S. S. Rajputana, ( written on board a ship) Marseilles 5 Oct 1928
Darling thank you for all you have done. If ever in my bearing your once tuned senses found any irritability or unkindness be assured that in my heart there was place only for a great tenderness and a greater pain a pain my love without hurt. When one has been as near to the reality of Life (which after all is Death) as I have been dearest, one only remembers the beautiful and tender moments and all the rest becomes a half veiled mist of unrealities. Try and remember me beloved as the flower you plucked and not the flower you tread upon.
I have suffered much sweetheart because I have loved much. The measure of my agony has been in accord to the measure of my love.
Darling I love you I love you and had I loved you just a little less I might have remained with you only after one has created a very beautiful blossom one does not drag it through the mire. The higher you set your ideal the lower it falls.
I have loved you my darling as it is given to few men to be loved. I only beseech you that the tragedy which commenced in love should also end with it.
Darling Goodnight and Goodbye
Ruttie
I had written to you at Paris with the intention of posting the letter here but I felt that I would rather write to you afresh from the fullness of my heart. R.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ruttie Petit Jinnah died on her 29th birthday. She was buried on February 22 in Khoja Isna Ashari Cemetery, Mazgaon, Bombay according to Muslim rites. Jinnah sat like a statue throughout the funeral but when asked to throw earth on the grave, he broke down and wept. That was the only time when Jinnah was found betraying some shadow of human weakness. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> dear friends,
i am sorry at the outset to post this, but since we are discussing literature and history - thought we could do something nearer ( dateline) but again forgotten......we talk of how much is there to know of the cholas, pallavas....but how much do we know of what happened during the last century....
yesterday, a chance visit to a local singapore library ( was pleased to see divakar sir's two works - two copies of vicithracithan and one of tirumalai tirudan on the shelves ).....have already posted on one of my fav reads - Freedom at Midnight, right next to that book was a huge volume...The Jinnah of Pakisthan...( read the review here) http://www.desistore.com/jinnah.html) ... the mention of his name was headline couple of years back, but guess lot of us dont realise how little we know of him ......it got me to pick it up.
Just as i was nosing around i found this letter - a poignant piece of emotion from his second wife ( his first marriage was more to make him mom to agree to send him to london and he left within 4 days of getting married and by the time he returned his bride had passed away )....he married Ruttenbai "Ruttie" Petit ("The Flower of Bombay")24 years younger than him...and their marriage is often portrayed wrongly in most indian books.
this letter ( you can search on the net and get the original manuscript) read it knowing that, the age difference, his single minded devotion to his cause and the fact that she died in February 15, 1929...its
This raises a question in me, which I have been thinking for a long time and again remembered when I read the first line 'S.S.Rajputana'.
How on earth can one post letters while aboard a ship? Even came across letters written by Vivekananda aboard ships...is it that, they wrote the letter aboard the ship and posted in the next available port? (more logical and should be that way).
The postal system really surprised me and sometimes I feel, it was much better than todays postal system. Any letters written those days fetched a reply within a weeks time.. meaning if I write a letter andpost it today, and if Iget a response by one week, a letter to reach from one place to another is just 3.5 days...today it takes atleast 2 days for a local post, forget a post to a far away place.
Even Kalki's Alai osai has such scenes. The story starts with the post box, ofcourse. Given the speed of transportation those days, isnt it amazing...Mostly we can find instances (in stories, movies) where someone drops a letter saying I am leaving to tiruchy today, please pick me up at the station...and the letter reaches before the person reaches, though both start the journey on the same day...
This is what I understood from the stories, movies and letters written by people in the olden days (say 50 to 100 years back).
Am I getting something wrong? Can someone enlighten me?
> The postal system really surprised me and sometimes I feel, it was > much better than todays postal system. Any letters written those days > fetched a reply within a weeks time..
Hi sathish
a small piece of trivia when we are discussing sea mail the first airmail( a trademarked word now) was in 1793.thats if you dont count the 'pura vidu thoothu.' how you may ask when the plane came a century later. and who wrote it. it was written by george washington and carried on a baloon. the adresee. it was a letter adressed to the owner of the land where the baloon chose to land.
Thanks for the clue, i came to know about Royal Mail Service. Though I dont understand the intricacies, my question still remains.
If one travels in a ship and writes a letter, the RMS ship which carries the mails - will it be traveling along side? If RMS can deliver letters to and from a ship, why not the passenge ship itself travel at that speed so that the person reaches at the same time as that of the letter?
Same line of thought - if mails were sent through trains and the passenger also travels by train, how the letter reaches before the traveler?