And We Had Dinner (Guest Post 3)

A few days ago, one of my friends got a lucrative job in a university. To celebrate the occasion, we decided to go for a lavish dinner at some restaurant. Of course, he was to pay the bill. After a long debate over what to eat and where to go, finally we decided on having a buffet dinner at a near-by restaurant. The date, time and venue were decided and everyone was to arrive at the exact time on their own.

I and my one friend live in a hostel so we decided to go together. We reached at 9pm at the venue. Total of 7 people gathered. But we were in for a surprise. We were told that there is no buffet as outdoor lawns are closed due to the Dengue epidemic. So we had to sit indoors. Searching the menu and everybody wanted to order their own choice. I ordered what I wanted. And as it is normally take about half an hour so we were thinking to sit and chit chat for a while. But our friend had other plans.

He stopped the waiter before he could place the orders.
He asked him to bring the bill in advance! The poor waiter was as much flabbergasted as we were
because the normal thing was to eat first and they pay later. But our friend insisted and so the bill arrived. It was about PKR 3500 (about US$ 40). Well not that much given the lucrative job he got. But as we were still dumbfounded by this act, our friend rushed out of the restaurant. Only after reaching for the door, with jerk of the head, he asked us to follow him. Left with no option, we had to move out leaving the waiter and everybody aghast.

We were thinking that may be our friend realized the money was too much and he wanted us to eat
at some less expensive place. One of us suggested that may be our friend left his wallet and therefore, was unable to pay. Our minds churning out different theories, we tried to reach him. He was moving with a faster pace. We asked him what had happened. We even put our theories in front of him. But he remained silent. Now we were really fuming with anger. What was that? That was like an insult to us. We thought of complete social boycott of him. But he was unmoved.

After walking for like a half kilometer, he entered into a dark corner. We were suspicious. Could he be kidnapping all of us? Or was he into some criminal activities? Or even worse, was he doing something immoral there? Everybody would have thought like that if were in the same situation. It was a dark night, with no electricity and being in a place far from human population, we were bound to be skeptical. Anyway, we followed him and reaching the corner, we could see some light probably a candle or a lantern there. And in that light, we could recognize there were humans. Who were they? Children kidnapped by these criminals? Or the ones used for begging and illegal organ transplant? One never knows with places like these.

We continued to move on and now we could clearly see the faces. It was a family consisting of an elderly woman, with a man, probably her husband, lying on the floor, apparently ill. On the other side were an infant with no clothes, and then there was an ultra-slim teenage girl, obviously malnourished. They were telling our friend that they had no lunch and dinner that day and the infant was unable to sleep because of hunger. Our friend took out his wallet, gave her PKR 3500 and left.

We were spellbound for the second time that night. This time, we were ashamed of ourselves. For
not having dinner at that restaurant, how much dirty and evil thoughts we had in that little time. On the way back, we didn’t speak at all. He offered us to dine at another less expensive restaurant on the way. But we could not. We were not hungry anymore. It was around mid-night when we reached our hostel. And I could not sleep that night. I often have had that feeling that instead of eating something very expensive at a very expensive place, one can satiate their hunger with something less expensive.
And I do that almost every day. But the money I “save” this way remains in my pocket. I never thought of giving the money “saved” to someone who cannot afford even a simple meal a day. And I think that night, the dinner which we didn’t have, was the most gourmet dinner that I can ever have in my life.

-Muhammad Israr

P.S. Thanks a lot for this lovely post Israr. I loved it completely but I am really sorry for publishing it little late :(

and for all of you you loved it.. do check out The Way You Make Me Feel, Its one of my personal favorites at Israr's Misterio Vida :)