Founding Father Of Pakistan Poem by Asit Kumar Sanyal

Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan
at his forty
loved a 16 year old Parsi girl
named ‘Ruttie Petit'
and said to her father
‘I want to marry your daughter'
He was thrown out of the door immediately.
And they never met again.

She was a minor
so after a wait of two years
when he wanted to marry her
she put a condition
‘You have to shave off your moustache'
Jinnah accepted … not only that
He changed his hair style too
to impress the lady.

Jinnah legally married Ruttie Petit
a woman 24 years younger than him
at his Bombay house in 1918
None of her family members attended
She accepted Islam
became Maryam
and started her married life
But Jinnah could not satisfy her.

Her unhappy marriage ended in 1929
when she died of cancer in Bombay
Jinnah visited her grave for last time
In 1947... when he moved to Pakistan
He too was suffering from TB
And died after a year
The chapter closed decades ago
but the tale of his moustache still alive.