the evening:
“Sir Ghulam Hussain Hidayatullah requested Ken Mac to play ‘So Deep is the night’ because on that Chopin tune, Ruttie had taken Jinnah’s consent for marriage in Bombay’s Taj Mahal Hotel, ballroom, at her birthday party, on Feb 20, 1918. Later the Quaid requested the orchestra for Paul Robson’s ‘The End’ which, as a courtesy to the Quaid, was sung in the tenor voice by the great Ken Mac himself, for it was known that the Founder used to hum the words of ‘The End’ on Thursday afternoons in Bombay that he devoted to visit the grave of his wife Ruttie, in the Khoja Shiite Isna’asheri Cemetery of Bombay.
“The finale of the evening was given to the music ‘Happy Birthday Dina’ because the Quaid had chosen the Independence Day of Pakistan, on the birthday of his only daughter Dina, whom he had left behind in Bombay, with her two children Nusli and Diana. And when the programme ended, the Quaid stood up, the guests followed, and everyone lifted their glasses, to toast ‘God save the King.’”
Ruttie’s tomb has the engraving: ‘Rattanbai Mahomed Ali Jinnah: Born: 20th February 1900: Died, February 20th, 1929.’ To the fascinating Ruttie Bai, the only woman our Quaid truly loved, a fitting tribute to her memory would be to allocate land for the proposed Ruttie Jinnah Grove, adjacent to the Founder’s Mausoleum. Nothing could be more aesthetically and historically correct than a Ruttie Jinnah Grove that was solicited by my father Haji Bhai Esmail Dossa, Ardeshir Cowasjee and many a citizen of Karachi, as well as Dr Hamayun Bashir from Lahore.
Cowasjee suggested to my father to plant the first set of sapling in the Ruttie Jinnah Grove. Verily, the story of Ruttie and Jay is without any end.
MOHAMMED AZIZ HAJI DOSSA Karachi
