Adil Najam
There picture are not of very high quality, but I am very fond of them because they depict a very different side of Mohammad Ali Jinnah from the one that our official discourse allows us to see. Today, on Mr. Jinnah’s 133rd birthday, I suspect that the Quaid-i-Azam – who always preferred to be “Plain Mr. Jinnah” would have fondly welcomed these photographs rather than the rather stern ones that have been flashing on our television screens all day.
These pictures depict a side of “Plain Mr. Jinnah” that we have often ignored, and sometimes purposely tried to hide.
It is a more human side. A less camouflaged side. A side that depicts a ‘normal’ person–flaws and all–rather than a ‘perfect leader.’
It is a side that, in fact, makes Mr. Jinnah more complete than our official depictions would have him be. Without this side, he cannot be complete or be completely understood.
The picture on the top-left was taken in Bombay with his daughter Dina and his dogs; top-right is taken on a vacation in Kashmir (I believe), with Dina and Begum Liaquat Ali Khan; the third and fourth pictures may well be from the same vacation in Kashmir.
Mutiny, why Bombay… why not Karachi?
I was in Bombay last year giving a talk on India-Pakistan at the Taj Hotel in Bombay. Afterwards an elderly Parsee lady came to me and asked me if I knew what was special about the room I had given the talk in (the main hall at the Taj)… I told her I did not know… she told me that the pillars in the room were originally in Rutie Bai’s fathers house (Jinnah’s father-in-law) .. they were quite grand and had later been acquired by the Taj. Turns out that in the period when the relationship between the two was Rocky, Rutie Bai kept a permanent room at the Taj and it was there that she was during part of her ultimate sickness…. or, so I was told.
There should be a Jinnah centre in Bombay showcasing his life in India. Too often national heros are made out of be fiction far from who they really were.
This should be a book, “The human side of Mr. Jinnah”. I’d suggest that to a friend, Yasser Latif Hamdani. Our Governments have overexposed The great leader’s image to an extent where we can hardly see him, which is quite sad because Mr. Jinnah lived only fifty some years ago and to forget the real Mr. Jinnah would be an injustice not only to his remaining family members but to the greatest momument of his leadership, our country Pakistan.
Good to see you blogging Mr. Najam. I remember you from your PTV days and quite admired your style of delivery at the time. Keep up the good work.