Dina Wadia, the only child of the Quaid-i-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, is no more.
When she visited Pakistan in March 2004, I was then working with The Nation.
She was visiting Pakistan with her son and grandsons on the invitation of the Cricket Control Board chairman Shahryar Khan to watch a cricket match between India and Pakistan.
I vividly remember that the next day, March 25, I frantically skimmed all the newspapers trying to find any news story related to her.
There were no hard stories. There were no soft stories about her visit.
All papers just carried a formal news that "Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's daughter, Dina Wadia, says she is happy to have come to Pakistan, adding that the only purpose of the visit is to watch and enjoy cricket".
Like her father, with a withdrawn personality, she was reluctant to speak to the media.
Had she spoken to the media, newshounds would have dragged her into typical Indo-Pak relations and "what-do-you-think-about-Pakistan" type questions.
I was dismayed as no paper had tried to find any soft story regarding Dina's stay in Lahore.
Pictures are doing the rounds on the Internet where Dina is seen sitting by then chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and standing by social celebrity Yousuf Salahuddin.
These gentlemen can narrate their time spent with the only child of the founder of Pakistan.
Shehryar Khan and the family of Ardesher Cowasjee, who hosted Dina in Karachi, could be other useful sources.
The great opportunity was wasted then.
The great opportunity know something about the reclusive daughter of Jinnah, has been wasted at the time of her death.
Her obituary, carried in all newspapers, has the same oft-repeated things.
No newspaper has so far brought the stories of her visit to Lahore and Karachi in 2004.
Hacks are too lazy to hound people for human interest stories.
Wonderful stories will remain untold and fade soon; the memory of Yousuf Salahuddin, Pervaiz Elahi and Shehryar Khan and so many other people, who met Dina Wadia, who spoke to her, who spent some hours with her, is bound to fade.
The whole nation is at the height of emotion at the demise of the daughter of the founder of Pakistan. At the age of 98 years, she passed away in New York peacefully leaving behind no controversy, which could harm the reputation of her father or interests of Pakistan.
Apart from her estrangement with her father over her marriage to a non-Muslim, against the wish of her father, she spent a clean life.
She is survived by her son Nuslie Wadia and grandchildren Ness and Jehangir.
Dina was the product of a broken family and two opposites. Her father was the undisputed leader of the Muslims of the Subcontinent, a man of strong character and withdrawn in his private life, whereas her mother, Ruttie, belonged to an influential Parsi family of Bombay. She revolted against her family tradition to marry a Muslim man. She converted to Islam and married 41-year-old Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the age of 16 or 17 in 1917. Dina was born on 15 August 1919 in London. No several historical accounts are available to illustrate Muhammad Ali Jinnah-Ruttie married life, but the couple lacked compatibility due to age and cultural differences.
Dina was initially raised by her aunt Fatima Jinnah, after her mother Ruttie died at the age of 29. Later, Muhammad Ali Jinnah allowed Dina’s grandmother, Dinabai Petit, to raise his daughter. Dina Waddi was named after her grandmother. Too much exposure to a largely Parsi milieu and Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s preoccupation with Muslims’ cause had outfalls.
Strong-willed Muhammad Ali Jinnah got shocked when 17-year-old Dina broke the news of her plans to marry Neville Wadia, the scion of an equally illustrious Parsi family of Bombay. Jinnah’s one-time junior, the late Justice Mahommed Currim Chagla is witness to a conversation between the visibly perturbed father and the defiant daughter.Muhammad Ali Jinnah chided Dina and reminded her that “there are millions of Muslim boys in India and you can have anyone you chose”. Dina replied, “Father, there were millions of Muslim girls in India. Why did you not marry one of them?” Muhammad Ali Jinnah justified his marriage, saying she had converted to Islam before marriage.
Dina remained firmed. She went ahead with her plans and married Neille Wadia. After her marriage, aloofness between the father and the daughter increased and Muhammad Ali Jinnah would address her Mrs Wadia.
The estrangement was once broken when, according to Dina Wadia, her father phoned and invited her to Bombay in 1946. She took her daughter Diana (five) and Nussli (two). Despite his pressing engagements, Muhammad Ali Jinnah had not forgotten to buy presents for his daughter and her children. The meeting ended on a pleasant note when the grandfather gifted his cap, which bears his name, to Nuslie.
His affection for Dina can be witnessed from the fact he had deposited Rs200,000 in the Habib Bank Limited and willed to give a monthly stipend to his daughter.
Dina Wadia visited Pakistan twice: once in 1948 to attend the funeral of her father, and again in 2004 to visit his mausoleum and birthplace. The visit was kept private.
She spent a quiet, far from media and publicity galore life. Given oft-erupting controversies between India and Pakistan, Dina Wadia kept herself away from politics. She protected the legacy of her father. She fought for the custody of her father’s mansion in Bombay.
These are things, which we all know.
We have known these things for years.
Why not telling the untold stories?
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